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Why Proofreading Is a Great Remote Job for Former Teachers

Why Proofreading Is a Great Remote Job for Former Teachers

By Bethan McGloin
Feb 22, 2023
4 min read

If you’re a retired teacher or would like to swap the classroom for a work-from-home job, freelance proofreading could be the career for you. Why? Because:

It offers greater flexibility.
You can use your skills from teaching.
You can specialize in areas that interest you.

Read on to learn why proofreading is a great remote job for former teachers and how your teaching experience can help you take on the freelance proofreading lifestyle.

1. It Offers Greater Flexibility

Teaching can take up a lot of time and effort, from working long hours to extra tasks like marking essays and planning lessons.

It can be difficult to fit in spending time with your family, staying on top of household chores, or generally maintaining a good work–life balance. In the long term, this can cause stress, burnout, and other health issues.

In comparison, freelance proofreading is a much more flexible career. Working remotely as a proofreader means:

You decide your workload and choose which projects you want to work on.
You set your work hours, fitting them around your other responsibilities.
You choose where you work, whether that’s in your home office, a coworking space, or your favorite cafe.
Further training is often low in cost and based online, providing you with more options for when and where you study.

You can enjoy the benefits of a flexible proofreading career by choosing where, when, and how much you work.

2. You Can Use Your Teaching Skills

While you don’t need any particular qualifications to work as a proofreader, you will need certain necessary skills to help make your transition to a remote proofreading job easier. Luckily, working as a teacher will have given you many transferable skills:

Maintaining focus: If you’ve spent hours marking essays or reading through learning resources, you’ll be able to stay focused while proofreading long and complex documents.
Effective time management: Working as a freelance proofreader requires discipline and good planning skills. But if you’re used to planning lessons and meeting deadlines, this shouldn’t be a challenge for you.
Good communication skills: A good proofreader is able to communicate effectively with clients. Being able to explain concepts confidently and patiently is a skill most teachers will have down to a tee.
Working with guidelines: There are many similarities between following a curriculum and following a style guide or brief, both of which are essential to most proofreading jobs.

You may also have subject-specific skills that can help you proofread niche documents. We’ll take a closer look at this in the next point.

3. You Can Specialize in Areas That Interest You

From medical journals to travel writing, there are all sorts of documents out there that need proofreading. This means you can choose to specialize in subjects that interest you or are relevant to your teaching career.

Of course, if you’ve taught English, you’ll possess knowledge about language and how to apply punctuation and grammar rules. You might also choose to proofread a genre you’re familiar with teaching, such as literary fiction.

But it’s not just English teachers who have a subject advantage. If you’ve taught any scientific subjects, for example, you’re well-positioned to edit academic and research papers that relate to your area of study. Having a degree in a subject will also help you land clients.

You can turn your subject experience toward more creative types of writing as well. For example, teaching history could set you up for a career in proofreading historical fiction novels.

And whatever subjects you taught across your teaching career, being familiar with the education system makes you the perfect candidate for proofreading educational materials, like textbooks.

Becoming A Proofreader

If you’re looking to swap your teaching career for a flexible remote job, our Becoming A Proofreader course can get you started on your journey. Sign up for a free trial and see where it takes you!