And which nationals are hiring newbies?

That's a first.  My niece graduated at the top of her class and there wasn't a national out there that would even talk to her.

She took on horrid jobs (4 to 5 cpl) for a year and THEN got an interview with a national, got hired, and now runs out of work all the time.

Dream on.  In this business, even with experience, it's the luck of the draw.

My niece only does it as a side job, as her husband owns a business and she is a stay-at-home mom.  That's all she needs it for is a little extra and something to fall back on just in case.  But starting out to do this to pay the bills most often doesn't work out, especially for those with little or no experience.

If you've got the experience, the accounts and the stamina, then sometimes you get lucky.

The messages you are viewing are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select the boards given in left menu

Disagree, no matter whether you are an I/C with own accounts or with a national or even small MTSO, we are all at the beck of the doctors.  If they are off or do not dictate, there is no work.  I do not think that the majority of you realize how hard is to balance out having enough staff to do the work to keep the accounts and also keep them busy when the work does not come in, especially when the help does not think twice about someone in the family being acutely ill when they are not, taking off for children field trips on a whim, children being sick or whatever the excuse is not to work.  It takes quite a juggline act to accommodate both employees and acounts themselves.   That said -- flame me as I have already been burnt many times by people who do not have a work ethic or want to work when they want to and not when the work is available.

I have been in this business over 20 years.  I started when we used IBM Selectrics and tapes.  I have seen this business changing over the years, some good, some bad.  One thing in particular is the very large national companies getting more and more of a monopoly in the transcription business.  This has had an impact on the MT.  I am making less per line than 15 to 20 years ago, and I seen that is widespread in this industry.  I see it is getting more and more impersonal. 

20 years ago many MTs were getting 7 to 7.5 CPL.  I see that still happening.  Adjust that for cost of living increases and inflation, and I feel wages have gone down.

Now we must compete with overseas work and if an MT wants to do VR, they must take a pay cut, at some companies of up to 50% of your line rate. I remember many years ago when they were talking about implementing VR, we were told we would not have pay cuts, just be able to type more.  I knew then that they were lying, of course they would cut our wages.  They will squeeze and squeeze to get the most money for themselves.  Many of these CEOs make millions, but what about all the unethical business practices.  Remember Enron. 

I feel most of these changes are because of the a few very large nationals changing the nature of the business.  Of course, they want to make as much money as possible.  Everybody does, I cetainly do.  But it seems to me they are doing it at the expense of the individual MT. 

Did you know many transcription companies actually train the MTs in India and then give them a job.  If you are in the good old USA, you pay for your own schooling and are lucky to get your foot in the door because of no experiernce. 

I think if there were fewer nationals and more smaller companies, maybe the MT would benefit.

wife's kind of job......need a second income to live.

It is no longer a career

It is no longer a respectable job.

They have lowered it to _drop in_ make a few bucks_go to bed

But don't expect or receive RESPECT, A LIVING, OR ANYTHING ELSE

from a transcription company.  They are there to make the profit

OFF OF YOU.

Bows sounds real darn good - when do we start - I'll make the

wagon to sell them from - I'm pretty handy with power tools now since

my husband left because I had to type 26 hours a day!  Stupidly he thought

we should have a life.

I am hoping to get some names of some good Small National companys to work for. 

Thanks in advance for your help!

After reading these boards and I really have to hand it to you guys that work for the Nationals.   I mean it as I thank the Lord everyday for my three small accounts and business because you guys really have to put up with the garbage and I don't think I could do it.  As mentioned below, I am one of those that do clinic notes, consults, minor surgery reports, and have good line counts but I do get lazy and my docs don't care if we are compliant with certain abbreviations, or how some medical organization has said how something should be typed, if it is gramatically correct, spelled correct then it is fine.  It is like driving a car for many years if we all had to take the driving test most of us would not pass because we have picked up some bad habits along the way.   I recognize that I have and sometimes capitalize generic drugs or something is not typed as  the AAMT says how it should be typed or that book that begins with "B".  How you guys can keep up on all the changes is beyond me and why they make them is beyond me also.   But again, my hat is off to all of you and I think you all deserve a pat on the back and I wish I could put some money in your pockets because I think you all deserve it.    If there are errors in here, give me some slack as my day started at 5 this morning as Tuesday is one of my busiest days and am covering for a friend who is on vacation.  So am hitting over 3200 lines today and am tiredddddddddddddd.  

Patti

If you think about how much money they spend on computers and equipment, shipment, they need to make sure they are not just hiring any joe who does not know what they are doing and can walk away with a free computer.  That explains the testing that goes on to get hired on with these companies. 

Not only that, being so remote, having so many MTs, they have no time to check references, or to know whether or not you are seasoned or how much experience you might have.  You could lie your way all the way into becoming an MT, they lose clients because of the lousy work from inexperienced MTs, lose money because of the thieves who just want a free pc. 

We seasoned MTs get lost in the blizzard of this.  They are just looking out for themselves, for good reason if you look at it from their perspective. 

Will the nationals in this country face financial hardship if the Obama/Biden administration cuts tax incentives to companies who outsource their MT work to India?

I know of one company who outsources and they are not doing too well financially and their CEO resigned not to long ago, no reason given. I know a lot of MTs refuse to work for companies that outsource but many domestic MTs do work for them and maybe now is a time to bail out. Any thoughts???