Whether you’ve applied to work with us before or are looking to increase your chances of success in the future, here’s our advice on how you can make your application even stronger. Taking the time and trouble to make yourself a better candidate, through training, on the job, or through hobbies and volunteer work, shows us that you are dedicated to a career in publishing and helps us to see how you could reward our investment in you.
1. Complete accredited editing and proofreading courses
Show us that you’re driven and self-motivated by developing a stronger CV and skills that you can use in a role with us. While we offer a lot of on-the-job training, it’s always helpful to have a solid understanding of the basics and what can be expected in our day-to-day work.
Publishing Scotland has a host of training resources, and we’d highly recommend their Introduction to Copy-editing, Introduction to Proofreading, Further Copy-editing and Further Proofreading courses. We send all our early career employees on these courses, as we know they provide a valuable and solid skills base.
The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading also offers a range of editorial skills courses, from Editorial Project Management to Getting to Grips with Grammar and Punctuation and Medical Editing.
2. Level up your technical skills
While our roles are often focused on editing and proofreading, being able to help our tech team with their work and increase efficiency will make you stand out from other applicants. Why not try macro development, teach yourself XML, learn how Adobe Acrobat Pro and InDesign work or get to grips with database management? We never know what tasks are around the corner, so applicants with a range of strong skills will always be at an advantage when we’re on the lookout for new team members.
3. Get involved in your community and local opportunities
We’re proud to be based in Perth, so tell us about your work with local schools, clubs and libraries. Show that you know and are committed to your area as well as the industry. We want to hire people who know what we do, want a long-term career in publishing services and non-fiction editing, and understand the value of our identity as a small, independent, employee-owned business here in Scotland.
4. Take time to identify what you really love about this industry
While the internship is a great opportunity to try your hand at a range of tasks and areas in publishing, we want to see what you’ve really enjoyed and excelled at in previous roles, so we know where your knowledge and skills are best placed.
- Did you particularly enjoy helping authors understand journal style requirements? Tell us what aspects of your background and skills helped you thrive in the role – whether that was technical skills, client-facing experience or plain English training – and what you learned along the way.
- Were you surprised at how engaging you found artwork mark-up and typesetting while working for a local newspaper? Show us how your understanding of the different stages of publishing developed and how you can apply these talents to our work.
- Did you thrive in the areas of client management and contract negotiation? Give us examples of how you made a quantifiable difference in your role.
Letting us know exactly how you’ve developed your work competencies and knowledge since your last application shows us that you’re dedicated and committed to continuous improvement. It also lets us know that you’d be a strong candidate for a long-term career at Prepress Projects, with the potential to progress from Intern to Project Editor, then Project Leader and beyond!
5. Keep in touch and stay up to date
We have a website full of blog posts and information on what we do, so check in and see what we’ve been up to and how our company and teams are changing. Everything we post tells you more about us and what we’re looking for, so don’t waste the opportunity to gather information you can impress us with in applications and interviews.
Follow our social media accounts (X, Bluesky, Facebook and LinkedIn) to hear about company events and developments in real time – that includes vacancy announcements! Applying early for new vacancies is proof that you’re on the ball and invested in us, and we’re always willing to start interviews before the application deadline if the right candidate appears.
We hope you find these suggestions of what you can do next helpful, and we look forward to hearing about your experiences and learning when you next apply for a role here at Prepress Projects!