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

For All Who Would Suggest Not Paying for an MT Program - Jean

Posted: Dec 28, 2012

So for those here who would suggest not paying for an MT program and I definitely understand why what would you suggest as the way to get any type of experience so that I might have a better chance to get an MT job ? Even part time would be helpful at this point !

I think the point of suggesting not to pay for an MT - program is that its a dying field.

[ In Reply To ..]
For the same reasons I wouldn't pay money to learn shorthand. While shorthand can still come in handy on occasion, it's not possible to make a career of using it. Same with medical transcription. Even the best, most experienced and knowledgeable MTs working today are having trouble making enough money at it to survive. In a few years, it may disappear from the US altogether, with maybe a few exceptions.

If you're willing to pay for a career education, you should look for something that IS actually a career, and not a dead end, downward spiral like medical transcription.

exactly - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
and as others have mentioned: if you have a a degree in coding, concentrate on getting experience and employment in that field. It's hard for me to understand how taking a course in a dying field is going to help you. Unless the course is free and you have nothing else to do.

yep. 800 resumes per job opening should tell - you something, everyting actually. NM

[ In Reply To ..]
'

can you find anything else? - try

[ In Reply To ..]
Are you sure you want to get into this profession? We are all trying to get out.

Since you already comlpeted a coding program . . . - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
why not concentrate on that area? That seems to be a healthier career choice than being an MT right now.

I will say the best choice for a new MT would be to try to get in with a clinic that has in-house transcription.

Good luck to you.

Getting Into Coding - Jean

[ In Reply To ..]
I graduated with my coding degree last year and have had trouble getting my foot in the door at even at dr's office. Many of them want you to be certified and with experience so they don't have to pay to train you. My college did not even make an attempt to help me find a job. That's why I am trying alternatives until I get get my foot in the door maybe after 2014 when ICD-10 comes out and there is possibly more flexibility with experience requirements

However - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You don't have to have experience to take the certification exams. I would definitely work on that first before even considering an MT career.

Coding Exam Cost - Jean

[ In Reply To ..]
My challenge at least right now that I am running into is with 4 years unemployed many employers specifically recruiters have told me that is a huge bullseye to my not being chosen to move further in the process even though 2 of those 4 yrs were spent in school getting my degree. There is nothing wrong with me I am one among many hundreds who apply for each job and I need to at least find some kind of employment even if I have to do MT and hold down a 2nd job to keep my home. The coding exam is $300.00 not exactly money I have just freely sitting around if I did believe me I would have already taken the exam earlier this year.

So... - anon

[ In Reply To ..]
You'd rather spend thousands on an MT education than save up $300 for an exam that would help you get a job in a field you already went to school for? Makes no sense.

So - Jean

[ In Reply To ..]
No that's not what I am saying at all. I am saying I am looking at MT not necessarily as a windfall of money that much is obvious by what I have ready here so far but more as an addition to likely a part time position I may have to get in addition. I am looking at alternatives to being constantly turned down for jobs for far because of a 4 year gap in my resume. Just like you can be discriminated against because of age etc employers are starting to discriminate because of long term unemployment though of course they won't say as much it is happening and is not illegal. I would consider spending the money if and only if I knew it would give me a better chance at finding a job. I am just trying to look at all sides of this right now.

Honestly... - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
You really should not have spent money on coding school if you were not going to get certified. Certification is crucial in coding.

Also, you mention again doing MT. I hope you read my message on your thread below. You can't just get into MT and start making money. I don't know how many times this needs to be repeated. It's not any easier than coding (I've gone to school for both).

When I graduated from my MT class, myself and only 1 other person in the class were actually even able to do MT after going to school. For the others, it was just too difficult. The other girl only lasted in transcription for 2 years and she got out. This was back in the 1990s. Things are much more difficult now.

Get certified, network locally, try to find any job you can in a local hospital, or do something not in the medical field, but don't fool yourself thinking you can spend money on an MT program and start making money anytime soon.

Honestly - Jean

[ In Reply To ..]
Getting certified takes money the current rate for the CPC exam is $300.00 the CCS which is an AHIMA credential is also $300.00. I am realistic enough to know that MT is not easy any more than coding was easy when I went through my classes for that program. I don't want to make millions of dollars at transcription and I have repeated this many times in my posts right now I have no income at all so even SOME money even as little as $10 would help my situation. I am facing foreclosure on my home and with only 1 income in my family right now and many employers wanting education certification AND experience in coding getting even a crack in the door is not as easy as some might think.

Research.... - MT

[ In Reply To ..]
You should have known before you began the coding program that you would need $300 to get certified. You should have also made sure that the program had some sort of placement assistance.

I see a pattern here. You are repeating the it regarding an MT program.

Everyone here is telling you that this is a dead-end road. Even if you are not hoping to make millions, do you understand the timeline involved?

You will need to finish an MT program, then it will take a substantial amount of time to even make $10 an hour doing MT. Many here who have 20+ years' experience are receiving unemployment supplement because they are not even making minimum wage.

There is what you hope for, and then there is reality. Reality is you have no chance of making a decent income any faster with MT than you do with coding.

Point Taken - Jean

[ In Reply To ..]
I get the point. Honesty and all and everything eles that has been mentioned here. Hope and reality you're right are two different things. And I hope I can find a job the reality is I am having a hard time finding one. Hope is I can keep my home reality is I might not be able to. So many times people will tell you the more education you get the more chance you have getting a job. The reality is because of the still struggling economy you might not be able to find one even with the education.

Jean, I will not tell people how to enter MT because I - will not assist such a costly mistake. SM

[ In Reply To ..]
And the costs in cumulative lost income, including lost years not developing skills in another field, years of wasted effort, diminished self respect and confidence, even shame at being so foolish are enormous by the time the typical person gives up.

Low-level clerical pays an average of $30K a year. Assuming 3 years wasted in MT, finally averaging minimum wage in the final year (many never do better), $90K potential minus say $35K for the 3 years equals $45 THOUSAND DOLLARS LOST, on top of expenses for training, equipment, perhaps medical bills because of bad insurance, lost pay increases from rising in position in another job, etc., etc., etc.

BTW, this is calm work for a skilled MT, but it is NOT easy. MT requires BOTH eyes, BOTH hands, BOTH ears, and the ENTIRE brain be focused on it the ENTIRE time clocked in, continually push-push-pushing to be fast because you cannot afford to relax. Not exactly a work-at-home holiday.

Your first paragraph sums up my life! -(sm) - Dream 2 B an X-MT

[ In Reply To ..]
Until just this year, actually, I never, EVER, had trouble getting a job. I have no gaps in my work history, beginning back in 1970! I got every single job I ever applied for, in and out of the MT field.

I used to make a decent, comfortable living. I supported myself, paid my bills, socked some money into savings and retirement fund, even occasionally took a vacation and travelled to other countries.

The doctors, and some of my better management people in the past, used to appreciate my hard work and my MT skills. During previous recessions, the MT field was always recession-proof. While my graphic designer, teacher, scientist and software engineer friends were out of work, I had plenty of job security in MT.

So, foolishly (except who could've known, 15 or 20 years ago?), I put all my eggs in one basket - the MT basket. I kept up my skills, went to word processing courses and over the course of years of MT, learned many word processing software types, in addition to MS Word and Word Perfect. But, because I was pigeonholed into MT, my other office skills started to get outdated, because they were no longer needed. When I first became an MT, we were actually still classified as Medical Secretaries. We copied, filed, took notes at meetings, did correspondence, and maintained the dictating equipment (Dictaphones, back then). When MT became computerized, and as we shifted towards an electronic medical record, all the other duties disappeared, and we just became "Typing-Machines".

It was around that time that the first wave of disrepect began to come onshore. We were no longer the physicians' right-hand people, we were now just part of the "typing pool". Supervisors, instead of acting as coaches and mentors, in addition to supvervision, started turning into slave-drivers, partly because they, too, were afraid for their own jobs.

Originally, MTs were a rare breed. It wasn't uncommon, if I applied to more than one job at a time, to actually have them trying to out-bid each other in order to hire me. Now, instead, they tell us every day how replaceable we are, how "lucky" we are to even HAVE a job, because they may as well just send it all to India or VR.

On top of that, the current job climate is such that they feel it's necessary to make us feel like the scum of the earth, each and every day. At least once or twice a month, my supervisor lets me know that there must be "something wrong with me" - that "everyone else" is doing a bang-up job, typing lots of lines and making lots of money, and that if I "don't get my scores up (quantity and/or quality), I'll be let go. (They've been telling me this for 4 years, now.) But we all know the score on that one. They mistakenly believe that a SCARED, beaten-down employee is a "good" employee. That it will somehow make us work "harder, faster, smarter" - like they're always telling us when they keep raising the line count minimum and lowering our per-line pay scale.

Between all of that, and the fact that now, after all these years of being an MT, I'm finding that absolutely NO ONE in other fields finds my skills, both current and potential, to be of any value, is pretty disheartening. I've been poor for so long in this business, and with the added burden of the Great Recession that I think it will always be a part of my identity in the future. And with each non-reaction to job applications, and each rejection after I do land the occasional interview, my self-confidence is going right down the toilet.

I feel the exact same. Thanks for sharing that - feel so alone

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been slowly giving up. My confidence is gone and I am struggling in all aspects of my life due to this dead end carreer. I used to get raises, and felt so proud, and respected, and needed. Now I am told I need to change my schedule that I have had for 15 years, opposite shift as I am accustomed to. How am I supposed to keep doing this?

The point was not to avoid paying for an MT - course

[ In Reply To ..]
The point was to recommend not getting into MT at all as for many people it no longer provides a reliable or livable income. As the number of MT jobs shrinks, the number of experienced MTs competing for fewer jobs increases. Newly graduated MTs find it very difficult to get a job in that kind of climate.

The odds against getting an MT job without really good MT training or relevant experience are quite high. I certainly wish you luck if that's what you want to try, but I fear you will be disappointed.

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