Failed test

Last week, I sat an editing test for a potential new client. It was fairly straightforward stuff - correcting typos, grammar and punctuation, plus cross-checking amendments and applying the client's client's proposed changes. Unfortunately, I did the test in a hurry, squeezed between 2 other jobs and I, erm, fucked up. I did warn the client I was pushed for time. No excuse, I know.

I got the rejection email today, accompanied by a long list of all the things I'd apparently missed. I concede I'd failed to insert a missing full point and I'd left 2 words run together inadvertently because I'd been asked to work using Track Changes and naturally the document looked like Sweeney Todd's wallpaper, there was so much red everywhere.

But I was stumped at the other things I'd apparently failed to do, such as remove all references to 2 IT topics. Having checked the document twice again today, I'm 100% confident I left none in.

Who cares? I didn't want the job that badly, anyway. I had to sign an NDA just to do the bloody test, which had already set my alarm bells ringing about the kind of contract I'd be presented with had the work been offered to me. And they'd baulked when I mentioned my hourly rate. Perhaps my subconscious was weeding out the job for me in advance. I'd like to think so. It's the first time I've ever failed an editing test and I have sat well over 50 of them down the years.