And why would you want to switch change careers?!..

• MT courses and pay - Chicagogirl
  • coder - Rebecca
  • Graduated from M-TEC - flying fingers
  • Probably around $24K if you kick butt - sm - XXX
    • I agree . . . if you can pull that job home, - (sm)
  • And why would you want to switch change careers?!.. - steph
    • Sorry, meant to say change careers - steph

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I have been an MT my entire life.   I had no formal training - just had a knack for it and always had a job doing transcription.  I was sought out many times. However back about 1993 I started hearing rumors about voice recognition. I at that time decided to go to school and get a nursing degree as I wanted to stay in healthcare. I obtained my LPN- RN - then BSN in 1999.   Took me awhile but I did it.  Since that time I have done some coding, worked as a nurse and been promoted to transcription supervisor in 2000.  I also teach transcription at our local college.  Since I have such a broad range of experiences in all the things you are looking at I would suggest nursing - you are going to get the most valuable education in that field - with many opportunities.   If you don't like it you would have the bulk of your education and could easily slip int to coding or transcription.  Just my opinion.

It seems a lot of people are feeling the same crunch.  I have been an MT for 10 years  I too used to have a excellent hourly plus incentive with great bennies in-house jobs which was outsourced to an Indian Company. I worked from home and make ok. Now it's hard to even find a decent line count with benefits at all. I am working as an IC at 9 cpl and no bennies. As a single Mother I simply cannot do this anymore.  There companies who offer employee status and bennies but the line rates are so low or they want you to work 2nd or 3rd shift and with my family situation this is not possible.

I too am making a career change plans.  It seems that nursing is all the rage with the high paying jobs and plenty of them. But as a former nursing student years ago before MT I know it's not for me.  Too high pressure and the bullying in nursing school is unbelievable as is the 2 year committment to school full time.

I decided to try Assocaites degree Accounting/CIS. I hope to enter as a clerk or bookkeeper and work towards the Bachelors degree once working as a clerk.  In the meantime I have been brushing up on Powerpoint, Excel, etc and applying for secretarial and admn assistant jobs. 

 I had considered medical billing but I am somewhat soured on the healthcare system and outsourcing.  I figured Accounting is much broader and can work for more than one industry, but have seen accounting positions in healthcare systems too. 

I wondered if people would share what fields they were considering.

For new MTs... the field IS dying between VR contsantly improving and outsourcing/offshoring our jobs are dwindling as are the pay and benefits.  If you are a married-stay-at-home type of Mom with luxury of a second income and your husband's benefits MT might still be ok for a little extra money on the side.  But for anyone trying to support either themselves or their family on MT -- forget it.   Its a good part-time Mom job these days and that is about it. 

Sad.  There are many excellent and quality MTs who have a ton of knowledge.  I wondered how they intended to transfer skills to another profression.  The writing is on the wall.  I hope to be out in 2-1/2 years tops. 

Guys, I've finally made up my mind that the profession that we used to know is gone and is never coming back.  The industry leaders have made it their business to turn MT's into the equivalent of sweatshop workers, and I don't find that dynamic at all appealing. 

Can any of you give any suggestions as to what types of careers we might transition into and make a decent income?  I'm polishing up my resume now, but I fear that I've stayed in this industry for far too long and have handicapped myself from being able to take advantage of any other career opportunities that might exist out there. 

Any and all feedback would be appreciated. 

nm

In your place, I would seriously consider changing providers if there were others available in your area, but I'd ask around about their service quality first.  It may not be any better.  If there are no other providers, then consider changing your service package to a business account rather than residential.  They're usually more expensive, but they also tend to get faster service if there's a problem.

Last summer, I had no electricity for 3 days due to severe storms, but there were some 600,000 in the same boat with me.  We just had to wait it out.  It's a downside of working at home.

Sometimes the monitor gets "caught" when you have a KVM switch and go from one computer to another.

If you do not have a KVM switch, try updating your drivers or reinstalling them.  Also, it's good to make sure your BIOS is up to date (you can get updates from your manufacturer's website).

Amanda

They have a free program that will do so much, but they also have another one for purchase that does many more types of files.  I'm not sure if the free one supports .wav or not, but I know that the paid one does.  It is through NCH.  www.nch.com/au/switch

Can anyone tell me a good KVM switch?  I have a seperate computer for transcription and home use, but not enough space for two monitors, mice, and keyboards.  I have heard that some switches get all screwy when you type fast and I want to avoid that.  Thanks all!

Yes it is called a KVM switch.  You can get them online; I got mine through Tiger Direct or Best Buy has one too.

THIS is an example of a KVM switch.

http://www.dlink.ca/products/?sec=0&pid=511

PC-Cillin from Norton.  I heard from a guru that it was much better.  My friend had Norton and it did not pick up a virus, and I was having a problem with my automatic scan.  I had it set for every week, and sometimes it would run, other times not.  I also have the Ad-Aware.

Will any of the information from computer A "bleed" into computer B; i.e., will computer B work totally independent from computer A except for the cable modem, screen, and keyboard?

My problem is that both jobs use MS XP PRO and job B gives me double Word screens, gives me all kind of error messages, shuts down after doing a report, and a myriad of other problems, taking my production from 150 minutes a day to half that. 

Job A only gives me dump errors or shuts down once in a while, so I would leave job A where it is and move job B to computer B. I am also taking computer B direct to the job and have them reload the whole program, etc. from scratch...which they don't want to do on computer A.

I never had these problems when I was just working for job B. It only started after I got job A, so I deduced it to be to a conflict between the two programs.

You can switch your PRD entries to ShortHand and then use with Word. Shorthand runs you through the process, no problems.

Does anyone use one of these, and could I use a laptop monitor with a pc and get the switch to use with both. ?  My PC monitor died, and the laptop is just sitting there not on the net, but PC is on net. 

Thanks for any info.