What Do You Do?

This question is commonplace in our culture. After you find out someone's name, you typically ask him or her, "Where are you from?" and, "What do you do?" When I get that question, I usually respond with, "I'm an editor at a software company." But what does that really mean?


I work for Boson, which is indeed software company. We don't only write and sell software, however, and the editing I do is not necessarily on the software (though I do get to see some of it and do some QA testing on it before it goes out the door). In addition to writing software, we also write practice exams; the software is what we sell the exams on. These aren't just your average exams, either; they're for Cisco and Microsoft certifications: what you'll need if you want to become a respected network engineer or network designer.

The variety of the exams is vast, and there is always something new coming across my desk. By far the most enjoyable exams I get to edit are the Cisco exams (we recently released three new Cisco exams, ROUTE, SWITCH, and TSHOOT, and TSHOOT is by far the most unique of and different from any other exams we've written). The technology is continuously being updated, so the tested material change, too. Not only do I get to learn the tested material, I get to make sure it's readable and understandable. This requires staying in the know about the material (as much as possible) and about grammar and the English language (how it's spoken, how it's written, and how these two modes of communication differ).

For me, this is fascinating. Our ability to learn languages and communicate with words is inherent—though we learn new and different words often, we know how to speak and communicate because that is the way God created us. He gave only humans, who are the only creatures created in His image and with a soul, the ability to talk in understandable words. Animals communicate through sound, but it's unintelligible. Humans communicate with words, which are intelligible (albeit sometimes hard to understand).

We can learn other languages, too, something nothing else is capable of. In college, I studied Spanish and had the opportunity to spend a semester in Spain. There's something almost empowering about being able to have a conversation with someone of a different culture, different language, different background, and being able to understand it all. And all that study of Spanish gave me such a better grasp of English—while all languages are different, all were given by the same God and have many common characteristics, words, and rules.

Being an editor makes me appreciate my job, my skills, my God, my ability to learn, and so much more. Sitting at a desk reading might not be everyone's idea of fun, but I sure enjoy it!