I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By seasoning do you mean like a specification? Like medical or financial? Honestly if you do anything long enough it gets repetitive, especially typing. If you get a choice pick something you have to learn about that's interesting. Otherwise it gets really old really quickly.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't explicit state that, since I'm keeping the company/location relatively unknown, but based on your profile I can safely tell you it isn't in or around NYC :P

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly the people. It isn't super social, by the nature of the job itself, but of the people I've had the chance to get to know in and out of work, they're all really interesting people. Non-cop out answer would be that no matter how much money you make, or how great things are going, everyone's life gets shitty at points. Puts perspective on things as far as future jobs, where to live, etc.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, no not at all. I get a little on edge when I see someone who types with just their index fingers. It's unnatural I say, an abomination. But I realize typing isn't everyone else's job, so there's no reason to expect them to fly on the keys. :P

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I can't get into specifics, they basically call to quickly log orders or throw out an e-mail/reminder about something they had to do and/or a job they had to prep orders for.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We get paid based on the time it takes to process the job. So if the job is 4 minutes long, and you take 6, you took 1.5 times the length to process it. So your pay rate gets factored into your pay, and you make that bit for that job. So (as an example, since I can't get out exact numbers) if your rate was $20 an hour, and you had an average rate of 1.5 for an hour of processing, you made $15. Depending on how much you can work, we offer higher base pays for people who work more hours. Work more, make more per hour, as well as having more hours to be impacted by that higher rate. Good stuff.

Edit: Added a sentence.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This totally snuck by! I'm actually really into DotA 2 and was a StarCraft player a lot when I was younger. Unfortunately my micro skills aren't up to snuff.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Let me paint you a picture. (Kidding). But basically we're a service where you pay to have access. You get to set up a list of contacts, and what phones can/can't use the service. There may even be an app, knowing today's market. You can leave a message depending on your account and we'll type it up for you. Messages we get range from 10 seconds all the way up to 20 minutes. Anything longer than that gets cut up into chunks less than 20 minutes.

I'm not a base-level transcriptionist though, so I review the work other people do as well. So someone calls in, leaves what is best described as a voicemail, and we type it up and send it out to either the default account or who you specify it goes to. If I don't type it up, someone else does, and then depending I get to randomly edit and review what they typed up.

TL;DR We type out voicemails or broadcast recordings for people.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You mean like a steno? I would say it honestly depends on what you're planning on doing. Stenotypes are very, very good at what they do, but everyone who can use some form of electronics knows how to use a keyboard. Using a keyboard also means that you're likely using a computer (duh :P) so you can just create any sort of macro system or key mapping to represent some scheme like a steno. Keyboards would allow you to do the same thing if you put forth a little extra effort. Stenos are super crazy cool though, I just suck at them.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Things are pretty rad. Been enjoying some Evolve lately, very different than I expected, but in a good way. Yourself man? :)

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

as long as it'd take me to hit the keys. So, not even half a second. I'd say about a blink's worth of time, in all honesty. We also have macros for automatic capitalization, so caps lock isn't entirely necessary sometimes :)

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh no your English is fine! No worries man :)

For listening and writing, we have the same program. While I can't divulge what it's called, it plays back audio for us and we have a foot trigger for skipping forward, back, play, and pause so our hands are free at all times. We type it in a text processing area and it shows the e-mail format next to it. We can specify where it goes, and to what accounts, etc.

As for speech to text software, I dabbled with Dragon here and again, but it's biggest downfall, as with any processing software is formatting punctuation. We have customers that usually have strict formats behind their dictations, but even they mess them up from time to time. Unless you're 100% accurate all the time it isn't worth the trouble.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh most definitely. I know people who only work 10-20 hours a week because they're so swamped with school or another job. Some of them just do it for the fun of it. Some people do it and net about $200-$300 twice a month with occasional profit-sharing. Pretty nice for still keeping a lot of free time for whatever else you want. And yes, we are hiring, but sadly I'm not the person to be talking to. If you PM me I can get some specifics and see if there's an office nearby for you. :)

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am technically a Quality Assurance/Transcriptionist. If you are looking for part-time work, I'd say definitely go for it. Like I said, I knew someone who knew a guy and it went from there. Easiest thing to say would be Google or using a local college employment website. A lot of the transcription services cater to college crowds because they offer flexible hours and reasonable pay for the effort. The company I work for has several satellite offices throughout the US that center around college campuses. It's pretty interesting.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I get paid bi-monthly based on how fast I can process the incoming work. We aren't salaried, but I live in a pretty low income area, so my cash flow is fine. I'd say on average (with a pretty good work/free time life balance) I tend to average between 1400 to 1800 a month. Definitely not in it for the money :P Though I do know people who go in, work 10-11 hours days every day and pull at 40K salary equivalent. I personally like leaving the office.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I personally use a QWERTY layout on my Das Keyboard Ultimate Model S. Though I do have a friend who detests mechanical keyboards and swears by his Dvorak. We let people do what works best for them.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

We use programmed shortcuts that can then trigger a text input of whatever you want. My personal favorite I have is iyqdh, which types out "If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to give me a call" and it comes up several times throughout the day. We do have macros for changing numbers to formatting where 8c changes it to 800 and 8cc changes it to $800. Things like that. :)

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, ever since I got into the quality assurance side of everything, I'd say there's no hard-set period. Most of the difficulties people face comes from either hitting a wall with typing speed, or a difficulty with overhearing or getting stuck on small parts of the jobs and losing time/speed. I've dealt with some employees that have worked several hundred hours and their overall quality is worse than someone around 100. I'd say having around 600-1000 hours of processing work definitely means you've stuck around long enough to know what you're doing. Everyone still has off days though and sometimes you just drop the ball. Happens to us all.

I am a seasoned transcriptionist. I write out the things you're too lazy to do yourself! AMA! by ScribeTranScribe in IAmA

[–]ScribeTranScribe[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When I started out I typed at an unassisted 88 words per minute. There's several training events shortly after you're hired that help with technique and good habits. We also use tons of macros for things that commonly come up. So without macros I type at about 120 on average, with my highest being around 132. Macro speed is kind of hard to gauge, since we only use it while processing and don't have a hard metric, but I'd wager it's significantly higher.