Getting Your First Medical Transcription Job

Choosing a Medical Transcription Career

No matter what you may have seen in the TV ads that show a happy woman sitting at her desk and smiling while typing, a medical transcription career isn't as easy as owning a computer, internet connection and medical dictionary. However, if you are really motivated to work at home for the benefits it will provide and you are determined to succeed as a medical transcriptionist, choosing to enter a medical transcription career begins with knowing the facts.

How will I make money?

The majority of work-at-home medical transcription jobs pay on a production basis. If you are talking on the phone, changing a diaper or doing laundry and your hands aren't on a keyboard, you aren't making any money. Even jobs that pay on an hourly basis have production requirements and failure to meet those requirements can result in termination or a reduction in hourly pay rate.

Make sure you understand how you are being paid. Some transcription services are deliberately obtuse when talking about pay rates and how pay is calculated. If you don't understand, ask questions until you do. There are many collaborative web sites where medical transcriptionists exchange information and this is an issue that is frequently discussed.

What are the requirements?

1. Excellent hearing. You wouldn't believe how many people with hearing problems ask me about this career. It's absolutely critical that you be able to hear what is being dictated.
2. Excellent typing skills. If you type less than 75 words per minute (wpm), start working on your typing speed and accuracy. You will slowly starve to death or be fired for not meeting production minimums if you don't bring your typing speed up to at least this fast.
3. Excellent English/American language skills. Most doctors don't dictate punctuation; the ones that do are typically wrong. You have to be able to differentiate sound-alike words and spell them correctly, not only in the English language, but in medical language as well.

Educational Requirements

You are surely familiar with the old adage: you get what you pay for. There are some excellent home-study courses for medical transcription but the better ones are (understandably!) expensive. Be aware that some schools provide incentives to students for favorable posting in the medical transcription forums. You should make certain the school uses current textbooks (not homemade ones), has qualified instructors (preferably instructors are all Certified Medical Transcriptionists, or CMTs) and has a placement program and good relationships with the more prominent employers.

Job Prospects

Now for the hard part. Landing your first job is probably one of the greatest barriers to entry into a medical transcription career. For someone with no experience, job prospects are slim.

Your best entry is the school you graduated from. A reputable school will have a placement program and ties in the medical transcription community as well as the local medical community. If it's an online school, there should be discussions about the school in the online forums for medical transcriptionists. Do a search of the name and read some of the discussions.

If you chose a school that is not as well known, you will have to work harder to get that first job. Find out what employers test new graduates for placement in their training program. This is typically going to be only the larger companies; however, some of the smaller transcription outsource companies will take new graduates who show promise.

What's in your resume? Please oh please do NOT tell a prospective employer all about your love of medicine and desire to work in the comfort of your home so you can be a good mommy to your lovely children. Refrain also from any detailed explanations about how you have to work at home because your husband got arrested and left you with 9 mouths to feed and no primary income. None of that is pertinent to your prospective employment. One, the employer doesn't care about and the other might prevent you from getting a job if it appears it will cause you to be unreliable. Pretend you're applying for a job at a hospital and interviewing in the Human Resources department and ask yourself if you would tell any of this to the interviewer or include it in your resume. (Probably not.)

Check out the job listings at MT Registry and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me by using the contact form at any of my transcription sites.

Once you have that crucial first job

Treat it with the respect it deserves! Someone has taken a big (and expensive) chance on you and you may not find another willing employer any time soon. You need to get in at least 12 months, preferably 2 years. Work hard, be reliable and soak up as much information as you possibly can. The best payback you can give your new career is by making sure the employer has no regrets about hiring you and nothing about the experience that would cause them to hesitate to hire another new graduate.

Julianne Weight has been a medical transcriptionist and medical transcription service owner for more than 25 years and has numerous publications and presentations. She has assisted many with MT jobs, MT education and training for job entry.