Does anyone know anything about working as a Transcriptionist?

[caketastydelish]

I've found stuff from here.

My understanding is once you get experience and a nice resume you can earn 25 an hour, apparently. But not for a beginner with no experience. I can type over 100 words per minute with decent accuracy, and my understanding is that's easily good enough for a Transcriptionist.

There's basically no jobs in a physical location as a Transcriptionist so I'd have to find work online, which is what I'd prefer anyway.

Why am I making this thread? To ask for advice. Do any of you know anything about this, and have pointers to put me in the right direction?

Thanks

 

[NovaKart]

I work as an editor putting translated articles into more formal and correct English. It's a little similar I guess.

I think to make yourself more marketable you need a degree or certification of some sort either for transcription or for what I'm doing.

I lucked into this job by being available at the right time and knowing people who put me in touch with them.

Could you take out student loans? I mean even if it's just a 2 year associate degree or something through a community college to help you out.

I think it's really more than just typing because you would likely need to know how the reports are supposed to look and if you had medical or legal knowledge that would help out for things you would have trouble understanding while transcribing.

It's amazing when you work as an editor how many mistakes you start to notice on major sites. I noticed on the Daily Beast in an article recently 2 double paragraphs and about 5 typos.

I don't always proofread my posts here before posting so don't judge me on that.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Hmm. I had a little practice in this during my high school typing classes, but when I had my own typing business I worked from handwritten material.

I see the website mentions Amazon Mechanical Turk. I've been with that for years, although never doing transcriptions. It might be worth your while to make an account and try the transcribing hits. As for the rate of pay, it's so much per hit, and the hit has to be accepted. Some clients will promote exceptional Turkers to higher-paying hits.

As a Canadian, I get paid via an Amazon.com credit, which I can apply to book purchases made on the Amazon.com site (it's not transferable to Amazon.ca, which is a pain). But given that some of the books I want are available on the .com site instead of .ca, I let my balance accumulate, little by little, until it's enough to make a difference.

My understanding is that American Turkers are paid actual money, but am not sure if it's via Paypal or a cheque.

You do need to be careful not to run afoul of any scammers. Any company or website that wants money upfront for training materials, or lists of contacts is nothing but a scam. And be aware that on Amazon Mechanical Turk you might occasionally run across adult material, or worse. For example, one set of hits I did many years ago involved analyzing blogs - what language(s) were they in, were they personal, professional, or commercial, which demographics were they aimed at, etc. The hits were 10 cents apiece, and I soon became quite proficient at zipping through them (incidentally this is how I learned how to identify the differences between Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian).

The kicker with the blog analysis hits? One hit took me to a site that gives me chills even now. I'd stumbled on a child porn site... graphic images of little kids as young as 3 years old. Since the police in Canada deem anyone who just looks at this stuff as guilty, of course I reported the hit, and emphasized that I had not known where that link would take me. Those kids would be teenagers now, and I hope they were rescued...

But of course you're not likely to run across anything like that on other sites or with upstanding companies.

 

[Synobun]

Being a fast typer in transcription work is not near the top of the list of required skills for doing it proficiently. You need excellent short term memory, a good ear, and the ability to maintain a physical routine so you can quickly pause and rewind without needing to deliberately stop and then switch to using your mouse.

If you are going to pursue this for that sweet high hourly wage, transcription work through the content mills (such as MTurk) will provide very little towards that end. You can use Amazon Mechanical Turk to get a feel for it and to see if you can do it, but you'll ideally want to sign on with a private transcription agency with its own proprietary web software.

Medical transcription and executive transcription will be what earns you good money.

Consider acquiring transcription software and pedals if you decide you like transcribing and feel you're good at it. They seem gimmicky but can greatly increase your efficiency.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yep, I meant to say that Mechanical Turk would be a good way to practice, to see if you even like doing it. It doesn't pay much, but even a few bucks is better than nothing.

I've just logged into my account there, and right away there are over 10,000 hits available for transcribing. The payment is 8 cents per hit accepted. This is what it looks like:

Transcribe Short Audio Clips View a HIT in this group


Requester: GoldenAgeTranscription
HIT Expiration Date: Apr 12, 2017 (4 weeks)
Time Allotted: 60 minutes
Reward: $0.08
HITs Available: 10245

I clicked on a hit, and these are the instructions:

Listen to the short audio clips and transcribe what was said.

• Verbatim transcription: Type exactly as spoken. No acronyms or short forms. Exmaple, type "M I T" (instead of "MIT" or "M-I-T")
• Use English numbers: Do NOT use any arabic numbers. Example, type "three oh four" (instead of "304"). Type "twenty fifteen" (instead of "2015")
• In-Audible: Click "In-Audible" if you cannot understand an audio after best effort (noisy, accents or fast/faint speech, non-english, etc)
• And... Thank You

There are 5 audio entries in this task. Please transcribe ALL entries in this task.


I have no plans to try this, so I backed out to the original list of available hits for whatever requesters want things done.

Some hits will not be available to you, depending on your geographic location (there are lots that exclude Canadians). Some may require you to request a qualification, which may or may not involve taking a short test. More qualifications means more hits will be available, at a better rate of payment. Sometimes you can earn some nice bonuses for exceptional work.

 

[caketastydelish]

Being a fast typer in transcription work is not near the top of the list of required skills for doing it proficiently. You need excellent short term memory, a good ear, and the ability to maintain a physical routine so you can quickly pause and rewind without needing to deliberately stop and then switch to using your mouse.

If you are going to pursue this for that sweet high hourly wage, transcription work through the content mills (such as MTurk) will provide very little towards that end. You can use Amazon Mechanical Turk to get a feel for it and to see if you can do it, but you'll ideally want to sign on with a private transcription agency with its own proprietary web software.

Medical transcription and executive transcription will be what earns you good money.

Consider acquiring transcription software and pedals if you decide you like transcribing and feel you're good at it. They seem gimmicky but can greatly increase your efficiency.

I looked up medical transcription online apparently, they make 13.50 an hour. That's not what I'd call 'good money'.

Also, I already have two associate degrees (or to be more precise, I graduate with a second one this semester which I'm not interested in...) One associate of arts (general education lower level classes) and this time, Computer Information Classes.

How many classes would I have to take? Side note: After this, I was planning to go to a four-year University to get a Bachelors. I was planning on majoring on the same thing (Computer Information Systems) simply because I'd only need 19 hours which is not that much. But I would need 21 more hours in literally anything else just because they have a minimum requirement of how many hours you need from that university, in general, to get a degree from there. What would be a good minor? Or not even a minor necessarily. Perhaps even just a small handful of classes. You tell me.

edit: I would like to imagine this would be good. Maybe this one? I'm less sure. Perhaps this? There does seem to be an overlap with journalism.

side note: I attended this University before as an English major but dropped out before getting the degree. I would only need 3 semester hours (in other words, literally one class) to get an English minor. I would like to think that would look good as well.

 

[Synobun]

Anyone who is being paid $13.50/hr for medical transcription is being bent over. You can easily be paid over $20/hr by working for specific hospitals or doctors. A medical transcription mill will, of course, pay you pennies. After all, how else will they walk to the bank with their bags of cash?

I don't know why you're referring to degrees and schooling. You don't need it for transcription. You primarily need experience. Schooling requirements with private agencies tend to just be "did you go to school?" and in that case yeah, your two associates and a possible minor in English more than fit the bill. The focus, if you are intent on this, should be in acquiring relevant experience and referrals. They'll still put you through a trial but enough experience and a few good referrals will get you in the door.

 

[Zelig]

As a transcriptionist, you need to remain better/cheaper than computer programs that do the same job, which are constantly getting better/cheaper at it.

 

[Glassfan]

My understanding is once you get experience and a nice resume you can earn 25 an hour, apparently. But not for a beginner with no experience. I can type over 100 words per minute with decent accuracy, and my understanding is that's easily good enough for a Transcriptionist.

There's basically no jobs in a physical location as a Transcriptionist so I'd have to find work online, which is what I'd prefer anyway.

Why am I making this thread? To ask for advice. Do any of you know anything about this, and have pointers to put me in the right direction?

Thanks

My wife was a medical transcriptionist back in the 1990s. It was a tough job and she couldn't hold onto it.

She had to go to transcriptionist school to get certified and then found a company to work for. They sent her a word-processor and other equipment. Yes, you work out of your home, but you have to be really sharp on your time management. The greatest demands were on volume and accuracy. The accuracy was the most difficult part, since the Doctors dictate while they're eating, chewing gum, driving, and having conversations with others. Lots of Doctors mumble or have difficult accents. Some of them make up imaginary terms. My wife always referred to foreign Doctors as Foreign Dictators.

Medical terminology is extremely taxing, especially since you yourself are probably not a healthcare professional. Much of the course focusses on that. I suggest you find a medical dictionary and look at it. It can be quite intimidating.

Yes, it does pay well, my wife made more than I did while she was working. 100 words a minute is at the low performance end, and decent accuracy is not good enough (though it's a start). Your handler will always be on you to do more and more, and threats are not uncommon.

With love and compassion cakes, I have to say that given the mental health concerns you've expressed over the years on these forums, you may find the pressures and demands of this job quite challenging.

Best of luck in whatever you decide.

 

[sophie]

In-Audible: Click "In-Audible" if you cannot understand an audio after best effort (noisy, accents or fast/faint speech, non-english, etc)

That's not how inaudible is spelled.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That's not how inaudible is spelled.

I'm aware of that. I did a direct copy/paste.

Not all requesters practice what they preach.

 

[sophie]

I'm aware of that. I did a direct copy/paste.

Not all requesters practice what they preach.

It was by no means intended as an attack on you or an indictment upon your ability to spell words correctly. I was merely pointing out a humorous bit of irony I saw in the job posting you linked. Nothing more.

 

[caketastydelish]

My wife was a medical transcriptionist back in the 1990s. It was a tough job and she couldn't hold onto it.

She had to go to transcriptionist school to get certified and then found a company to work for. They sent her a word-processor and other equipment. Yes, you work out of your home, but you have to be really sharp on your time management. The greatest demands were on volume and accuracy. The accuracy was the most difficult part, since the Doctors dictate while they're eating, chewing gum, driving, and having conversations with others. Lots of Doctors mumble or have difficult accents. Some of them make up imaginary terms. My wife always referred to foreign Doctors as Foreign Dictators.

Medical terminology is extremely taxing, especially since you yourself are probably not a healthcare professional. Much of the course focusses on that. I suggest you find a medical dictionary and look at it. It can be quite intimidating.

Yes, it does pay well, my wife made more than I did while she was working. 100 words a minute is at the low performance end, and decent accuracy is not good enough (though it's a start). Your handler will always be on you to do more and more, and threats are not uncommon.

With love and compassion cakes, I have to say that given the mental health concerns you've expressed over the years on these forums, you may find the pressures and demands of this job quite challenging.

Best of luck in whatever you decide.

I couldn't be a medical Transcriptonist. The medical field is not interesting to me in any way whatsoever. I find the human body, its fluids and its organs to be disgusting. Unless we're talking about a beautiful woman whose showered, put on deodorant and perfumed, the human body will always gross me out.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

It was by no means intended as an attack on your or an indictment upon your ability to spell words correctly. I was merely pointing out a humorous bit of irony I saw in the job posting you linked. Nothing more.

Okay.

The truth is, I think some of these requesters have English as a second language, so that's why they're using Amazon Mechanical Turk.

 

[Glassfan]

I couldn't be a medical Transcriptonist. The medical field is not interesting to me in any way whatsoever. I find the human body, its fluids and its organs to be disgusting. Unless we're talking about a beautiful woman whose showered, put on deodorant and perfumed, the human body will always gross me out.

Understood. But the principle still holds. It's a demanding job with great pressure to perform. To take a class to get credentials will cost you money. And the schools that teach transcription advertise the good and omit the bad. Do you feel you have some advantage in talent for this?

 

[sophie]

Also are you prepared to get stuck doing something like medical transcription should that happen? Like yes you would prefer not to have to do it, but when push comes to shove, and it's do medical transcription for [x years] or not get any work as a transcriptionist, is that result acceptable to you?

Also Mars rightly points out that this is a career that will almost certainly get completely automated within the next few years so, I dunno mang.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Multiply the audio's duration by four to get the minimum time you'll spend on its transcription.