I first started utilizing “newbies”, because I found that they are the ones who have spent thousands of dollars to get the education to do the job, only to find it difficult to find the work (without of course the usual two to five-year minimum experience) because so much of our work was being off shored.
I taught transcription courses for a local vo-tech and worked with many schools on the east coast and found that what they were teaching was barely enough to even consider calling the graduates typists, much less transcriptionists.Some didn’t even explain how to load files into a player, or even how to market themselves for a position with a company or private work.
I also found that the newbie was unspoiled by the usual ‘stuff’ those in the business have come to use as a crutch of sorts – speech recognition, hot keys – shortcuts. I don’t believe in such things because nothing beats the human ear, and no one ever speaks the same words in the same manner or with the same tone, every time they say them. Those shortcuts could cause major errors. I don’t use shortcuts – I use skill.
For over 8 years now, I have brought on and worked with the newbie who has had everything from years of school to a few weeks of transcription experience, and found that they can be the best and most dedicated workers out there with a little extra work on my part – yet no one wants to take the time to work with them.
Why won’t they work with them? They have spent literally thousands of dollars to get what they were told was the education to do the job. They have spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get the equipment they need to do the job. They have the desire to learn the job and do the best they can. They still want to do the job and want to learn all they can after their own research shows them what a painfully stressful job it can be. They still want the job when all they hear from others in the field is how horrible the job can be and how difficult it is to make a living doing transcription.
Why not work with them?
My guess is that it is that because they are newbies, they can place unreasonable experience requirements on them so that they (the larger transcription companies) can continue to off shore the transcription projects they handle. Most larger companies off shore their work without ever telling their clients they actually do. They hide the information on their website, will even say they do not offshore, but have ‘branches’ or ‘satellite’ offices in the Philippines, India, or Mexico. They off shore even though there are skilled and educated people, or those who want to be trained, ready and willing to work right here in the US.
So why do I work with newbies?
In addition to the dedication and desire I mentioned above, here is what I found in working with the newbie:
They are mostly single moms, women taking care of a disabled family member, disabled themselves trying to supplement their income, widows and widowers, battered women trying to start over, a college student trying to ease the financial burden on their parents (and themselves). They are the wife of a service member trying to make whatever they can while their spouse is deployed, an at-home mother working to ease the financial crunch of the household, women battling cancer, Lupus, or other illnesses – all who need work just as much, if not more than their desire to work.
For those reasons alone, I am proud to work with newbies. They not only want it, they need it. I would rather take the time to train the newbies, and allow them to be the best they can be, to earn the extra they need to get by (and hopefully more than), to help them free themselves from some of the stresses of their lives. For those reasons, I would rather work with a newbie than to consider off-shoring any work off shore.
Sure, I may not ever have free time for that yearly vacation because I have to put a little extra time (okay a lot of extra time) working with the newbies to get them to the point where they are no longer considered newbies, and I may get frustrated with the additional concerns newbies have when starting a new venture, but I know that I have helped a family, while building a kick ass team I like to call the CLK family.
They are all independent contractors, I am their client, and in addition to training them in the art of transcription, they gain the experience of running their own “company” from billing to taxes to finding ways to save on the programs and devices they need to ‘run’ their business, to how to market themselves and bring even more work back here to the US from the companies off shore. Some of my team have other jobs, some have many other clients, but all are respected for the work they do for CLK.
I started this company with a few “seasoned” transcriptionists and a handful of newbies who have now become the backbone of the CLK Team, and have seen that team grow with additional newbies over the years who have gone through rigorous training, quality assurance checks, and the guidance of the team. Not all make it, but those that stick it out are transcriptionists who love what they do and they do it with love.
To my team at CLK, whether you have been with me ten years or ten hours – Thank You for the work you do. Thank you for the patience you have with me and my quirks. Thank you for your best – that is all I ask. Thank you for helping me make CLK Transcription the best we can be!
Happy Labor Day 2012.
If you would like more information on the services CLK Transcription has to offer – from interview, meeting, IEP, scholastic transcription, voice mail transcription, audio conversion, call in dictation, hard copy conversion, database development, and more – contact carollee@clktranscription.com or visit us at www.clktranscription.com.
We have been noted in multiple best sellers and TV programs, and work with freelancers, authors, production companies, publishers, corporations, and scholars to complete their project timely, with quality at a cost they can afford.
If you are interested in a career in transcription, please forward why you chose this profession and a little bit about yourself to transcription@clktranscription.com. (No resumes and no phone calls, please)
www.clktranscription.com
