new career for some of you younger folks
Posted By: steady eddie on 2009-09-17
In Reply to:
I have been helping my son investigate career options and discovered that dental hygienists make 62K a year after completing a mere two-year program.
I guess one must ask oneself if they are squeamish about cleaning out other people's mouths, but I think I could get over it pronto (if I was younger) knowing how this profession has gone down the spit sink.
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New career for some of you younger folks
A good field to get into is physical therapy, OT or speech therapy or physical therapy assistant. They make good money in my area. I note ads for them all of the time especially in sports medicine.
50 is not old. I'm 60. Believe me, if I were 10 yrs younger, I would
NM
It's just a figure of speech. When I was younger -
we used to say, 'That's so ORTHOPEDIC'. It pretty much had the same meaning as what the kids use 'retarded' for now. It could mean anything from 'backward', 'slow', or 'clueless'. In the 40's, 'gay' meant 'happy', not 'homosexual.' 'Neat' once meant 'tidy', then it came to mean 'cool', now it appears to be back to 'tidy' once again. What a word means often depends upon which generation or age group is speaking it.
Linda, you are soooo right, when I was younger and dumber....sm
 I was sooo afraid of using shortcuts, I watched the screen like a hawk and typed everything verbatim and screwed myself out of so much money! I wondered what the secret was to all those MTs who would chat up a storm, and till make a higher line count than me, and they had less experience....They used their shortcuts/expanders for everything, and once I learned this and worked on mine, my line count zoomed and I consistently made high incentive pay and bonus....don't underestimate this tool. Thanks for bringing this up, Linda! 
I was talking to the younger people on this board basically
because I am seeing where people are sitting here actually waiting for work to come in while they don’t have enough money for their bills, no money for food, no money to survive on. Why in the world if you are younger do you beat a dead horse so to speak because this profession is steadily going down as it is and if you don’t have money now, do you think over the next few years it is going to improve? I have worked most of my years in this business away from home. I had children but years ago we were not given the choice of working from home, imagine that! We probably then had more of a family life than what I read on this board now with people saying in order to squeak out a living they are working 24/7. I have probably worked more than most here but when I had jobs outsourced from underneath me I had no option to sit and wait for work to come my way. I went and found more. There is a simple solution but most here just seem to complain and do nothing except go right down the drain.
new career
I have been transcribing over 10 years and love it, but with the industry robbing us blind and using us I have been making less and less each year. I am in my mid 40s and hate to be thinking of going back to school, but I think I have to. I have always done office work but it is lower paying and I hate being stuck in a cubicle all day. I like the medical field but do not think I am cut out for nursing. Does anyone have any ideas that are decent paying in the medical field that do not takes years to earn a degree at? I looked at ultrasound tech, but I have to investigate this further, not sure if there are any schools in my area.
Trying to be optomistic.
When I went to school for this MT career
What happened? I barely clear $30,000 a year in this field working for a national. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. Someone please help me.
I was told to think of it as a career.
/
been in this career for almost 2 months
Basic rate of pay that I have been seeing is 7-8 cents per line for IC and thats basically what it is set in stone at. I would be told that in some cases before even sending a resume and giving them my experience.
That is crazy, considering you can be paid that much as an employee. I agree about the taxes also.
Why would you have to give up your career?
If you can't get your job back, apply for a remote job - most companies are more concerned with *if* you can do the job (which will be apparent if you test well). As to a two year lapse in work record? Who says you have to be that precise with your dates?
You don't have to go to Career Step
I smell something a little fishy here. Are you advertising for Career Step? I repeat if you are already a transcriptionist, then you can apply for online jobs. It does not take a certificate from Career Step. I have been offered many jobs online, and I do not have a certificate from Career Step or any other training program. 
Career Step
Just to clarify about Career Step, the cost is nowhere near $5000. It is in fact, between $1500 and $2000 the last I knew. I do not work for them, but graduated a year ago and they did prepare me for acute care MT work. (After 9 months I am making about $20,000 a year, working 2 IC jobs for a total of about 40 hours a week).
Career Step
CS has been a dream for me. With their training, I had 7 offers for at-home MT employment within 2 weeks of graduation. It is a hard course, and the final exam has a 50% fail rate, but it really prepares you for the real world of MT. If it wasn't that hard I think I would be dead in the water. If you want to learn more, they have a forum for people who have questions about joining at http://careerstep.groupee.net/eve/forums/a/frm/f/6960008433
and their website is www.careerstep.com. Before joinging, I checked them out with the BBB and called them probably 20 times with questions. They were very helpful and have a shiny record with the BBB. Also, they are one of the few schools approved by the AAMT, as you can see from the AAMT website. They are also a lot cheaper than most places. Hope that helps!
Career Step
Career Step is legit (and I don't get any $$ for recommending them). The course is self-paced and allowed me to work from home right after graduation. The website has all the cost info. on it.
Career Step
If I knew then what I know now, I would not have attended Career Step. I would have attended MTEC or Andrews.
I like it! Most sites having to do with career changes - sm
seem to be geared to high-powered professional types, or computer geniuses. We're in such a NICHE, (or is that just a nice word for 'RUT'?), and our skills are specialized. Also, quite a few of us have been doing this for 20 or 30 years, and have specific problems with changing careers because we concentrated all our energies into MT. I, myself, lack the BA Degree so many places seem to want, even for lower-paying jobs. I only got as far as an AA Degree, and it's in Art. Totally useless. So, currently looking not too far down the road to my 60s, the thought of going back to school (which for me would mean all the way back to high school math, chemistry, etc.), just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Still, I have to eat..........
Career Steps
Everyone seems to want to hire Career Steps people. I went to Ashworth Career School online. I thought I was doing fine there, I liked the convenience of the course and the low monthly payments. But, they are not very recognized by MT companies.
Career Step
My sister took this course 3 years ago and was hired as a graduate. I was able to view this course and was very impressed with it and how it prepared the students. There is a lot of practice dictation starting from beginner to advanced, working your way up. Another good school is M-TEC. When I helped my sister research what companies were looking for in graduates, these were the 2 schools that always popped up as being recognized by companies that hire graduates.
I went to a local business school and worked on site at a hospital/clinic for 5 years before working from home.
Career decisions
I've done nursing and I am here to tell you all that it is not as easy as it looks. The money might be great, but it is so frustrating and exhausting, especially when you are right there on the front lines, so to speak, dealing with life and death right up close working in a somewhat dysfunctional medical system.
If you are young and energetic or just energetic at any age, it might be a viable solution to study nursing. For me, like some others, working from home, at home, is my top priority.
Through the years, I have noticed that many of the really happy MTs are those who do not have to depend on their MT jobs to pay their main bills, but may do medical transcription work part time to supplement their income. No, I am not discounting those who do it full-time and are very successful and really love it; I'm sure they do exist.
However, the suggestions made in this thread make total sense to me, kind of like having the best of both worlds. Now, the challenge is to find that perfect part-time MT job, as well as a really good career with a promising future, doing something else.
career change
ultrasound and radiology tech schools are pumping out a lot of students every year with not enough jobs to go around (have friends who are recent candidates who cannot find work). what is really in demand is occupational therapy tech and physical therapy tech and of course nursing. good luck with your decision.
I don't know when you started a nursing career but
I was more than happy to trade in mine for MT training. I worked as a R.N. for a health system that formed that wonderful alliance, as most have. I found myself working in all 3 hospitals, in 4 different areas. Years ago I worked in ICU and knew my patients and gave them ICU nursing care. The last time I worked in ICU, it was for 1 day, then it was off to a hospital across town to work a med-surg floor for 2 days and then back to ICU again, where I was told my patient had died. I blamed that on no one knowing her case and so much rotation that the patients have been forgotten. I worked swing shifts and weekends and witnessed more and more of my coworkers leaving for nursing homes just to have a half decent schedule, then becoming depressed when the elderly patients they got attached to passed away. I decided to go for what I now call hands on nursing care without really being there and I started working as a MT 4 years ago. I love it!!! Nurses may be paid more but for what in exchange? As for pay and benefits in the MT profession, I never expected benefits for being self employed so I provide my own. I also make more money doing this because I am in charge of my schedule and my work volume. I also no longer have nightmares about the patients I feel I had to abandon to satisfy a bunch of bureaucrats who run hospitals these days. So before you announce how much better nurses have it, become one and try out your skills in any hospital of your choice. Lots of luck!
I am hoping to start a new career with a new
company this year. Working on the resume now! I am so tired and burned out with my present employer and so unhappy doing QA. I want to transcribe again, or QA with a more professional company. Not too much to ask for, right? But change is hard. I hope I don't wimp out.
Worst experience of my career.
//
Career board dried up?
Have companies stopped posting on the Careers board? I assume work hasn't dried up in the two months I haven't been on here?
It's time to fine a new career.
nn
They do get a fee for all who actually enroll in career step.
My god, and you stayed in this career while failing
the only one to blame as I can't imagine why you would think that summation of your career any step of the way was a success. Per your description, sounds like nothing worked for you after a year or 2 at best. I've been in the biz the same length of time and experienced the complete opposite of your story. I would never have endured what you have endured, as I would have had the common sense to realize that the job was not cut out for me or vice versa. You have thrown your entire life away on this industry, and yet came back again, and are on here bitter and spewing hatred at complete strangers to you. Honestly, you need to re-evaluate - read your own life story and take some accountability, realizing that you should never ever have stayed in this industry. You have nothing to show for it, have lost everything per your own claims, so please reconsider and have the back half of your life mean something - anything, whatever is important to you. Obviously this industry is not suited to you. Please don't lump us all in with your experience. I can't imagine many MTs have suffered as you have - why would we? We would find a new line of work ASAP and move on with our lives, not sacrifice them as you have. I can't even feel sorry for you as a reader - none of your story makes sense as to why you have persevered - its just a sad meaningless synopsis.
Of course its my career - has been my entire life
That's what makes no sense about this rant above me. She recounts 30 years of her life as an MT and how horrible its been, all the failings, and how it has ruined her life since nearly day #1. Per her own words, she blames everything, from her blood pressure to her endometriosis, blames her divorce, missing out on her son, blames everything on MTing, yet she has done it for 30 years and now is back at it again. She claims over and over to have failed at literally every aspect in her life she felt worth mentioning, blaming it all on MTing, yet here she is an MT. What part of that makes sense to you? We're to feel sorry for her?? I've been in this business 30 years and have been a success. I've had a zillion trials and hardships and battles, but my career is a success, or I would have gotten the heck out of it when it became a disaster. If that doesn't make sense to you, which obviously it doesn't, then there is no reason or sanity with which you can be approached. Substitute MTing for any career - if you are failing at it, and you've lost everything in life due to that career, why are you still doing it? That's a big question, because the blame is not on the career, its on the person. Nobody else to blame but yourself. Period.
I think it's a good career policy to always have a
(nm)
Switching career paths
I switched paths a few years ago, but backwards from you. I am an LPN, but went back to school for medical transcription. I have an autistic son who is 15 now. I left the workforce when he was diagnosed at 2 years old. About 4 years ago, he was getting more independent and I wanted to go back to work. My dilema was the child care issue and that is why I chose to study for something that would allow me to work from home.
I also had been going through personal issues with my marriage and know where you are coming from and how difficult this decision is. I still work from home doing transcription because balancing the costs of working outside of home (travelling, food, wardrobe, child care, etc.) against the benefits being at home, it has worked out for me better to stay at home. It was really important to me to be the one to provide care to my son and to be flexible enough for the day-to-day things that usually come up. My advice would be to really decide what is most needed and important for you right now, and go from there... and weigh the cost of both.
I tuck a little bit away each pay ( whatever I can manage) and claim my utilities and anything I can as expenses on my taxes each year.
Good luck with any decision you make.
Bad folks
BReitner totally sucks! Very unprofessional people that have not paid other MTs in the past. Beware!
IC folks
Okay all of you IC folks quick question. Do you like the flexibility of IC work? Do you think being an employee is better or about the same? Do you think you can make more money being IC as they are smaller companies than the big corporate giants we all know too well. Just wanted some fast feed back on the life of being an IC.
That's all, Folks!
Only a card and they send the same card every year. Go figure!!!!!
To all you TT folks
Sounds like your management has been reading the MQ posts and they have decided why not? If MQ can get away with it....
MDI folks
I am so jealous of all you MDI employees. You are so fortunate to be working for what is obviously one of the few good apples left in the bunch. It sounds like they truly care about their employees and I'm sure it will pay off for them in the long run. Sounds like some smart management! Wish some of these other companies would get wise to that kind of thinking. Taking care of the backbone of the company, the MTs is only going to be more profitable in the long run, but too many of them are short-sighted these days. I'm betting it wouldn't do much good to apply to MDI right now!
mdi folks
I see at least 6 different MDI posters here; anyone want to share FB pages? It would be kind of nice to have a 'network' to ask direct questions to...
she is just trying to tell folks of her sm
experience so that any potential MTs wanting to work for them can keep their eyes open! I adn a lot of other MTs are glad folks post their experiences. That is what this board is for.
I agree working for MQ has nothing to do with it. Many of us made our living at MQ for many years before they got really bad.
Landmark has always had a good reputation, but they could be beginning to start getting bad too. Don't flame somebody just trying to post their experiences.
These folks are probably from another sm
country. I have heard folks from alot of the European countries talk like this. When you see ads like that it is a good indication that the person is not from America originally.
Uh huh, and there it is, folks....
Found what I was looking for:
The Company’s income before income taxes has improved in 2006, 2007 and 2008 due in large part to improved customer retention combined with new sales, increased use of speech recognition technology and INCREASED USE OF OFFSHORE TRANSCRIPTION PARTNERS.
I'm with that other poster. Transcend will either merge with or be purchased by CBay within the next 18-24 months.
I'm outta here.
MDI - Kiss my backside.
Career Step is $1320 or $1560
x
For career changes, here is a fun site, some stuff is free sm
http://www.quintcareers.com/career_change.html
If they use MTTEST by Career Step - Don't bother...
...just like Career Step's program, MTtest is GREATLY flawed. And the potential employers don't bother to review this or your testing. If an employer lazily uses MTTest (and is recruiting people to buy Career Step's scam terrible training program), I don't bother. Even if you get it right, the module is flawed and will likely say you got it wrong. Don't waste your time being insulted by same.
Companies that actually send you dictation to transcribe are the best to test with. They test your true knowledge/ability, not through a flawed and inadequate multiple choice module that's sole purpose is to recruit people to Career Step.
Just my 2 cents... :O)
Ditto - it would depend on the career being offered
But I'm looking at other option now, because something with dependable, steady money is something I dream of now.
I've been pondering a career change too
For about the last year now, I've been thinking about going back to school to become a teacher. I'm just not sure the pay would be worth the cost of the education. I love the idea of summers off and starting out at about 35K in my area. I think in terms of hours/pay, it is the only job that would give me my current freedom but at a little better salary.
I can't really answer your questions, as I'm still trying to figure out the answers to my own. The only advice I have to offer is, if you're going to go back for nursing -- go for the RN. You'll make much more money and you may as well do it all at once and get it over with.
I do think that MTing from home will eventually become a minimum wage job. I just don't know when that will be. I know I can't make it on my MDI income alone, but I have a husband and 3 kids and I may not be working as much as others.
Rant: Why do you folks keep doing this
Ugggh. WHY say something like blah blah blah heartache, I'd say no to them. What is wrong with you people. Please say what you mean or say nothing at all.
For heaven's sake!
For my sake!
For everybody's sake!
I see some QA/MT folks do become recruiters from
thread below. Does anyone know how to break into this? I believe I would be very good at this and I don't believe I have ever seen any ads for recruiters.
If I have never seen any ads, how do some of the recruiters who have been/are MTs/QA manage to find the positions that they do in order to allow them to change companies when some of us have never seen an ad to allow us to even enter that end of the field?
I would love to know because I think it would be very interesting.
Would you recommend just to start emailing all companies or calling them, or do you think it would be a waste of time?
So what happened to all the new KS folks?
There were a bunch of posts in the last couple of weeks about it being a great company, new accounts, etc... Where are yall now that started with them?
Different strokes for different folks.
Of course I realize that no two people are alike, and no two experiences are the same, but I love it at Fast Chart. The platform is really, really easy to use, they don't bother you EVER once you're off QA, and lines are easy to get. I've worked for some crappy companies in the past, and I love Fast Chart! Email me for details if you need to know more.
DSG folks - is your platform up and
running? I saw earlier today on the MQ board where DSG's DQS system was also down. Ours still isn't working right and just wanted to see if it's just us or are you guys still down, too?
Off Shore Folks
Last quote we got from an Indian company --- they were up to 7cpl for 24 hour TAT and 8cpl for 24 hour TAT. I suspect what with the continued decline of the value of the dollar, along with the concomitant raise in standard of living in India, this is an issue/problem which may be resolving itself.
Yes, some of the damage already done, but markets have a way of correcting themselves.
-- HD
DIfferent strokes for different folks
I agree with you completely. I am happy as can be at TT. I also took 8.5 cpl after making 0.975 for years. That was the only thing about TT that made me hesitate, but glad I jumped the big Q ship anyway. My income is what it was before all the cesspool and ASR mess there. I am not miserable anymore. Now to some people money is the bottom line. They don't need to feel appreciated. I had a major family crisis after being with TT for only a month. They could not have been nicer about it. I could go on and on, but I won't. I could have written your post. Been an MT for 20+ years, have never worked for nicer people. It works for me, but maybe not for others. I just hope everybody finds what they need in a company. Have a blessed day everyone!
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