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

Very discouraged about job situation. - Anon

Posted: Jan 26, 2012

I have been in business for 30 years and I have never seen things this bad. I am currently out of work, after having steady work for the last 5 or 6 years. This is new for me and after applying for several companies and no response, I am very discouraged. The companies say they are bogged down with applications and not able to reply to everyone. I feel for all you out there who are out of work now. God help us all. I guess all we can do is pray for a miracle at this point.

That makes two of us. I have 30 years' experience, - have been applying for 3 years, -sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and in all that time, have only had 1 interview (didn't get the job - was told I 'didn't have enough experience!'), and 1 callback. The rest? ZILCH.

I think the companies that don't reply are only answering applications from a small MT demographic: Those with 2-5 years' experience, and who are willing to work graveyard shift - for FREE.

Very sad -- I feel for you. - Suzy Q

[ In Reply To ..]
Well I have only just started applying in the last 2 weeks. I was laid off on 01/15/2012 after working hard for 3 years for what used to be a good company.

Wish you all the luck in the world. Things have to change sooner or later.

Totally can tell you that's not the case - mt2

[ In Reply To ..]
I have 30+ years experience and have never had a problem getting a call back and getting hired. In many instances, I find reasons for some of these companies not working for me, but I've always been able to find work. I don't know if those of you who can't get a call back don't have the experience (I understand having done this for 30 years but done what exactly?) I also won't take a job for less than 7 -- and 7 is low but I can still make a nice salary with that. (However, the 2 companies I work for right now pay me 9 and 7.5 for VR).

Revamp your resumes and rewrite your cover letters, the work is out there!!

Well, in my 30 years I've done all specialties - with the exception of pathology. (sm)

[ In Reply To ..]
I've worked at home, in-house, for large and small MTSOs, onsite for hospitals, etc. I do ESLs, VR, letters, manuscripts, radiology, EKGs, ECGs, ER, OP notes, you name it.

I'm currently not applying at MTSOs, only on-site jobs at hospitals and clinics.

So exactly what more could they possibly want? (Except youth and naivete?)

Sorry for you Anon. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been in the biz for quite a while myself. It used to be that if you were an experienced MT, you could get a job without hardly looking. It has gotten crazy indeed. I am unsure if companies are bringing jobs back or not, probably waiting until they are forced to, but I think the VR is designed specifically for that occurrence and reducing the MT personnel. Will there be enough jobs for those who wish to stay? Who knows.

Thirty years, huh? Breaks my heart for you. You probably feel like a fish out of water with your fingers not moving every day. Take your time, if you can, and find a good position suitable to your skills. I do wish you the very best of luck!

Lack of Work - JCM

[ In Reply To ..]
I know what you are going through. I have been doing transcription for 25+ years too, home-based for 8 years. I had good steady work for approximately 6-1/2 years and then the company lost the accounts to bidding. I have not had steady work for about a year-and-a-half now. I have applied to many ads but usually don't hear from anyone. Oh, and I love it when you apply and don't hear anything, but then you see the exact same ad back up on the website a week later. I have sent followup emails, and after being told that my test was really quite good, they say they just can't hire me at this time. Uh...what is the ad for then? I just don't understand it. I guess what's meant to be will be. Good luck to everyone!!

35+years having same problem! - oaf

[ In Reply To ..]
I think an earlier post nailed it on the head if you have toooooo much experience they don't call you! Hate to say it but McDonald's and Wal-Mart have constant work loads!!!

Me too. Been an MT since 1972, unemployed since Nov 2009 - qvpqgy

[ In Reply To ..]
I have sent more than 600 resumes out since then. The certain demographic theory of 2-5 years experience is plausible, but the message I am getting loud and clear is plain old garden variety age discrimination.

I recall back in 2001, when I had my last on-site gig, one of the at-home MTs, with whom I had worked at previous jobs back in the dawn of the Mesolithic Era, was 84 years old at the time. Her experience PREDATED formal medical transcription. She had created her own career at age 35 while working as a medical stenographer for 3 private practice surgical associates in 1952 after her husband was killed in Korea and she became a single parent of 3 young sons.

She learned medical terminology by sneaking their JAMAs home at night to study and by reading every single chart in the office while at work, including lab slips. Once she felt confident, she convinced one of MDs to read his indecipherable clinic notes to her to at the end of the day, which she transposed verbatim in shorthand (!), then transcribed the next morning on a manual Underwood typewriter before placing them into the chart. It wasn't long before she was doing this for all 3 associates. After that, she talked them into getting some version of a Soundscriber, which she later described as a "horrible contraption."

She worked for them until two of them died and the third retired, then entered the world of mag card transcription at a hospital some time around 1969-70. By 2001 she had 50 years of experience under her belt. One of my assignments was to cover for her every afternoon by typing on her account for 2 hours between 3 and 5 so she could take her nap, which was non-negotiable for her, and enabled her to continue working full time. She worked a split shift, 4 hours in the morning, followed by 4 hours in the evening after that nap.

She never used expanders, rarely needed a reference book, refused to advance her computer skills beyond basic DOS, but in return printed out her own flawless work which never required QA and drove 8 miles round trip every day to deliver it in person to the office before the morning run. She was the company's highest producer. Needless to say, we all bent over backwards to accommodate this very special lady (including the owner). It would not surprise me at all that, if she is still alive, she is still transcribing. One thing that I remember more than anything is how there was no dog-eat-dog, cut-throat competition over work, line count contests, exaggerated production claims or endless one-upsmanship among co-workers. We always had more than enough work, were paid well for our efforts and were allowed to place the same emphasis on quality of content as we did on production numbers.

Forgive me for this long dissertation. I guess I sound like a hopelessly nostalgic codger, but I think it's important to pause for a moment every now and then to realize exactly what is being lost along the way by MTSOs in the name of progress, and that value cannot always be measured in terms of megaprofits, dollars and cents and the almighty bottom line.

Wow!! - JCM

[ In Reply To ..]
I really enjoyed reading this!! Thank you very much for sharing. Truly amazing!!

I've known a couple of ladies like that. They come - from an era that valued QUALITY.

[ In Reply To ..]
Today, quality is something that now has all but flown out the window.

I look at jobs being offered at places like Home Depot, etc., but as a 60-something person with a delicate back, I'm not applying for jobs where I'd have to be on my feet all day. So I need to find a desk job.

I look at desk jobs in other fields, and the catch there is, they always want 2-5 years' experience in THAT field. Even if it's for a secretarial job, or even as a receptionist. I applied at a few veterinary reception jobs, and they want VETERINARY reception experience. Also, my general office clerk and receptionist experience predates even my oldest MT jobs, which I don't even list on my resume anymore because it dates me too much. (And they don't even exist anymore). One of the hospitals I used to work at in the 70s was torn down in the early 1980s.

I saw a job as a courtroom clerk that I would've jumped on, because I'd have loved it and done well at it. Unfortunately most of the court jobs I find are temporary. I'm not going to quit a full-time job I already have (even though it pays bad), for a temporary job!

I get more depressed and disillusioned every day, because I know the clock is ticking. MT will die - sooner rather than later. Every day I don't find a job with a living wage, all I get is another day older. Even though I could pass for 15-20 years younger than my chronological age, how are they ever to know that if they won't even grant me an interview?

If something doesn't change, I guess I'll eventually just become one of this country's PROBLEMS, rather than one of its SOLUTIONS.

That describes my experience to a T. - I would add

[ In Reply To ..]
that among such problems as hospitals that have been torn down or swallowed up by a managed healthcare/hospital "system," that does not verify employment records dating back that far, there is also the problem of simply outliving some of your best direct employment references, especially supervisors.

One of my previous employers anticipated this problem when I left and was kind enough to furnish a very nice reference letter, just in case we should lose touch with each other. I met her when the hospital where I worked decided to outsource their medical transcription department in late 1984. She was already working at home as an IC and was trying to expand her client base in order to "incubate" a small business with the idea of hiring a few additional people. She was pretty gutsy to bid on a 500-bed MT department contract while running a shoestring operation, especially since we were still working off of dictaphone cassettes, minicassettes and IBM Correcting Selectrics. This made management a logistical nightmare since she lived about 12 miles from the hospital and TATs required her to pick up and deliver twice daily. In spite of those daunting obstacles, her bid was selected and she signed the contract.

One day she came into the MT office and gave a presentation to the in-house MTs (there were 5 of us plus the supervisor), offering us the opportunity to "transition" from on-site to at-home by coming to work for her. My supervisor and I were the only ones that took her up on the offer, so I began working for her parttime in the evenings while still working fulltime at the hospital, then fulltime once the hospital closed down the MT department all together. This early start-up MTSO hit the ground running and before we knew it, she had signed contracts with the county hospital (978 beds at that time) and the college of medicine clinic associations in our urban medical center. We were positively inundated with work in no time, to the point where she could barely hire ICs fast enough to keep up. I worked around 50 hours per week with her for about 5 years.

In the meantime, new MTSOs were popping up left and right. When my original hospital account began outsourcing to a larger organization that offered benefits and computer training, I followed that account around for another 10 years, as it kept hopping from one MTSO to the next. I left on the best of terms with her and occasionally would do overflow work (until she retired) when she got into a tight bind.

In the letter, she said she had always considered me as her silent partner, even though my job was confined to transcription, and placed a lot of emphasis on reliability and loyalty. I have always felt proud of being part of the inception and growth of her company. These days, I have to wonder if the reference letter is even useful, and that instead, it may simply "date me," a concern you raised that is all too familiar to me. I also think the letter reflects experience beyond transcription that might be helpful in presenting skills that could "transition" to another related job description.

I get so discouraged sometimes that I think presenting a reference letter might be perceived as possibly being a photoshopped phoney, and that being characterized as a reliable and loyal "silent partner" could leave the impression that I pose some sort of "threat" to a middle mangement employee half my age with 25 years less experience (!), so I end up burying in some dusty hard copy file and keeping the reference and the experience off their radar screens entirely, as if it never happened.

Guess I'll never know one way or the other, since I can't even get my foot in the front door.

Hear, hear. Great story. Made me smile. - IMANMT2

[ In Reply To ..]
What a gal. Amazing. Figured it out as she went. That kind of self direction, determination, and dedication epitomizes our profession (or it should).

I worked with ladies at the hospital who were hired straight out of high school and learned on the job. They were still talking about typing on typewriters using carbon paper(s) and all the erasing when a doc changed his mind. (They really appreciated comps and word processing.)

They told me about the first dictation machines that were feet of digital tape and every once in a while it would break and dictation would be lost. Hence, older doctors saying no, no, I DID dictate it. The machine must have eaten it. (not to be confused with the dog) And doctors used to being disconnected by older machines who just repeat the last word they said while they were thinking of what they wanted to say next. Like, period....period....period....period. And you, hunched over the keyboard, ready to go, when he gets his thoughts organized. The repeating drove me crazy until I understood why he did it. Fear. Fear of getting cut off.

I have truly enjoyed medical transcription and still do. It's not over, yet.

Respectfully disagree - Beentheredonethat

[ In Reply To ..]
I too have been MT since 1972-73. I've had 4 different jobs w/4 different companies since 2008, but never gone more than a month without work. Had to take a close critiquing look at my resume and revamp it. Since we live in a virtual world resume has to stand out among the rest. Don't give up, get the resume out wherever and whenever u can. Doesn't have to be Doom and Gloom.

So True. - Suzy Q

[ In Reply To ..]
Yes I can relate to your story. I too have known women in the past who fit your description. They were to be admired for their hard work and dedication to quality. I have been trained by some of them and at the time I thought they were very demanding and unreasonable, but now as I look back I realize these women were only striving to do a good job and prove themselves in an otherwise male-dominated business at that time.

You are right saying that we will never see that kind of worker again. The modern world now only values work done as cheaply as possible, not caring how much experience they might have. We of the older generation are pushed to the wayside, no longer wanted and no longer appreciated for our skills or values. I look at the company that just laid off several of us old-timers and wanted to replace us with younger workers who they assumed would work hard for them. LOL, think again suits. You will not be successful with your greed and disregard for some of the best workers you will probably ever have.

There that is my speech for the day. Now I feel better.

Again, disagree that companies discriminate - Beentheredonethat

[ In Reply To ..]
Don't put birth date/age on resume, not necessary. You graduated, no year required either. Go back only 5-6 years of jobs; state years or type of experience in objective paragraph. I'm 57 years old and NEVER felt like anyone younger got *my job.* Skills are skills-- assertiveness and confidence in one's ability can't be ignored.

Back in the day - Dreamer

[ In Reply To ..]
Sadly many of us today are paid on the same pay scale as back in the 1970s and early 1980s. The atmosphere back then was much more helpful and respectful. Today, we have low wages and a terrible business climate in which to work as so aptly stated. As healthcare gets more complex, we have to keep up with all the changes in technology but never see any COL because we are tied to this CPL which goes down more than goes up.

This story was such a pleasure to read! - Boosted

[ In Reply To ..]
What a fantastic story! Thank you for posting it!

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