A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Apply at local universities and community colleges - happy2help

Posted: Aug 01, 2012

Me again. If you live anywhere near a university or community college, consider applying there for a job. It will most likely be civil service, which means you will need to take a test to measure your skills, and then you will be ranked on the interview totem pole according to your test score and level of skills. It's a fair process. It doesn't matter who you know. It only matters HOW MUCH you know. At our local university, there are 2 clerical categories: clerk and secretary. They both do basically the same jobs and make the same money. You also don't have to stick with clerical. If you're good at math, consider applying for account tech positions. If you like working at a front desk, maybe a ticket office at the college's performing arts center or even the university's hotel. You could even get your foot in the door of the school by starting out as kitchen help or in housecleaning. The trick is to get your foot in that door and then move up the ladder.

Good luck with that - Curious one

[ In Reply To ..]
From what I have seen in regard to those jobs, what you know matters, but who you know definitely matters.
There appears to be quite a bit of favoritism going on, at least from what I have seen, and the bilingual candidates usually have preference. They hire from within more times than not, many of those jobs get filled before they're ever advertised.

Local universities, etc. - happy2help

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, I'm sure that's true in some areas of the college, but from my personal experience at our state university (where I work), it is all about those test scores and the years of experience you put on your app. Of course, once you get on the interview roster, then it's fair game on the part of the department doing the hiring. If they have a favorite already picked out, that's that. But to get to the interview process, you have to get high test scores. I took the same test 3 times before I got a high score. It was frustrating, but I was determined to get those interviews. In fact, I had 5 interviews and 4 job offers. And I didn't know anybody in those departments. You make a good point, Curious One, about the bilingual candidates getting first dibs. So if anyone knows another language, especially Spanish, that is a huge plus! I'm not saying it's a piece of cake to get into a university job, but it's definitely worth applying and testing.

Working for a college or university- hate to rain on a parade but I have worked in the past for a Un - old one

[ In Reply To ..]
I started working for our local state university at the age of 17 in the secretarial pool, which gave me my "first taste" of medical transcription. At the time, my father was in administration there, so it does help to have a "leg up." Tests are civil service, with 5 points being given for "veterans preference." This is pretty standard in any civil service job, whether it be state or federal. The top three candidates are given invitations to interview and if candidate #1 refuses the interview, then it goes to candidate #2 and so on down the list.

Another thing to take into consideration is that as a "state employee," especially working for a university, you will NOT be eligible for SS benefits at the time of retirement and MANY universities as well as states are now cutting their budgets and imposing hiring freezes, which the OP fails to mention.

Had I not decided to go into medical transcription and stayed working at the university, I would be at the age of 57, "technically retired" now; however, I would be receiving a pension from the state.

I had a recent conversation with my father regarding how the retirement system is going in my home state, and there has been some talk about the retired state employees receiving vouchers in lieu of pay, so you might want to think long and hard about things before pursuing this path.

This is interesting, Old One.... - (please see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
I had no knowledge about how university and state jobs work as far as retirement funds, so this is under the category of "you learn something new every day" for me. :-)

My son worked for his university right after college for a year, and he had to use a car to travel for his job. It had state license plates on it, and I knew he was technically a "state" employee, but I never thought about the retirement aspect and didn't know that state employees don't collect SS.

I have a question, if you happen to know the answer to this: If someone has worked, say, 25 years at other jobs (and has been building up their SS benefits) and THEN takes a job at a university or for the state for, say, the last 10 years of their working career, will they still be eligible to receive SS for the 25 years they worked elsewhere and just get the state retirement based on their 10 years there? In other words, do they have those two retirement funds to draw on? In your example of not being eligible for SS benefits, do you mean if you've only worked at a state job for your entire working career?

Thanks for enlightening me!

State Retirement and SS - old one

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes, if you have "worked in the private sector" and had SS dedcuted and you later went to work for a state agency, i.e., a university etc., where you received "state retirement benefits," then you would be able to collect both. However, if your entire working career consisted of a state job, then no, you would not receive SS benefits when you retired.

Another thing that I neglected to mention, was that the "veteran's benefits points," i.e., the "5 extra points, also apply to widowed spouses. I just recently found this out, when starting to look into possibly working for the State of FL. Because my late husband served in the military 21 years, all I need to do, is provide his DD-214. (Just have to go through the "red tape" to get a copy as I had it before, but unfortunately lost it in a move). I've also had to fight in the past to receive his retirement benefits, but again, the VA did some "reclassification" of the type of cancer he died from and stated that this particular cancer did not fall under the category of "Agent Orange exposure."

Thank you! - (see message)

[ In Reply To ..]
I appreciate the response. I was afraid it was a dumb question because I kind of FIGURED it was the way you describe, but I also wondered if it possibly meant that you're not ALLOWED to draw from Soc Sec once you become a state employee. Like I said, I didn't THINK that was the case, but I've been known to be wrong in my assumptions in the past! :-D

Glad you're able to get the extra veterans' points for being the widow of a veteran, although I'm sorry for the loss of your husband.

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