Resume Tips & Tricks for Seasoned MTs!!!
Posted By: Mari Wisely on 2006-09-01
In Reply to:
We should all add these qualities to our resumes. It's what they expect anymore anyway:
- An outstanding ability to take muddy, garbled jibber-jabber and severely fractured English in 155,000 dilects and turn it into unbelievably beautiful transcription, with no blanks!
- Oh, and don't worry, Mexican, Cuban, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Indian, or even rabid auctioneer doctors who speak so fast they could not understand them self on a play back . . . no problemo! It doesn't matter, because I am so good if it sounds remotely close with even one syllable barely audible or intelligible I will struggle until I get it. I do this eagerly because I know you are selling me pride in my work, not a decent wage and because I dread your miserable QA autopsy of my work.
- Will work as hard as a slave for $3 an hour average with a college degree on the most gut-wrenching work you have, and all this without an occasional can of salve for the whip marks on my back.
- Will also fill in hundreds of entries for free on patient information, courtesy copies and researching things like how to spell Waccamaw even if I don't live in South Carolina. Things doctors could spell, or dictate clearly but won't because they are too lazy.
- I will also run those dates of service through my magic crystal ball formula to know when the doctor says The patient was seen today, I should look back on the ADT screen and see when he dictated it to know what he means by when it was dictated. I will do it because you will bonk me on the head and tell me, It's your job to do this for free!
While I am at it, I will run a medical quality assessment through my head to see if it sounds logical and reasonable for all medical sciences and diagnoses. I will happily verify those medication dosages are correctly dictated because even if the doctor has been to medical school and I haven't . . . I should identify that 325 mg of Coreg will kill someone and correct it! Again because, It's my job, to run around behind doctors and wipe their butt for free!!! I'm happy to do that, even if I haven't had the benefit of medical school because . . . . yes, I'm that good baby!!
- And at the end of two or three years of struggling to make a wage above the poverty level learning all this garbage, if you find some foreigner will do my job cheaper to make you more money, don't sweat it! Just fire me . . . in a conference call with 101 of my coworkers in mass humiliation. No problem!
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
MTSO has some resume tips
(Not sure if this is best board for my message but here goes.)
Am just a small business MTSO owner who posted a couple IC work opportunities on the job board the other day. No problems there. Had absolutely tons of responses and appreciate every person that sent a resume. We're evaluating some very good candidates as a result of the ads and appreciate the MTStars boards for this venue.
However, after seeing the quality of resumes we received I just feel the need to give out a bit of advice to those MTs who are pasting resumes into their email response in hopes of getting a call back from an employer with a job opening.
A lot of resumes we received were clearly written and easy to read at first glance (those are the ones we kept). However, most were not.
Because of this I’d like to offer a few resume tips to new and seasoned MTs when sending an email resume through the email pasting process.
Again, the purpose for my post is just my opinion and to alert some MTs that their resumes were so horrible to read, so completely convoluted and jumbled up that it would take days to decipher/separate the MT/transcription skills from the past employment, unrelated past jobs, and skills useless to transcription work, etc.
Also, with the resumes we received over the past few days it was really hard to get through most of them to find out which sender had the best match with the skills we were looking for. I've utimately had to just delete a lot of them because of not clearly seeing that from the paragraphs that went on and on, naming everything kind of work experience they ever had that is totally, completely, and useless when applying for this kind of work.
There are really good reference materials out there for doing a resume, but I have to say most of those setups are for job resumes that get printed and do need to have some relevant paragraphs relating to the job they're applying for. These transcription positions are a completely different situation.
Therefore, I'd like to humbly offer my MTSO two-cents worth of advice to folks pasting resumes:
1) Resumes should never use the word I in any part of the resume. It's not a letter, you should not refer to yourself in the first person. Your resume is almost supposed to read like a 3rd party presentation.
2) Get rid of absolutely anything on that resume that is irrelevant to the type of transcription work for which you are applying.
3) Get rid of old job listings. No MTSO can possibly care that 10 years ago you worked at Burger King!
4) Make LISTS of skills -- bullet, dash, arrow, anything to highlight your skills so the reader can quickly skim through that list.
5) DO NOT write paragraphs as a mixture of employers, experience, and skills. It's just too hard to read through those.
6) Please dont list E-V-E-R-Y course you ever took in your MT training program. We don't care! If you completed a training it's hoped you had those courses. And, these course names don't take the place of experience. Just don't do this.
6) You don't have to list E-V-E-R-Y piece of computer equipment and reference marterial you own. MTSOs assume you have the needed gear when you apply. You might list a few to validate you have what the MTSO requires, but again make it a short list not a paragraph.
7) Applicants should send a resume that first of all is a match for what experience the job post says it's looking for. Ortho is ortho, ENT is ENT, psychology is psychology (not psychiatry), and so on.
8) Past employers are extremely important; however, when applying for work via email I wouldn't list any of them at all at first. If the employer is interested they will let you know that they would like your references.
9) Best test for your resume: Paste your resume into an email and send it to yourself. You will see how you come across
CONCLUSION: Most MTSOs just want the facts, Ma'am.
In my opinion, a short and sweet resume is the best way to help an MTSO manager make a decision in determining if an applicant has the skills needed for the type of work they need help with, then to encourage that call back to the MT for the next step--work/test, whatever the MTSO hiring process is.
I would like to encourage MTs to think about fixing up their resumes. To that end, I’ve gone ahead and humbly posted a link to a sample bare-bones resume format that works very well when pasting into emails.
Hope this is of some help to anyone who wants to improve their resume appearance and ensure a better response to their online email job applications. Hope this is of some help out there. It’s not all the answers and solutions, but again just my thoughts.
Here’s the link to the document, it is just from my website. Just click on the link below -- or paste into a browser address bar and press ENTER -- the file should automatically open in Word.
http://j.b5z.net/i/u/2032565/i/SAMPLE_RESUME_SETUP.dmt.2008.doc
I’d be happy to answer any emails regarding this. Marcia - Data-Med Transcription, Inc. (http://www.data-mt.com)
There are a few tricks.
1. Type the report all the way through and leave blanks as needed.
2. Relisten to the blanks and you'll catch a few of them after having listened to the whole report.
3. Copy and paste the report into your Expander or into Notepad and save it as a file with the doctor's name and report type as the file name.
4. Next time you get that dictator and type of report, expand the report and edit as you listen. You'll always pick up more of what he is saying. After a few dictations, you'll have a complete, or almost complete, copy to use over and over.
Precyse MT's: Can a seasoned MT do 250+ LPH
nm
The reason the seasoned MTs won't
for them is because the line rate is offensive.
Don't you think, though, that one reason seasoned -
MT's are making more mistakes and not caring about it, is that we're expected to produce more and more, and yet we're getting paid less and less. 'Back in the day', when I was getting paid hourly, my production was higher, and my quality was better, but that's because I received a good wage, so I actually CARED. Now, it's a race against the clock all day long. The industry is getting what it's paying for, which is 'NOT MUCH'.
Dirty tricks
If they tell MTs that an account is going away and that the MTs need to find other jobs, that's the equivalent of a lay off, at which time the employee would be entitled to unemployment benefits. However, if there is no work and the employee does not show up, the company can claim that the employee was fired due to a no show. With this scenario, the employee might not be able to collect unemployment. Employees need to show up, count all hours worked whether actual jobs were available or not, and report all of those hours on the new timesaver website.
If you receive any complaints about reporting all hours worked on the timesaver website, keep the documentation, like emails, etc., and report this to DOL. Also worthy of reporting would be the fact that you are not receiving minimum wage from the company for all hours worked.
Then, file for partial unemployment benefits, especially if you were earning substantially more over the past several quarters. The partial unemployment benefits are calculated according to the average of what was earned in several previous quarters of work. Then, you receive the difference between what you are actually currently earning and your calculated weekly unemployment benefit. These benefits may be different in each state.
I learned about these steps after I left the company 2 months ago; wish I had known back then.
How many lines per hour should a seasoned MT
I know it depends on work types and such but I just need a generalized idea. This is my first time being paid by line. The job offers a good mix of exams. TIA
Questions for any seasoned transcriptionists....
I am supposed to do a typist and word processing test tomorrow for a place called KCS Psych Type in Illinois. The reason I replied to the job was because it advertised work-from-home, which I desperately need right now due to family matters. Anyway, I am debating on whether this is worth the trip right now because its a 2 hr drive each way, and I have to get a rental car, and for some reason the lady isn't answering my questions about the rate of pay. She also said in her last email for me to keep in mind that if I am hired, I would need to commute to Bartlett until I am trained; when I emailed back immediately to ask her how long training would usually take, I have received no reply. Should I do this? I really can't decide!! Help!!
It's one of the tricks that companies play on us
so that they can control our productivity, penalize and pay less, despite getting their work done. The same thing happened to me a year ago, we were asked to follow dossier given by the client, but then a few QAs followed AAMT BOS, etc. Nevertheless, we were penalized left and right and eventually when we stood up and reported their actions, then it stopped completely.
Seasoned, we were told from the very start we could not
retype the entire report, better not zap it off and start over because it was a no-no and your pay would still be for the lesser amount per line even if you were allowed to retype. It is not VR that I am steaming, enraged at, nah, it is mostly the ESLs we have now. I love VR myself even with its quirks.
And the team leaders learned the same tricks
from them. Learned fast not to believe them or trust them, either - they all learned how to talk out of both sides of their mouths.
Any tricks on making your hours when there's no work? sm
If so, please share. Feel free to share tips on making your BILLS, too, when there's no income.
Seriously, do you work off hours to make up the difference?
thanks much.
Sadly, its one of the oldest tricks in this business.
Always has happened to me, whatever mode of delivery for the work. In the days of tapes, I would get double or triple what I requested. Now its the same thing, thus why I don't take any jobs on the side now. I would always, always ask for a minimum amount of work, which the owner gladly agreed to, only to be bombed. Then the whole guilt game would start...Not for me anymore! Its so counterproductive in the long run - makes us resentful, right? Why not just give the MTs what they agreed to, right? Oh well!
Silly wabbit, tricks are for kids!
Really, you haven't been in the MT world long, right? No problem! We all have to start sometimes. Better you get over your naiveity (sp?) sooner than later.
For seasoned, fast transcriptionists, hourly would be a step down ...
I agree with your post. I've given a lot of thought lately to whether hourly would be more fair (given the extras that we have to do), and I've come to the conclusion that it is not. In the spirit of honesty, if I were to take an hourly position, my production would suffer for it.
As an experienced and fast transcriptionist, the amount of time I spend looking up unfamiliar terms is negligible, and I've reached a point of knowing what mush-mouthed blanks I won't get, after listening six or seven times.
The only thing I ask for is pay commensurate to my experience and knowledge. With a decent line rate, I could accept that there are other things that go into my job and that my line rate doesn't just pay for my production - it pays for the emails, and the instant messages, and figuring out line counts, and spending ten minutes every so often looking for a doctor's address.
As it is, at 8 cpl, those things are not worth the amount of money that I'm making. They seem superfluous and cut into my real life.
So, in answer to the first question, with 12 years of experience, an ingrained attention to detail, and all the knowledge of this profession that 12 years can bring, I believe my worth is 13-14 cpl. That's roughly $47,000 a year at 1500 lines a day. I think, given the intensity of our work hours (and the fact that, unlike other jobs, we don't get to spend an hour talking to coworkers or daydreaming or resting for any reason), that's a very, very fair wage in this day and age.
How long does it take TransHealth to get back to someone when you send a resume? I sent a resume
x
Has anyone gotten a job from any company not posting regularly from their resume in the resume
s
Tips
It doesn't matter if you never get the same dictator again - utilize your word Expander by entering words, phrases, and text in chunks. You don't have to use it just for normals.
You should hardly type out any word or phrase fully - use that expander.
YES, it makes that kind of difference!
If you are a perfectionist, you need to decide on where your balance will be. What does your company call for in quality standards? Meet that standard, by all means, but make sure you are not going for overkill on the quality while you are only getting 3 reports a day typed. Proofread as you type, following 3 to 5 words behind.
Some are just faster at typing, period. Some are more knowledgeable so they have to research less.
It sounds like, from your post, that really increasing your Word Expander usage and maybe not being so obsessed over perfect reports will help you raise your production.
You can do it.
Thank you for the tips -sm-
I am sure the knowledge will come in handy for me sometime.
Now do you see why your tips
there are no more posts defending your tips for a resume. You should be ashamed of yourself exposing applicants in such a way on this board. This company you represent is definitely off my list. What a scam. You couldn't even post the link correctly, yet you are on here giving tips for resumes.
These MTSOs are a dime a dozen... I did read on your website that you always hire the best MTs, but I guess you fall short on recruiters, huh? 
Thank you for those tips, they will help.
What company is QT??? Q-Tips?
Speed tips on VR
MG - WOW! can you tell me how you achieve such a great line count with VR? That is incredible. I have worked on eScription before and am now on Dolbey which is similar. I am starting to get used to using the function keys and not the mouse but I wonder if you could share some speed building tips? Thanks!
speed tips
I speed up the audio enough to still hear it but to be able to get through it faster. If i run into something I am not sure of, i just slow it down. I use ALL of the shortcut keys I can as well and run the spellcheck! :)
Yes, that is the platform but tips
not really, just very good, almost no errors at all on the reports and I had all VR all day today, love it. Use the mouse, just used to it.
I think they are taking tips from the Q then.
Either that or my QA person is moonlighting and working at #2 on the side.
Unbelievable.
work at home tips
I found that I had to be mean. No, I cannot babysit, take you places, loan you money etc..... I am working....... I found family to be the worst. The husbands and significant others think they are exempt from this. Call a million times a day. Honey do you want to go..... with me and it is always during working hours. They have odd working schedule and do not understand we have to work set hours. I got a lot more done when I started being firm with people.
We use dial up so of course the phone is always busy but they are not afraid to use the cell phone. Be firm and stick to your guns. I found the best thing was having set hours because otherwise the DH wanted me to go everywhere with him on his days off. I wonder how they would feel if the situation was reversed.
Good luck to you
Lisa
Tips on the application process
Good morning! Never give any information not asked for. If they don't ask if you have books, don't tell them. There are so many ways of researching on-line until you get the books that you would have been fine. Never, never say what you won't do until you actually talk to the recruiter after testing and they see you are going to be a quality employee. Then when you're specifically asked about scheduling during your job offer, say you'd prefer not to work Sundays. During the application process, when they ask if you are willing to work weekends, I always put yes, but for me this means Saturday. During my job interview/offer, that's when I let them know I prefer Sundays off. Maybe this will help for next time, along with prayer. (Oh please Father, I want this job, please, please, please). lol
I've worked for 3 different companies in the last 12 years and have always received replies to a job opening. The next time you apply, send a followup email the next day on the status of your application. I did this the very next day with all three companies. That is not being pushy...it's just letting them know you seriously want this job and are excited to know your status. Good luck, Dreamer! :)
Editscript tips and shortcuts?
Does anyone have any tips and/or shortcuts for increasing productivity on escription's editscript software? Any assistance appreciated. Thank you in advance.
EditScript 8-speed tips?
I recently started VR editing in Editscript 8. Im using the alt-k and alt-shift-k options...slowly. LOL What seems to slow me up is adding in commas and such, which those options don't seem to help with. Anyhow, after three days I am at a blinding speed of something like 220 lines an hour.
Anybody have any tips to increase ease and speed, or does it just take time, or does it never happen!
It's very slow. If you have any tips on speed,
nm
Need tips for converting PRD for DOS to Shortcuts for Windows, please. sm
How can I best start "cleaning up" a copy of my beloved PRD for DOS to make for a less-hassle conversion to Shortcut for Windows? Many of the headers in my PRD have special DOS characters for bolding, and I don't think they will be useable. For many of my glossary entries, I use slash marks (i.e., cad/ for coronary artery disease). Are the slash marks a problem in Shortcut? If so, what's a good character to substitute (a "q" maybe??). Thanks for any suggestions. I'm trying to make this conversion in a month just a tiny bit sane.
Any tips on handling recruiters who may not be honest?
I am just getting a weird feeling from a recruiter. The recruiter told me three different starting rates of pay and asked me to tell her what she quoted two days ago. I asked what percentage of MTs stay with them for a year. She avoided the question. The recruiter also could not explain the pay scale. Are recruiters required to be honest? I find it hard to believe that she was being dishonest. Maybe I am paranoid. Do they generally care about the company they work for, or their job is done once they hire the MT?
Just want to say thank you to those helpful MTs with tips for remember certain things!!! nm
X
Thanks for the tips! Think I'll avoid them like the plague! :) nm
nm
Applicant has Some Ad Posting Tips for Data-Med
Hey, I applied for a job with your company. Here are some tips for you:
1. My first reaction was disgust at having to cut and paste my resume into the MT Stars form. Why couldn't you let the applicants send an email to your address so all the wonderful bullets and neat formatting that you requested (that actually most of your applicants probably had in their resumes) would stay clean and easily readable? It always seems very lame to me when companies won't even supply an email address--and suspicious. I've been scammed into free work on this board before. No email address means to me a red flag. And I despise posting my resume into that form.
2. The link to your web site on the MT stars template is broken. I don't know if you're aware of that or not. But, again, it was another red flag for me. Either you didn't have much attention to detail or you were a scammer.
Just some helpful information.
great tips!! I'm going to check out CoolTimer... nm
x
Any tips/hints/advice, fellow MTs???
I am posting to ask my fellow MTs for some tips/hints/advice/suggestions.
I'm starting a new position tomorrow which uses the Meditech platform.
Yes, I know MediTech is rather antiquated, clunky, and a general pain. It's the version where one cannot type into Word and paste into MediTech; everything has to be typed directly into MediTech.
It's been EONS since I've used MediTech and I'm going to be very rusty. Does anyone have any quick tips, hints, or refreshers they can throw my way to make my transition back into time a bit less stressful?
I appreciate anything you guys can offer 
Cheryl Flanders' Tips '.N Techniques
Does anyone know if this is compatible with Word 2007?
Thank you (as always).
Tips for Handling Offensive Posts -- SM
If you find a post offensive:
Read a post that offends you? Make sure you think about what is upsetting about it. Is it personally upsetting or is it against posting guidelines?
If it is just upsetting for you, my advice: Ignore it. Don't respond. If you respond, you are feeding that opinion and it will more than likely incur another post, etc.
If it is against posting guidelines, report it using the REPORT THIS MESSAGE button. Or, copy the URL and send to me in an email (cher@mtstars.com).
Remember, that just because you dislike a post does not warrant its removal. You must be responsible for what you read and post for yourself. If a certain poster gets under your skin, don't read his/her posts. Just ignore those posts. Don't allow yourself to be drawn into a tit-for-tat argument that ends up getting you into trouble along with others. Be responsible for yourself.
Moderator
Any tips on how to survive working at Transcend?
I just got sold to them and my friend has given me a lot of words of warning. Anybody have any suggestions on survival?
Anone out here with JLG willing to share tips on how to speed production (sm)
I'm new at JLG as part time, only a few weeks old. What do you do to speed up production. I'm learning two new things at once, JLG and Instant Text and feeling like I'm exceedingly slow. I'm not a new MT, been doing it for over 10 years now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. You can even email me if you want. TIA 
Go on Spheris private board. Lots of tips
nm
Isn't that the truth! Do these "resume tips" apply to oversees too? sm
Because they sure get our jobs.....
No but I sent them a resume - sm
They never responded to it. I have a ton of experience, too. Doesn't bode well for them to me.
sent resume
I sent a resume to MDtalknet and am waiting for a response, I even live in the same town, not that that really makes a difference.
Sent my resume in...sm
2 weeks ago and have not received an e-mail regarding testing. I have 25+ years of experience, mainly acute care, 6 in radiology. Wonder if they wanted more radiology experience.
Are you sure they got your resume? I know that they are
hiring for ortho right now. I have been there 3 years and the account I am on is expanding and I know of at least two new accounts.
If you did not hear, I would either call or re-email.
Resume
Ok, thanks, I see it now. Thank you!
Yes, I sent a resume - sm
I think I asked for more money than they pay because they thanked me for the resume and said maybe sometime in the future they would keep me in mind. In other words, never.
Resume
Go Gal! You reflect the sentiments of those of us who would not dare, but love to include your comments on our resume's. Don't we all just love doing the header research for free! Sigh, Is there light at the end of the tunnel? God Love Ya!
|
