Meet Henry and find out about his life as a content editor at Skiddle. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
As a content editor, I cover a wide range of musical events and artists with either written features or news or interviews. So on Monday, for example, I'll be setting up for the week ahead. So any feature ideas that will be written that I would like to do, so I'll be planning those. I'll also be planning interviews, so I'll be looking ahead to see which shows that we have coming up on sale. I'll try and find the relevant artists to interview for those events.
I was massively, massively into English, when I was at school. The thing that I found most natural to me was writing in and creativity and coming up with stories or… I did Literature and English language at A-level. So that was always where my talents were or my passion was.
I'm into music as well. I studied Music Technology at college as well. So you don't need to be a music expert, I'm certainly not. I just read music magazines and I always have done. And that's the best kind of experience for music journalism is just read other journalists and read what makes a good interview.
To do this job, you have to be really good at time management. You might have five or six different jobs that might all come in at the same time or you might have this manager who is saying 'can you do this for me this week?' And you have to work out, 'OK do I need to this right away or have I got time to just leave that one until maybe tomorrow or the day after?’
Preparation is very, very important in this job as well. If you're on the way down to interview someone, you really, really want to know what they've been up to. Bands hate being asked the same question all the time. They get sick of it. So if you can find some interesting stuff, and you can get them on your side early by showing that you’ve researched then that really helps get a much, much better interview. I love writing about music every single day. I'm so, so lucky that I can say that that's what my job is – to write and immerse myself in music every day. And that I could not be happier.
I love writing about music every single day. I'm so, so lucky that I can say that's what my job is.
- Henry writes news, features and interviews for his company's website – based on the artists and musical events they have coming up
- Henry really enjoyed English and Creative Writing at school. He did Literature and English Language at A-level, and studied Music Technology at college
- He says you don't need to be a music expert to do his job, but it is good to read a lot of music magazines, to read other journalists' work and to understand what makes a good interview
- Good preparation and time management are key skills for this role, as you can be juggling several tasks at a time. Henry says it’s also important to do your research before interviewing a band – so that you can get the best out of them and the interview.
Henry is a content editor. A similar role to a content editor is a web content editor. Web content editors research, write and manage an organisation’s online content, including text, images, video and other media
What to expect if you want to be a web content editor
- Web content editor average salary: £22,000 to £40,000 per year
- Web content editor typical working hours: 35 to 40 hours per week
What qualifications do you need to be a web content editor?
You could get into this role via a university course, a college course, an apprenticeship or working towards the role.
Sources: LMI for All, National Careers Service
This information is a guide and is constantly changing. Please check the National Careers Service website for the latest information and all the qualifications needed.
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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