Lots of transcriptionists... - MT3 Posted: Sep 17th, 2022 - 12:26 am In Reply to: That's absurd. - Melissa
Lots of transcriptionists are really struggling. Some of us are not. I'm not... at the moment (knock on wood). But I hit an 18-month rough spot a few years ago where my transcription job -- my sole source of income -- fell out from under me with no warning, and I went through half a dozen shitty transcription jobs over a 6-month period before I found a new transcription job that was at least /not terrible/, and it was another year before I was moved onto an account of theirs where I was able to earn as much as I was earning previously.
Admittedly, as a newbie, you aren't going to have the same credentials and experience and track record that a transcriptionist with 20 years of experience has, like I do. You'll be very lucky to find a decent-paying job this late in the game. Sorry, but those of us who have been here for decades get considered first for the top spots, and there are still a lot of us around.
Obviously, anybody who is working for $200 per month is at the wrong job or in the wrong profession. I don't know which. But if you find yourself in that situation (and you really might), obviously you should move on. My career advice to you is, at this late point in the game, is to start at the bottom, work hard, work your way up, and don't sell yourself short by working at a job that only pays you $10 or $12 an hour. If you can't make at least that, move on, because you almost certainly can get paid better than that for at-home work in other industries. We really are at the dawn of the work-from-home era. Medical transcription was the top choice for the first 25 years of work-from-home opportunities, but now there are so many other options.
So my other advice is to consider one of the other transcription industries. Look into court reporting or closed captioning. They pay substantially better. Also, there's lots of legal transcription work out there, and although medical transcriptionists scoff at "$1 per page", they are often mistakenly thinking in terms of medical reports... and how long it takes to type 1 page in medical transcription. Legal documents are double spaced courier font with 1.5" margins. My second transcription job is legal transcription, and I type about 1 page every 2 minutes when I'm in the groove. So it's not so bad.
Anyway, yes: Be aware that there are some genuinely terrible medical transcription jobs out there. You will know you are in one in short order, and don't hesitate for a second to quit if and when you figure it out. Just because you are new does not mean that you should be taken advantage of.
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Complete Discussion Below: (  marks the location of current message within thread)
- Advice for newbie - Melissa (Views: 381, 2022-09-14, 8:27 am)
- Well - Hmm (Views: 152, 2022-09-15, 8:47 am)
- Advice for newbie - Ancient MT (Views: 202, 2022-09-15, 10:59 am)
- That's absurd. - Melissa (Views: 325, 2022-09-15, 11:37 am)
- Lots of transcriptionists... - MT3
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