Lucy Cadney for Knowadays

Speaker: Lucy Cadney

Lucy Cadney: Hi, my name is Lucy. I'm 32, and I'm from Derby in the UK. I'm a speech and drama teacher, and I've worked freelance since I left university, which was about 10 years ago. I now run my own theater school as well as teaching in schools, and I've just started proofreading.

Lucy Cadney: So I started freelancing when I left university, no, while I was at university, just picked it up because I needed to register as self-employed so that I could do a little bit of tuition. And by the time I graduated from uni, I'd done a bit more work; I had enough to kind of to get by. So I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna take the plunge, go freelance for a while, see what happens. And I love it, I absolutely love freelancing. I built up my business, doing a lot more speech and drama tuition, ended up running my own theater school. Everything was great. And then I came across this opportunity by complete circumstance and . . . coincidence, not circumstance—coincidence, and I ended up error-checking a novel for an author whose book series I'd been reading. And I loved it. It wasn't proper proofreading, but I really enjoyed it, and it kind of planted that seed in my mind that this might be something I'd enjoy at some stage in my career. But kind of shelved that to the back of my mind. I've got two little boys. When my eldest, who's now four, was born, I went back to work very quickly, teaching in schools and quickly built a really full diary. And it was fantastic, but when I had my second little boy, I kind of wanted to be spending more time at home. I was teaching like 4.5 days in school plus two evenings. I was out of the house a lot and doing all the paperwork that came with being freelance, and it just wasn't quite right for me. So I searched on the internet for ways to get into proofreading and editing and that sort of thing. I didn't really know what would come of it, didn't know how long it would take to build up, but I searched for it and that's when I came across Knowadays. Yeah, the rest is history.

Lucy Cadney: So it had been a while since I've done any sort of proper learning myself. I had a university background, but it had been a long time since I'd done anything where I was really trying to absorb a great deal of knowledge. So I was really quite daunted before I started. I remember thinking, you know, oh, gosh, this is a huge career change, so there's going to be so much to learn. I don't know if I'm up to this. Yeah, I was really quite scared, but I did the trial, the sort of free trial, and instantly I was hooked. Everything was set out in such a clear and uncluttered way. I'm a big visual person, so that was really, really good, the way I could see, right, here's what's gonna be in this module, here's what we're going to learn. Yeah, it was, it was really helpful in that respect. So I did the free trial and thought, yeah, this is great, I'm liking this. And so I signed up for the main course, and, yeah, it was brilliant. I guess, at first, I was wondering, was it just going to be a sort of qualification that would potentially get me through to a sort of interview stage or something, or trial stages with various freelancing companies. But actually, I came out of the course feeling like, yeah, I do actually know my stuff. I get this. I felt like I could one day be, in inverted commas, an expert in this field, which was really, really great because I, you know, I didn't appreciate at the start just how much depth it would go into, but in such in an accessible way. So one of the great things that really, really impressed me with the course was how interactive it was. Along the way, there's quizzes and little knowledge checks which you can attempt as many times as you like. And then at the end of each module or partly through various modules, there's proper practice pieces where you can, where you actually, you know, take on a document as though you were an employed proofreader, you know, a paid proofreader, and put those skills immediately into practice. And that was so reassuring for me. I was one of those kids growing up, I really liked tests. I liked to know that I knew what was going on, and so the Knowadays course was fantastic for that because I was checking that knowledge constantly and putting things into practice. And also when it came to doing these end-of-module practices, I could refer back to the slide shows, the presentations, and just check that knowledge, check up on what I was doing, making sure I was doing it in the proper way. So yeah, I think the interactive element for me was fantastic. But it was such a comprehensive course, really, really loved it. There were also some really funny moments in the course. I can't remember exactly, but one of the statistics that came up was something about kittens, and 99% of kittens, and, oh, it was, what would be more ferocious, like 99 kittens or one fully grown tiger or something like that. And it just, you know, it really caught my attention halfway through and just made me laugh, and I think humor is a great thing. So yeah, the course just struck a fantastic balance for me.

Lucy Cadney: So when I was searching for courses in proofreading, the guaranteed work offer with Proofed was certainly the thing that clinched the deal for me with Knowadays. So I kind of thought, well, look, if I can commit to this course, pass it with a high enough mark, then I'll be able to get earning straight away. So that was a big deal for me. And it also gave me kind of that real energy too, energy and drive when I was taking part in the course. So, you know, I've got two young children, sometimes the energy was flagging a little bit, but knowing that actually something tangible is going to come out of this course was brilliant. And yes, so I did the course, took my final assessment and thankfully passed with 80%, first time. And I scheduled a call with one of the Knowadays tutors, had a really good chat about the course and my goals and what I want to do next. And within, I think it was about a week, I was sorted with Proofed, and it's just been amazing. I've been through my trial period with them, and I've just been able to earn money straight away. It's been fantastic. I literally, I can't say much more because it's just . . . it's surpassed my expectations completely.

Lucy Cadney: To anyone thinking of enrolling on the course, I would say just go for it. I felt strangely empowered doing the course. It was amazing doing something for me that felt really productive. I felt a great sense of achievement, especially after the final test, the final assessment. And yeah, I think even without the guarantee of working with Proofed afterwards, it's been fantastic to have that real solid grounding in proofreading skills that I can apply not only in future proofreading work but also to my own business. It's given me a new kind of take on, not new take, but like, it's certainly jumpstarted my writing. Looking at my own social media for my business, things like that, I've been able to really look at those and go through them with a fine-tooth comb and just make sure that I am giving the ultimate and the best to my business as well as in my work with Proofed, which just keeps coming in. So I really would say, if you're looking for a potential career change, some new work, or you just want to brush up on your skills, definitely go for this. It's a fantastically interactive, like, detailed course but without being overwhelming. It's fantastic.