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

What is expected in general office work nowadays? - Looking ahead

Posted: Mar 07, 2013

Back in my day, it was typing on a Selectric, making copies and filing, phone duties, mail and making coffee. I would like to work for a temp agency to feel out some companies. Can anyone elaborate on what software one should know and what else is now expected? Any good software tutorials? I am much obliged. I want out of this madness and will prepare myself in the meantime. I am sure some others could benefit from anyone's input. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and advice.

you're in for a shock - sm

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Unless you have mastered Word I, II and III, know Power Point, Excel, Outlook and Access inside and out, you may not get an interview much less a job. And I started with a Selectric myself.

Also you will be shocked at the low pay - even if you do know all that. nm

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xx

True. But even $10/hr. is twice what I'm currently - making as a transcriptionist! n/m

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pay is higher than you might think - Snow Bunny (the original)

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I'm medical record clerk positions that are average $12-13 per hour. And basically you only need filing and phone experience for those.

Don't forget Adobe Acrobat and PhotoShop, as well - as other graphic arts programs! n/m

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learning Excel - Snow Bunny (the original)

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Here's a link to help you learn about Excel 2007-2010. You get a few free lessons and then you have to pay $9.99 per year for unlimited access.

thank you, Snow Bunny (NM) - OP

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.

here's a link for Word 2010 - Snow Bunny (the original)

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It's not an intensive course, but it's enough to get you up and running.

Thank you also, Snow Bunny. Twice. :) - nm

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x

I recently got the shock of my life when I applied - for a part-time office job through -sm

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an employment agency. It was actually advertised as a medical transcription job, but come to find out, it also involved all other aspects of office work too, such as phones, word processing, calendaring, and like bookkeeping.

So, the agency gives me an online skills assessment test, and boy-oh-boy-oh-boy, did that ever fully deflate my already partially-tromped-on ego! To perform this job, I needed to know Word 2010 (which is vastly different from 2003, which I use for my MT job!). There were also tests for mastery of Excel, Outlook, Access, and PowerPoint. All of which I knew next-to-nothing about, since we never use them for medical transcription. The only Excel I know is to fill in my hours on my time card every day. That's it!

The final slap in the face was the typing test. Just straightforward timed copy typing. How hard could that be, right? Well, when was the last time any of us even typed a full sentence, since most of us are now on VR? I don't even remember the last copy-typing task I had, but it was probably at least 15 years ago, and it's a different skill-set than transcribing. I used to test at 80-85 words per minute. I got a lousy 40 wpm on my skills assessment.

After job-hunting now for close to 4 years, it's become clear that even to have a secretary, receptionist, or office-help type job, you have to know those Microsoft programs. So, for now I've suspended applying for jobs, and I've gone back to school to learn MS Office Suite 2010.

Of course, there's still no guarantee it'll get me a job, but at least I'll have the skills to use the tools that we're expected to use in everyday 21st Century general office work. There's also been an added, unexpected bonus: Now I can transfer some of the word-processing skills I'm learning back to Word 2003, and my daily VR editing work. Not to mention resume and cover letter writing!

Clerical jobs - Travelin MT

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Don't discount clerical jobs at your local hospital/med center. Many jobs do not require you to know the entire MS Office programs.

You should be able to find MS Office classes at your local adult school, Jr. College without it costing you a fortune. If you have the MS Office suite on your computer ( they have a new one now that is valid for 4 years and you can use it on up to 5 devices.) So you could put it on your laptop, desktop, IPad, IPhone. The cost is really reasonable compared to the regular one time application.

If you can't find a class, the "XXX For dummies" books are really easy to understand.

I taught medical transcription, computer applications, and office occupations for over 10- years so I know a little bit about what I am talking about.

I just did a 2-week contract job at a local hospital and I only needed to know Meditech. Their Meditech cross-referenced with Centrex (which I hadn't used before). It was a matter of clicking on icons and specific links, a trained monkey could do it. What they wanted was my medical transcription/terminology/background.

What I am saying is don't cut yourself short, we have a lot of knowledge from our years of transcription experience.

link to free lessons in Office programs - MTtoMA

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http://www.gcflearnfree.org/

This can help too.

my story exactly - 2nd shift

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and I think I've decided to forget about all that and learn digital scanning. I think that's something I'd like to do, and I'd rather learn that than Word and Excel. Good luck everyone!

What is digital scanning? -nm - Outdated-Skills MT

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What is digital scanning - Travelin MT

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Digital scanning is the process of scanning paper records into a digital (EMR). The records are first prepped ( put in the proper order, all facing in the right direction, flat-not folded or wrinkled, etc.) They then go to a person that feeds them into a scanner that scans and formats them into a EMR.

Scanning is photocopying - PHOTOCOPYING, OK?

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Scanning is photocopying. No specialized education is required. Pay is the lowest of all HIM jobs.

EHRs do not consist of scanned paper records. They allow scanning of some paper, but it is minimal. It is also going to be temporary.

It amazes me that people here will refuse to consider a high-pay job like coding out of fear that it is "going away," but have no qualms about latching onto a low-pay, boring, rote-work function that is actually planned to be eliminated and which actually has very few jobs now.

If you need a foot in the door, a job in scanning is fine, but do not be misled into thinking it is some kind of high-powered function requiring spending $15,000 at a diploma mill to learn.

it's a little more than that - OP

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Here are the courses I am taking:
Digital Imaging I: Digital imaging using raster image
editing and/or image creation software: scanning,
resolution, file formats, output devices, color
systems, and image-acquisitions.

Digital Imaging II: Principles of digital image processing
and electronic painting. Emphasis on bitmapped- or
raster-based image marking and the creative
aspects of electronic illustration for commercial
or fine art applications.

And I fully intend to get out of medical records forever, m'am, and the reason I don't take your precious coding course is because I have only limited intelligence, and I know it, okay? Not everyone is as blessed as you.

More than that? - Used to be an MT

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And this class will get you a job doing what? I don't see this transferring over into any marketable skill. The scanners I know learned how to do what they do on the job. I doubt that you have limited intelligence, but not everyone can code either. I know a lot of coders who wouldn't know thing one about how to do transcription. To each their own. Do what makes you happy. It would be a boring world if we all enjoyed doing the same thing.

I have my eye on a job at Lockheed - and this is what they do

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and since you know people who learned it on the job, it must be a marketable skill, right?

Lockheed - Used to be an MT

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Obviously, I don't understand all that is involved when it comes to scanning. Usually, it is an entry level job that requires no special training, I don't know if it would have been necessary for you to spend money on school if you were interested in scanning. I certainly never meant to be rude. You were the one putting yourself down for not being intelligent. I questioned that I said to do what makes you happy, I'm sorry that offended you.

You are talking about something completely different! - Not the HIM scanning

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Here is what happened ... you postd that .you were interested in "digital scanning" but did not say what kind or where. You did this on a board where every previous mention of digital scanning has been about HIM record scanning in hospitals. When someone explained what it was, saying it was the scanning of papers into EHRs, you didn't say that was not what you meant. In fact, it appeared to some of us that YOU supplied that explanation.

Now you appear to explain that you meant something else ... something more like computer engineering ... and make snarky remarks that you have to do this because you are too stupid to learn healthcare coding.

Frankly, healthcare coding sounds a lot less difficult than your digital scanning. You should do what you want to do.

The person who posted about the $15K diploma mill "scanning" course issued a reasonable warning. Scanning med records is a very limited function that requires on the job instruction ... no more. Diploma mills are famous for teaching courses that lead nowhere and this is one of those nowheres. Don't sign up for an expensive course purporting to teach you how to photocopy (scan) medical records. (Yes, I have seen one teaching this, along with other clerical chores, which they are passing off as something guaranteed to enable you to get a HIM job. No, it was not AHIMA sponsored.)

well sorry if I was snarky - but all I was saying was

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we were talking about MS Word and all the other programs people are required to know now to have any kind of office job, not just medical records. Those office programs just don't interest me at all and I'd rather learn this digital imaging/scanning, whatever you want to call it. I didn't see the conversation as being all about HIM but maybe I was wrong. And I still feel I lack the brain capacity for coding. I wasn't being snarky there, just honest.

Sounds like a step toward graphic design. sm - Hmmm. May have to look into this.

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Those courses sound interesting to me. Is this through a local college? My community college does not offer anything like this.

Wow, what a rude response! - see message

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Did the poster say anything about coding? Where did that come from? Did the poster say this costs 15K? Where did you get that? Why do you want to come on here and shoot down this person's goal?

General Office Work - greyhoundmom

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I think it would be a good idea to take a typing test at home. You can go to google and type in typing test, and you will get some typing tests to practice. There are 3 and 5 minute timed tests. Doesn't cost anything.

here's a link to a typing test - 2nd shift

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the link is near the top on the right and this is also a good normal lab values reference that I like to keep handy:

http://www.mtworld.com/tools_resources/lab_values.html

Copy Typing - see msg

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I used to be sooo good at copy typing. But after 13 years of transcribing, I can't copy type accurately anymore. It's a whole different skill set, just like learning to transcribe while listening. I think it's because we're so used to seeing our errors in front of us and fixing them on the fly, that we just aren't proficient at copy typing anymore. I don't think this has to do with ASR. I started getting bad at copy typing long before ASR.

To all who replied (nm) - THANK YOU - OP

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.

You can also check out You Tube... Sm - Old Woman

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for tutorials on spreadsheets and other software programs that are unfamiliar to you.

The last time I worked in an office (2010) for a short period of time (I, too, had aspirations to leave MT behind), I had to know MS Excel, Outlook, MS Word, and other lesser known programs. All for $1881/mo. I decided I was losing money on the gas as I live rurally and came back to MT. Best of luck on whatever you decide to do.

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