7 years is not a "newbie". I think the above post

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You should NEVER accept 4 cpl!!  Wages are going down because new MTs (and offshore MTs) are working for embarrassingly low wages!  I've only been working for a little over a year, but I started out at 8 cpl right out of school.  Part-time or not, you're worth more than that.

You wouldn't take a job at McDonald's for $1/hour would you?

Good luck!  I really hope you either find a new company or tell the sorry excuse of a company you have now that you won't work for less than at least 7.5 cpl.

to look a word up when you're not sure.  You just said that you still have to look things up - good for you, at least you're looking things up.  I'm talking about MTs who don't bother to look anything up, just blank, blank, blank, blank because they know that the QA safety net is there to catch them.

I know, I know, with line rates as low at they are, MTs don't want to spend a lot of time on blanks - time is money, yada yada.  I hate to break this to all you MTs out there that think that way, but quality AND quantity is the name of this game.  Like it or not, you are expected to be both productive and accurate.  This is the profession you chose.  I know you just wanted to work from home, but just because you can look like a slob while you work doesn't mean you can produce sloppy work.  You still have to be a professional.

I agree with whomever it was below that said we are paid to QA NOT to train.  If you're new and unsure, then for a fee I will mentor you, but if you've landed a job as an MT with the same company I work for, then my job is to fill in your blanks or randomly evaluate your work.  I have to trust that you know what you're doing, why else would you have been offered the job?  Although I would swear sometimes that some of the MTs I QA had someone else take the test for them!

I get paid hourly for doing QA, so I'm not complaining about my job.  Actually, MT incompetence is job security for me, but every day I have more of an understanding as to why the line rates being offered are so low.

I have a question for those of you that work for national companies and have a set schedule. How important is it that you stick with your schedule? If you can get all the work done before the deadline, is it okay to take an hour or two off for something like cooking dinner or something like that, as long as your get all your work done by the deadline? Just wonderfing!! Thanks!!!

Julia

How childish!  Just another embarrassing post by an American MT !!!

I don't mind doing legal and will do it now from time to time, but be prepared to be totally bored out of your mind.

At least that's the way I feel.  I love to transcribe, learned legal in college, went on to get my paralegal degree, etc., etc., but I did temp work when the kids were younger, which was about 90% medical and I would never go back to legal except for once in a while.

Booooooring.

It would take me all night and pages and pages to describe what a bad person my ex-husband was.  After six years of putting up with his OCD, verbal abuse and alcohol, I left him the house, took the kids (5 and 1) and didn't look back. That was 20 years ago.

I wasn't looking to get married again, but I did.  After 13 years I only complain when hubby doesn't see things my way. :) 

My older kids, who were 5 and 1 when I left, are married and have kids of their own now.  My husband gets the Father's Day cards.  Their "real" father sits alone in the perfect little house I left behind and let him have and he drinks himself into oblivion every night because nobody is "perfect" enough, including his kids and his grandkids that he never sees. 

Sad, but true.  So glad I smartened up and got  out of there when I did.

What is the big deal.  Look at your clothes, cars, items in your house.

IMHO

however, I am working fewer hours and making more money. I think maybe the answer here is working as an IC for a one-owner company. MTSO was an MT for many years and she knows the secret to making lots of $ is putting your MTs doing what they do best and leaving them alone.

I don't think it is the "national" part of services that hurts. I think the low wages can be gauged by the number of suits in the company. More suits = less $.

And why pay QA? Just hire people experienced/good enough to do the work correctly the first time.

Lots of little "stints" in between, just trying to keep my head above water.