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I decided to make the switch from qwerty keyboard to steno about seven years ago and don't regret it. My hourly line counts right now range 350 and up, although I expect that to improve with speedbuilding. Using a steno machine has been much easier on my hands/body, and I used a qwerty keyboard for years before that. None of us are getting any younger, and we need all the help we can get! However, you do need to be aware of startup expenses, and time invested learning steno theory and speedbuilding. Like going to school to be an MT, learning to use steno is not cheap, it's not easy, and it takes time. Court reporting schools have a high dropout rate (I remember reading it was around 70%). For a decent used steno machine, count on $400 and up. New CAT software costs about $4000 and up. Then you have your educational materials; I'm guessing for those I invested somewhere between $500 and $1000 several years ago, and this was by a self-taught approach, which I would not recommend. At this point, you may be asking yourself why you would even consider looking into doing this. Speaking for myself, I have watched MT earnings decline over the years, as well as just the general lack of respect for the job we do, and so I am doing this for my future. With court reporting technology, there are a myriad of related fields you can go into such as broadcast captioning, CART, etc.
You can find much information by googling, but here are some links for more information:
National Court Reporters Association http://www.ncraonline.org
J*M Steno (court reporting sales/service/training) http://www.jmsteno.com/
Court Reporting Help.com http://www.courtreportinghelp.com
The Steno Life http://www.stenolife.com/
Keith Vincent's website http://www.kvincent.com/
Joe Clark.org http://joeclark.org/
Good luck! |
My experience (somewhat lengthy) - Julie
