Leapfrogging off a question from another thread: What transferable skills does an editor have that would translate well to professions other than editing?
Aaron Zuber: Storytelling skills, how to put together a good story in different mediums.
Kristine Gaffney: Question of the century. Project manager? Ive been mulling this over for years…
Jesse Colaizzi: I think editors 200% weigh big picture and granular details in every single decision they make. A lot of people claim that when assigning themselves superlatives. It’s actually true with editors.
Erik Jacobsen: We literally make decisions constantly based on a number of factors. Empathy, efficiency, timing, analysis, nuance – all woven together to capture the audiences attention. I think wed thrive in any field that lets us tap into these traits.
Jesse Colaizzi: Erik Jacobsen some of the most universally translatable skills out there, and they’re pretty much the core of our job. Out side of that, I’d say project management and communication skills, and then outside of that, technical skills.
Jesse Colaizzi: Oh and nunchuck skills.
Derek Chin: Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!
Justin Friedman: Teacher – since one is always explaining shit to newbies
Derek Chin: I actually am an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University. I teach editing.
Anthony Monteleone: It depends on the sort of editing one does. I do commercials. I could slide right over into project management, copywriting or be an account exec.
Helen Sheridan: Great question!!! Ive often wondered that too!! Like Christine I thought project management!
David Kittredge: Psychologist, therapist, life coach
Ken Blackwell: Laser Surgery
Luke Swain: Editing for written material.
Jim Perry: Proctology and possibly stamp collecting….
Derek Chin: Well, we are often called upon to pull edits out of our ass.
Dan Archer: A lot more than just an edit… I had a realty goods friend that I worked with. There were tines he would say we need to do this or this and that. I would looks ah him with the face of utter confusion and then stand up and say.. Dude can you pull that it off my ass? Cause I cant reach it…
Rich Cohen: Alchemist. Editors turn crap into gold!
Erik Rubner: Organization and the ability to sit in the dark for long periods of time.
Acme Yan: So true!
Michael Pelosi: At the right shop, either agency or in-house, creative director or art director. Also, any non-creative marketing department that uses visual communication along with words to convey a message. Software instructor, too, as editors are constantly faced with learning new software and doing a ton of IT troubleshooting – a massively overlooked job requirement that never gets spoken about, if you ask me. For low hanging fruit, Id say an editor could also translate into producing pretty seamlessly, especially if he or she has shooting and management skills. Finally, and I could be far off, but sales. In my opinion, the editor deals with crap all day long, getting pushback when large and small sums of money are on the line. I think the thick skin this hopefully builds is a great addition to any sales force where you need humans who can convey a message to other humans in a patient but expeditious way, and not get emotional about the short-term outcome.
Derek Chin: Thanks for your thoughtful contribution Michael Pelosi
Arvid Cristina: I’ve lost count of how many jobs where I was the de facto I.T. Guy (I guess they thought because I sat in front of a computer all day, I was the guy who could fix them)
Miguel VirGo Aguilar: 1. Camera person: since editors communicate with audio and visual, shooting footage allows for the collection of good shots to tell a story. 2. Director: same reason above except you’d delegate the shots to tell a story3. Website creator/designer: another way to edit what you want to communicate via a webpage4. Stock Manager: having to compile hours, if not days, of footage into an order to begin the creative process, I believe receiving massive amounts of stock (clothes, books, whatever needs organization) one could enjoy processing chaos to an organized back room or show floor. 4. Chef: again, taking raw materials to create a masterpiece for ingestion! 5. All else fails: standup comedian 🤪
Welborn Ferrene: Editorial skills, management skills, leadership skills
Marcus Pun: Therapist.
Bob Sarles: Therapy. Writing. Digging ditches.
Marcus Pun: Done 3. construction as a side job for slow times years ago.
Steve Pomerantz: Hostage negotiator.
Juan Agustin Marquez: I think chef is a good answer.
Mary Holland: Poop sculptor.
Dan Archer: Pooptor
Mary Holland: Senior Turd Polisher
Mary Holland: Hide The Weenier
Rob Constantine IV:
Dan Archer: Pretty much. Just humor and bullshit.
Dan Archer: I edited adult movies for several years…. Soooooooooo….
Mary Holland: Sooooo,….movies with subtitles, right?
Dan Archer: Not much to subtitle when all they say is… Oooooooo…ahhh. Do it again… Ooooooooooooooooo ahhhhhhhhh
Gladi Jiménez: Car salesman
Scott Bloom: Most any kind of project manager.
Jesse Spencer: Barber-You work with what you got…you cut and try to provide continuity…your choices are dictated by someone else…and its your fault in the end.
Zach Almeida: More so with Assistant Editing, but IT. Some bugs cant be fixed but if you can fix the usual ones youre off to a good start.
Dan Archer: Ive always thought that editing and cooking were very similar. My wife is a chef and pastry chefc she tells me stories from the kitchen all the time about clients that change thier minds at the very last second, then expect you to cover the cost of to eat the time it took to chase what they thought they wanted. Or they have no budget but want the steak and lobster dinner. She even told me on story about a catering manager that said to her…I dont really have a huge budget for this project, but my next one is huge. If you can help me out on this boy… Ill bring that meet monster project to you…. Sound familiar???
Derek Chin: I actually really enjoy cooking and with no prior experience ran a pretty tight kitchen at a boy scout camp with volunteer crew and everything. Had a blast shouting orders and getting the food to the hungry scouts on time. Not sure Id want to do it for a Living though.
Dan Archer: The biggest similarity is the amount of drinking. They drink like we do… But they habe better liquor because they get it all free…. Come to think of it,where is that hospitality suite…
Gladi Jiménez: When the AVID crashes is the time when I feel like a standup comedian.
Dan Archer: Ive done that too…. One time my jokes just werent going over like I thought they would… So I had to make the app crash that way I could leave the room and regroup
Matthew Deicke: Project management. Ive been producing and editing over to 10 years, and now my role is almost exclusively project management as the industry has crammed a lot more cooks in the kitchen. Ive learned that, no matter the persons experience of whatever role, people tend to shrug when asked, Whats the next step? How did we get from here to there? The editor has the insight to see where everything went wrong, how to prevent it, and how it fix it when it does happen… thus, project management.
Larry Sherwood: Trumps Secretary of State if you’ve got broadcast credits in Reality TV.
Charles Caracciolo: People skills. Talking producers in off the ledge, hearing those weird late night edit confessionals, tap dancing during bouts of down time… people skills, dammit!!