Speakers: Samira Mazariegos
Please tell us your name, where you're from and a bit about your background
Samira Mazariegos: Hi, my name's Samira. I'm from Guatemala and the United States. I grew up traveling all over, and I'm continuing to do the same now that I'm in adulthood, and I currently live abroad.
What made you originally start thinking about a proofreading course or a career in freelancing?
Samira Mazariegos: I've had quite a few different jobs throughout my life. I've been a server, I've been an English teacher abroad. But I've always really liked proofreading, editing, etc. I've been doing that informally for friends and family since I was a teenager. So I got to a point where I wasn't really sure where I wanted to move forward in terms of jobs, so I figured, OK, well, you know, why not give professional editing a chance? You know, make some money from something I really like to do. I didn't have the requisite certificates or anything though at the time, and so I figured, OK, I need to find a course or some form of tutoring so that I learn how to proofread. Because there is of course a difference between, you know, informally helping out a friend and professionally editing a person's journal article or university thesis.
What was your overall experience with our Becoming A Proofreader course? What did you like in particular?
Samira Mazariegos: So I took the Becoming A Proofreader course about four years ago, a little over four years ago. As far as I know, it's a bit different. It was one of the first iterations, but I really enjoyed it. It was an easy experience. Everything was laid out really well. I think my favorite part was the assignments that we were given. So you would edit an article, for example, and then you can compare your work that you had done against the work that a professional editor from the company had done, and you were able to see what to focus on next. And what I liked about that was that it wasn't a graded assignment per se as far as I remember. You compared it yourself and then you can move on, make note of what you did wrong, and continue. And then at the end, you had the overall exam, which someone did grade, but by then I felt so prepared, especially because this course teaches you how to proofread. I mean, yeah, you have the basic grammar stuff that you need to obviously be familiar with, different errors and such. But also in terms of like how to leave comments for the client—when you should leave a comment, when you shouldn't, how you format different documents, that kind of thing. That to me was probably the main reason I took the course, because I would hope that if I was wanting to become a proofreader, I would know basic grammar, vocabulary mistakes, etc. But I didn't know how to be a proofreader exactly.
What was your experience with our guaranteed work offer with Proofed? How has the course helped you reach your goals?
Samira Mazariegos: So a few days after I had gotten the email that I had passed the course, I got an email from an administrator to set up an interview for the guaranteed work offer. And the interview was . . . yeah, it was nice. We talked about my experience doing the course, how I had done during the course, what I could look forward to working with Proofed, that kind of thing. And then I was onboarded pretty quickly after that. I think maybe from getting that email about the interview to being actually onboarded and starting to work, maybe two weeks in total. I can't remember exactly, but it was something in that ballpark. But yeah, it was great, super easy. And then in terms of how the course has helped me reach my goals, I am just so much more confident as a proofreader and obviously a better editor now. You know, I've looked back at work I did before, and, you know, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't anywhere near the level of professional editing that the course taught me. I am comfortable in a range of different dialects of English now, editing in different dialects, Australian and British, etc. I'm very comfortable now editing English as a second language speakers' work. I'm comfortable formatting different types of documents. I'm comfortable with different types of referencing styles—APA, OSCOLA, that kind of thing. So yeah, it really, really helped me in that. And it was just a good experience overall.
What would you say to someone thinking about taking the course?
Samira Mazariegos: If you're thinking about taking the Becoming A Proofreader course, I 100% recommend it. I actually personally know at least three people who have taken the course and been onboarded at Proofed to work for the company. And they also had a great experience, like I did. They really enjoyed it. It helped them immeasurably. And even if you're not wanting to take advantage of the guaranteed work offer and work for Proofed, if you do have some experience with the proofreading and editing field, but you're wanting to take your skills and your career to the next level. I mean this can't hurt. It can only help. You're gonna learn so much; you're gonna take . . . you're gonna professionalize your skills; you're gonna have something to put on your resume to show future employers. It's great. I mean, I see no cons as far as taking the Becoming A Proofreader course.
