Our first student has just completed Module 1 and provided the following feedback:
“I have loved your Module 1! What I have especially liked is that you have ‘mixed things up’ – in the sense that there is plenty of variety and interest, both from the content and the dictation material. Certainly not one of those courses where you feel you just have to slog through each (rather predictable lesson) to get to the end.” – Karen, W.A.
We couldn’t be more thrilled. More students are working their way through, but this was our very first student and to read that was so very exciting for us as we have tried to make our course “real” but also with a good dash of fun. There have been some glitches along the way as is to be expected with anything, but we have resolved each as it has arisen, and we have found that Teachable (the platform hosting our school) are quick to answer any tech queries that we have had and, fingers and toes crossed, now it should be plain sailing.
As part of adding to our library of audio files for Module 2, I interviewed one of our lovely team members at Top Team Transcripts, the bespoke transcription company Sonya and I co-founded, and she had some wonderful insights to share. Like Sonya and myself, she originally comes from a secretarial background, and on her journey, has run her own company with her husband, attained qualifications in Economics, and been an at home Mum for her young family. She arrived at a point where she wanted to work again, but on her own terms, and that’s when she discovered home-based transcription and has made it her career for the last ten years.
Like us, she has found that her work comes from everywhere. Even though she had left the UK and migrated to Western Australia, her first transcription work was for a New Zealand company who were being sent files from the UK! It really is a small, small world with transcription.
We will have another few interviews coming from our team, real live transcriptionists who have been doing this for varying lengths of time, and who are at the top of their game. And it’s not all women either! One of our goals is to debunk the myth that the word “transcriptionist” is a feminine noun. This work is for all, and we are excited to be sharing an interview with one of the two male transcribers on our team in the next few weeks.
But for now, here is an extract of what our lovely J thinks are the pros and cons of working as a home-based transcriptionist.
“Not having to commute is obviously a big thing. It allows you a couple of hours a day, really. It buys you the ability not to have to invest in the whole rat-race of work clothes and everything else that goes alongside that. And the flexibility to dip in and out of life as and when work allows, so essentially, that flexibility that one would associate with being your own boss. It’s worked very well for me. I’m what I call a ‘happy mushroom.’ I’m very happy to stay in my little room and get fed on whatever.
But no, it’s been a very, very good career for me and very unexpected. [The best thing] has to be the knowledge that you gain in that little snapshot about the world and what’s going on in it. And trends that feed into our work of, for example, women’s rights being raised, and you see this reflected in HR, you see it reflected in legislation, so many areas.
That’s just one area, but of course we’re privy to so much more than that. It’s a real honour to be able to be a fly on the wall in homes and in businesses and in political spheres, and I feel very privileged. And of course we’re trusted with that information, which makes it so much more of, you know, not just a job, but a privilege really.”
So there you have it, our very own happy mushroom. I just love that description. Happy in our work, happy in our environment and happy in our flexibility and yet…all the world flows through our home-based offices.
Does the life of the Happy Mushroom appeal to you? Start your journey here. Start your journey now. The world awaits you in your home-based office.
