I explained that in earlier post that my job is on the line. So if I
lose it, what's next? The situation has not been resolved yet, but it's
important, of course, that I have thought about alternatives. And I have!
My first thought is: I am a bit of a language pedant. When I was in
secondary school, I always had to work for the sciences, while the languages
happened naturally to me (as long as they were Dutch, English or Latin; that
is; my skills in French, German and Greek were less stellar, but I didn’t do
these for A levels). So maybe I should do something with that talent, plus my
experience in science. What I was thinking about this becoming a proofreader,
or maybe even a copyeditor, of specifically scientific texts. And I know it's
quite a step to go from having no education in that direction, and having no experience
either, to somehow get to the point where I could make a living out of it. But
I think people do that sort of thing all the time; they lose their job, they
decide to take a different direction, just work hard at it, and succeed. And I
think I can do it! If someone writes about geosciences or climate science or
that sort of things, I know what they're talking about. That helps! And the
pandemic doesn’t stop written text from being produced. And a lot of it needs
proofreading. I have no idea what my chances would be to get into scientific
proofreading early on, but it's good to have a goal. I might have to start on user manuals or something, but I hope to build up a portfolio and widen my opportunities. And I suppose scientific
publications are mainly in the hands of few large publishers like Elsevier and John
Wiley & Sons, and these are not situated in North Wales, but I imagine that in this day and age you could
agree with an employer to work from a distance. But this is getting ahead of
things a bit. Let's start small!
One of the things that I have learned in my time in academia will come
in handy mightily here: learning new skills really fast! And yes
I know this blog is full of typos but this is a leisure project. I'm convinced
that I could brush up my language skills to such a degree that I could do this
professionally within too long. And I would have some time before the redundancy
money runs out. And start-up costs are not very high. You need the skills, a
computer and an office. That’s pretty much it!
Before I manage to earn a living proofreading, I also should be able to
get some a sort of short jobs to keep me paying the bills in the meantime. I've
seen other people do that; a friend of mine works for track and trace now,
after she quit her job. I have had a look at local job sites, and there
are jobs advertised in things such as hospitality (!) and delivery driving. I am
not above any of that. And I also saw that there is a job site that lets you search
jobs you could do remotely. That widens the field! I already saw that there is
quite some demand for tutors. This is not surprising given the effect the
pandemic has had on education. I already got me an A level maths book to brush
up my skills (I did my A levels some 27 years ago!), so I could do maths tutoring if necessary. Again, ways of earning money
with as good as no start-up costs! So there are possibilities, and if it's
possible then why couldn't I do it?
Another thing I thought about, as a plan B, was that there is a strong
shortage of secondary school teachers in sciences in Britain. That shortage is
so big that if you have a degree in a science, you can basically retrain as a
secondary school teacher, and be paid for it while you are still in training. I
know that it's another very stressful job, and that a lot of teachers quit
within five years, but then again; if that would keep me ticking over for a few
years, then that would buy me time to consider even more options. And I suppose
me speaking Welsh would help here. That is something I did get out of this
University! I learned the language. But would I find a school to do the
training in within commuting distance? But this is only plan B so I don't have
to worry too much about this for now.
Altogether I have enough to do for now! I have to explore my options in
the proofreading world, and I have my A levels maths to revise. In addition to
my already much more than full time job. I won't have to be bored! Not that
that was one of my concerns anyway, ever. But onwards! Watch this space for updates on
the University situation. These are interesting times…
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