Ai Lin Chun, a senior editor at Nature Nanotechnology, shares with readers of the Nature Nanotechnology Asia-Pacific and beyond forum some tips on the types of things one would learn in an editorial job. Her post is intended to help those interested in applying for scientific editors’ jobs to reflect if these activities are things that really interest them, and if they are skills that people want to build. I highly recommend that anyone considering an editing career reads this post, as it offers useful insight as to what is involved in the day-to-day sense.