Hmmm, interesting. If you don't mind me asking *sm*
Posted By: kittykat on 2008-05-05
In Reply to: Not AIM... - blondie_1147
was it a paid apprenticeship?
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Hmmm. I think this MTSO's opinion would "carry weight"...
If the poster was NOT a graduate of one of those two schools.
interesting that you say that
they wanted to hire me and asked me to fork over $400 or something like that. I couldnt do it and they suggested when I did, I could come back. I did a test piece for them twice, both times the same piece, please tell me what info you got, and the source.
Thanks,
K
Interesting.
Before you hit the send button, Char, you might want to stop and give some consideration to your audience. Many of the people who read this board are people who hire MTs. If your post is sloppy and full of ignorance, you will be dismissed as a sloppy, ignorant MT, and any potential employer will not give you another thought. If your post is intelligent, well written, and error-free, you just might be contacted by someone willing to give you a chance. I have contacted three newbies who posted intelligent comments in complete, accureately-spelled sentences on this board. I hired one of them. I would have been happy to hire the other two, but two other MTSOs had had the same idea after seeing their posts and beat me to it. Think about that the next time you want to post something incoherent and badly spelled because "it's just a message board". A sloppy, incoherent post might hilarious to you, but to someone assessing your suitability for employment, it's just really depressing.
Interesting...
For your sake, I'm glad that it works for you.
Unfortunately, for me, I don't think I could work for that little, and if I could, it wouldn’t be for long. I have a family to support, and even if I don't have expenses related to commuting or dressing up for work, there are still plenty of other expenses. Minimum wage won't pay for my girls' swimming lessons, groceries, new clothes for school, fuel to drive them where they need to go. It doesn't help pay for their medical premiums or copays. Let alone the fact that I will have to go on my husbands health insurance, that alone will cost me $350/month, not including copays.
Just because some expenses may be offset by working at home, does not mean other expenses are not incurred.
Ok this is interesting...
I just received an email stating that my post was seen on here and that I could work for this person for three to four months (unpaid internship) and then they would contract me with there MTSO beginning at 7cpl.
If it's legit, that still seems like a long time to intern when I've already gone through school and am about to receive my certification
Any thoughts? Should I go for it? I don't want to burn bridges but I would hate to transcribe for four months for free and then find out that I don't have a job!
That's interesting
Hi Allie,
I didn't know they owned a Transcription Company. Do they rate highly on the BBB?
It's interesting in another way too; my company was thinking of starting a school and they approached me to be involved. We live and die based on having new young talented MTs moving up. I was so glad they dropped the idea!! I really didn't want to deal with students. No offense.
Hah, I hope they can stand all the problems involved in training people. It's not easy. You need good teachers to be able to do it well-- and patience. I guess if you intend on hiring some of your own students, you would do it well.
From a business standpoint, the school is probably a separate company or corporation from the MT company.?
BTW, I think Allied is owned by the University of Phoenix. HPI founders were the primary leaders in the AAMT. I think Vera Pyle (first MT writer) worked closely with Sally Pitman owner of HPI. I think Ellen Drake of Drake and Drake (Saunders Pharmacy book) is a moderator on MT Chat which is owned by Andrews and M-Tec and I think VLC.
Nice to have a chat site with luminaries to advertise yourself. Very good idea and it must save a bundle on advertising. I'm serious!
I think those points are correct. I've heard things through the years. I find it fascinating.
Spheris is a huge company. I've often wondered if they purchased Career Step?
And it goes on and on. It is a small world toward the top. The best talent rises higher and higher.
Good research Allie!!
Interesting
1. What equipment would a new grads have?
>>>>Headphones and USB foot pedal most common. As far as purchasing equipment, you have to be more specific as to what you would have the new grad purchase; however, figure on somebody being able to handle 200$ or so. That much could be raised either via pawn shops or a yard sale.
2. Would a new grad be willing to do a 2-week trial at no pay to see if we work well together? If there is no "chemistry" the process would be torture for both of us.
>>>Trial yes; no pay--that's kind of cold. A newbie is not going to be productive to begin with. To deny any sort of pay at all...? I should think that it would take much longer than 2 weeks to figure out chemistry, perhaps a 4-week trial would be more revealing, especially if the position was remote. If the position is inhouse, then maybe the 2-week period is sufficient.
3. Would a new grad be willing to work on a graduated pay scale, starting at a low rate and working up to .08? Experienced MTs should be paid more than new grads, IMHO.
>>>Depends on how low. A lot of new grads from the top 2 schools are starting off at .07 and .08. Of course, if they are allowed to graduate from these schools, they are quality and often exceed the quality of experienced MTs. As a new grad doing acute care, I get .07 per line, but I know of a lot of other graduates that started off at .08 per line.
4. Would a new grad be willing to enter a 2-year contract, protecting the MTSO and providing the new grad with the necessary experience to get a "real" job?
>>>Absolutely. I would even sign on for a longer period of time provided there was some sort of incentive for production and an incremental raise along the way.
5. How much work would a new grad expect to produce in a day's time?
>>>My 1st day, it was 76 lines. Second day, jumped up to 200 lines. However, there was absolutely no training and no support at all other than "feedback" from QA. Had I had some training and not been left entirely on my own, I'm sure that it would have been more. Now after 6 months of acute care (doing all the reports and all the specialties), I am averaging about 660 lines per day. Sometimes I hit 1000 or pretty close to it. If I get all ESL for the night, it can drop as low as 400 or so lines.
I might be interested in something like this.
Some interesting numbers for anyone
Wow, these companies sure have a friend and defender here. Good! Stick by your guns, although you aren't under attack by me. We are only sharing ideas. Maybe I was wrong about ownership, although who owns the ownership company? Maybe what I heard that Andrews, M-Tec and VLC were the moderators. I know Linda Andrews was answering questions as a moderator when I was on the site a year ago. I don't have time to research it now, but I know someone who knows for sure. I'm curious now.
Listen, those schools deserve tons of credit. They are the industry leaders in retail internet schooling. People like Linda Andrews, Ellen Drake, Vera Pyle (Vera died) and Sally Pitman are icons in this field.
But Deb, Andrews, M-Tec and Career Step advertise all over the internet 24X7. I've been told what that advertising costs. It is amazing. If they have a full-time waiting list then why advertise at $10 to $15 a click on Google? I think they are just businesses- good ones, but not something holy that is beyond scrutiny. I was seeing posts that said to only attend the Big 3 which is silliness. We don't want to line up like lemmings. It is good that Americans are essentially skeptical. In that way we constantly seek out the best in price and quality.
Figure 100 clicks per day on Google at $10 per click. That is $1000 on Google advertising per day or $30,000 per month. NOTE: I just checked Google Adwords (we have our own advertising account there under MTs). It is $18 per click to hold one of the top 3-5 spots for "Medical Transcription School". It is about $10 per click to be slightly further down. Someone has to pay for that- the students. This goes for all schools advertising on the internet. Figure that a school has 100 new students per month.
That means that advertising costs the school $300 per student. Deb, this is any school, I'm not attacking your favs. Just looking at costs. A school like PennFoster which always holds a top spot it seems, might get 200 clicks per day at $18 per click- $108,000 to Google each month if my guess is right. Since their tuition is lower than Andrews let's say, their biggest cost may be advertising, not curriculum or teachers- they probably don't have teachers.
Spheris is a public company so who they own is on their Financial Statement.
I know folks at Meditec. They are an MT company which also owns a school. This may be another way to lower costs and ensure employment. I don't hear bad things about Meditec from their graduates. I don't know what they charge. They probably also use the HPI educational material. This is another option I would look at if I were a student.
I still predict that staffing schools will be the solution to very costly tuition and the 2 year experience requirement.
Back to work. Throwing these ideas around is fun!!
it's interesting to me that newbies want to make the same as experienced...sm
what I did was beg my way into a job for next to nothing ($5 an hour - this was 20 years ago and it was an 80 mile round trip hike). But then I got experience and moved on from there. It never fails to boggle my mind when I post a job opening and get 700 responses, including newbies who believe their MT teachers who told them that is what they should ask. Remember you are competing against 699 other people who want that job, including people who have years under their belt. So what makes newbies think they are worth that? Bottom line is, they aren't, and proof is: What does the market bear? If newbies were worth 6 cents a line, they would be hired at 6 cents a line. You cannot believe all the work that I have to do to take on a newbie. The last one I hired offered to do it for 3. She was smart. Rather than get 0 lines at 6 cents she is getting 2000 lines at 3 cents - and "buying" her 2 years experience. In two years, she will be in the job market while the other newbies are sitting at home, pouting that they can't get their 6 cents a line job. JMHO. I know there are some who will flame me for this but like I said, bottom line is newbies can't get hired for 6 cents - therefore proves not worth it. It's sure not worth it to me.
Oh boy, you're going to get some interesting responses! Here's mine (sm)
First of all, I am not an authority on what the MT future is. I recently got into this business myself and consider myself fortunate in my situation, as I was able to find a job with a private MTSO who was willing to give me a chance. So I do believe it is possible to find work.
Secondly, if you're considering M-TEC, that seems to be the best choice for schooling (for those who can afford it), as I have seen many posts from M-Tec grads who say they were placed the day after graduation.
Thirdly, you seem to have the drive and the affinity for the English language that it takes to succeed in this field. Personally, proper grammar and use of the English language has always come natural to me, and I have always loved typing, and those two things helped prompt me to make the decision to go into this field. That, and I wanted to be able to work at home doing something I enjoyed.
So I say GO FOR IT! I think you will do well. Best of luck to you!
Something else to keep in mind ...
AAMT supports and even encourages the outsourcing of American MT jobs to places like India and the Philippines. They are perfectly happy to facilitate the loss of American jobs and the destruction of American families to fill their coffers. With that in mind, one wonders what value AAMT endorsement of an MT course should have to an AMERICAN MT. Just a thought.
Do you mind my asking...
...how long ago this was? Was this recently (since this economic meltdown)?
Hope you don't mind
I really hope someone chimes in with the answer to your question but I wanted to comment that I have heard nothing but positive reviews for MTEC and the reviews have been mixed, but leaning towards the positive for Career Step. There are some CS students and alumni that will defend their school tooth and nail that it is not a second class stepchild to MTEC, and some that feel that MTEC (or Andrews) would have been a better choice.
I had a friend who could not afford the down payment for Andrews, and either could not or did not want to try to get the Sallie Mae loan for MTEC, and I steered her towards the CS program at Everett CC because she had pell grant and student loan eligibility.
You might want to ask some national companies whose grads they hire. I asked a few (you could certainly ask more than I did, and I recommend that), and one listed a few schools I had not even heard about up to that point.
It seems that the companies have some thing going on with CS because many of them have a link to request training info from CS. Not a guarantee of employment by any stretch but worth asking what that is all about. (hopefully not just about getting money from CS for advertising and referrals).
If it were me I would choose MTEC over CS. But my decision is made - I chose Andrews over both of them and as soon as I can bring myself to send in the $1500 down payment(its just a scary amount of money to plop down), I am doing it!
I don't mind saying where I live.
I live in Granbury, TX. If thats nowhere near you then they probably wouldn't even bother w/ me, right? If you live around here, let me know, if not then let me know too. Thanks for helping!!!!!
No, they didn't mind at all that I was new.
In fact, I think they preferred it. That way, they can train me to do things their way. And no, I won't be the only one transcribing. They have one Transcriptionist that has worked there for 6 years and I will be helping her out. I will only have to work in the office for approx. 1 hour per day and the rest at home. They said I could work as many or as few hours as I need to. I've thanked them very kindly every day this week for giving me this opportunity.
I hope you can find something soon as well. It is so frustrating trying to get the required experience.
ConcernedtoBMT, if you don't mind me asking...
Which school did you go to and who are you working for now?
keep in mind when doing entertainment transcription - sm
this is faaaarrr different than medical. The companies that the poster referred to that are in California require VERY ACCURATE transcription. Thus, you must be excellent with punctuation and 100% accurate with transcription. In the medical transcription industry, hospitals allow for mistakes (both grammar and spelling). Go figure, the entertainment industry does not!!
possibly changing my mind
I think this is more than just a little discouraging. I am still working on my transcription course as well and the future doesn't look too promising from what I am hearing. I originally wanted to go into a radiologic technologist program, but it is full-time for two years. I cannot quit my full-time job to go to school. I thought MT would be something I could do from home while I went to college full-time. But it doesn't sound like I would make enough money for it to be worth my time. Very disappointing.....
Keep an open mind when looking for your first break.
For a first break into the business, you really need to welcome an in-office position. Not only is it a job doing what you say you want to do, but you may actually get guidance from an experienced MT and learn more than you could ever learn alone.
keep in mind that lines w/o spaces
average of 30% - so if you are getting 150 lph w/o spaces, it is the equivalent to 180 lph with spaces.
Jen, would you mind emailing me info too?
I do have some MT experience, mostly VR, but just haven't been able to break into a really good MT position yet. I could use some help too. What costs are involved?
It sounds like your mind is made up that you don't need an adequate course,
and that hard-working MTs in your area are just waiting to complete your education so you can be of help to them. But you did say you wanted advice, so mine would be that your future co-workers, supervisors and customers will all wish you were ready to transcribe when you got out of school, which can only be guaranteed by two schools: Andrews & M-Tec. So instead of wasting a few hundred dollars on an education that won't land you a job, spend what it takes for a real education. At these schools you can learn at your own speed with lots of support from the teachers, and when you graduate you will be an asset to the profession.
I guess you don't mind working for $5-10 an hour.
I don't feel 5 cpl is worth my time. Even doing 200 lph (it took me 7 months to get to that point), I would only be making $10 an hour. Why would anyone waste their time? Their are companies out there that offer new MTs much better rates. But if you don't feel you are worth more than that, by all means, go ahead and accept minumum wage.
How to compare MT training classes? I have 3 in mind...SM
For comparing M-TEC, Andrews, and Career Step, what is the easiest way to narrow this down? A person would hate to make the wrong choice, but how do you know before starting? Is one of these more flexible as far as time frame to complete? What if a person started the course and had to stop it for a while before resuming (such as taking some time off while caring for a newborn)? Are payments made as you go or do you have to pay ahead?
Is picking any of these 3 generally a safe bet? They stand out to me as the 3 that I hear the most about that aren't the scams that I have been warned about.
I guess a speedier time frame for completion would be a plus, but then is that shortchanging the education?
Any advice would be great.
Thanks!
Sorry, I read the wrong post. I had way too many things on my mind.
but that said, I think the local hospitals would be your best bet. You can get invaluable experience there. Especially with acute care.
Good luck with your job search. WIll keep you and your family in my prayers.
Apparently, the AHDI can't make up their mind! See inside
From the FAQ on their website (as mentioned by someone else here):
"Two years of transcription experience in the acute care (or equivalent) setting is required to take the CMT certification examination."
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