I made the Wal-Mart post below, and

• I cannot understand why anybody would - try to be an MT in this day and age
  • I agree - I get so angry when I see SM - mtmtmt
  • I guess I should have clarified this since posts have been - from MTs defending their jobs
    • I made the Wal-Mart post below, and - sm
      • MT versus working at Wal-Mart - TW
    • Well, why ask if you didn't want the answer. - sm
      • Yeah..again..I was talking to NEW MTs - not OLD ones...get it?? NM
        • Thanks for considering me an old MT. - I still consider myself a newbie.
  • why MT - sa
  • No minimum wage here. - Happy MT Robin
    • I cannot understand why anybody would - try to be an MT in this day and age - Debbiedoo
  • Why?.. Because - n327l
  • I am going back to college - for RN
  • mt - kris
  • I love the work. If I worked at Wal-Mart - sm
  • Why I chose MT... - sm
    • I am very happy for your situation - but you must know..yours is the norm
      • That is why I quit doing VR. - sm
      • Of course I meant NOT the norm!! - NO MESSAGE
  • Being an MT today - Donna

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I have been an MT for 16 years.  Twice I've taken time off (over a year at a time), because of being burned out. 

Working as an MT at home is much better than working at Wal-Mart, or any other retail-type job.  I have much more flexibility in the hours I work.  I can be at home with my children, so that I can take care of their needs.  I've never had to have babysitters for my kids.  Now that they're all in school, it is easier, and I can still schedule my work time around their hours.  How in the world would working at Wal-Mart be better than that??  And even though the amount of pay I've been offered recently is less than my best job 5 years ago, I am still making 3 times as much as a Wal-Mart employee! 

I never went to school for training.  I am just an excellent speller with good typing and grammar skills, and I learn quickly.  I worked at my college health center for one year because of the above skills.  I didn't work after that for a time.  Three years later, I started sending out resumes to a bunch of local MTSOs and, after several months, one asked me to come test.  My persistence paid off.  I did very well on the testing and was hired.  I struggled those first couple of years.  Because I worked hard to learn new specialties, the MTSO was always asking me to take on a new one.  I probably worked a lot of hours for low pay as I learned each new specialty (I guess you COULD say I paid for my training! Lol!), and I shed a LOT of tears as I worked in the wee hours of the morning (because I didn't work until after my kids were in bed).  However, I am grateful to her for that experience.  I did eventually move on into acute care and did fine because of the opportunities she gave me. 

I still think MT is a good opportunity for people who just want to be able to be home with their kids and/or have a flexible schedule that allows them to run a forgotten lunch to school, go to a child's afterschool game, etc.  How many workplace jobs offer that??  It's still worth it to me!

the whole point of EMR is not to type the notes into the system - it's to choose from a menu and point and click to get the information in.  Think

chief complaint:  sore throat.     choose:  erythematous   edematous  purulent drainage and so on

if it's a speciality with a lot of redundancy, i.e. podiatry, they fly through their notes. If it's more unique situations a little tougher. But don't worry... the EMR companies will soon figure out the missing link...

The School That Dare Not Speak Its Name.  I then left that job for another one making 8 cents.  I am now making 8 cents a line from home, and my one-year anniversary of graduating from MT training is not until May. 

Six or seven cents?  Not in THIS life.  And I have had NO trouble finding jobs.  I still get people calling me based on the resumes I sent out back when I first started looking, and I have to tell them I am no longer looking for work. 

Nice try, MTSO.  But trying to convince people to work for 6 or 7 cents a line shouldn't play as long as some of us are here to bring a little reality into the situation. 

DMK -

I am interested in working with you. I have a wave player and am willing to obtain Word Perfect. Please contact me.

Thank you,

wrc

My situation is the same.  I made very good money for 25 years and seeing my pay going down, down, down.

So for me it's back to school and time to move on.  I would not encourage anybody to get into this field.  I have a friend who is a nursing assistant and makes $15 an hour.  Hey, that's a lot better than MT and not much work or very low pay!  Besides, it is not worth the years of study at this point in time.

x

"If any company offers you a position but want you to buy equipment/software up front be very cautious." If the company is offering you a position as an independent contractor, the IRS expects you to provide your own equipment. You should also be prepared to buy your own reference books and possibly even software to access the account's system or transfer files. Sometimes services will provide that but by law they are not supposed if you are working as an IC.  I had a friend who owned a service that the IRS came after. She had mostly IC's and the IRS said they weren't IC's because they didn't fit all the IRS requirements, one of which was they should work for other employers than the service. So if she had been providing equipment for them also, she would have been sunk. You can do an internet search regarding IRS rules for independent contractors, if you feel you need to be educated on the issue.

Also "If a company offers you a position at a radiculously low rate also proceed with caution and come here and ask about them."  When I started as an MT 25  years ago, I drove 80 miles round trip to go work in house for a service. I sat on a metal folding chair in a stinky, smoke-filled room with 20 other transcriptionists, banging away on a Selectric set up on a banquet table, for $5/hour. The point is, if you really want the job, do what you have to do. Remember there are probably 100 newbies applying for every job posted on this board. A service might be willing to give you experience if you trade off on pay. After all, it's basically the same thing as "buying" experience...if you work for 3 cpl instead of 6. Some people on this board will disagree with me but all I can say is I see postings here ALL the time of people in your same position.  What I did was work for cheap to break into the field.