Chatting with my daughter last night, she said, “It’s been so helpful,” and I said, “What’s been helpful?” And she replied, “Transcription.”
My daughter, as anyone who follows us knows, transcribes from home to pay her way through University. She is in her final year of her Masters and is now doing a placement for 12 weeks in a lab. She was quite intimidated by the fact that obviously she is working with professionals in her field now, and, because they are professionals and they do this all day long, there is a lot of assumed knowledge.
She was worried at the beginning that things were taking her too long and that her supervisors would think she was slow. In fact, because she has a very “can do” personality, before she asks for help, she will see if she can find the answer for herself.
What she has found helpful in this placement is what we call the ‘Google-fu’ that she needs to use in her transcription work. Because, like all transcriptionists, she never knows what topic will appear in her inbox for her to transcribe, she has become adept at finding vocabulary, names, places and terms on pretty much any subject. So when faced with having to use Excel and other programs that she wasn’t familiar with to program in data for the lab placement, she brought out these skills and her first port of call was the internet.
What she actually found was that people were surprised, not at how long things were taking her at all, but that she was doing things without being hand-held every step of the way, which they were expecting.
Amazing transcribers…
Sonya and I have always said that it takes a special kind of person to become a transcriptionist working from home. Resilience and flexibility are key to working for yourself. You need to be quite self-sufficient and be able to find things out for yourself, or know which forums to go to for help. You need self-discipline and make sure you meet deadlines for clients. And, you have to have a “can do” attitude and belief in yourself that, “I’ve got this.”
If you have the above skills, and want to work for yourself, TranscribeRight, our online transcription course, will take you through all the steps you need to become a transcriptionist. Happy transcribing!
