I was extremely disappointed in the 2nd one you mentioned in your post. nm
Posted By: Sara on 2005-11-23
In Reply to: other ebayer - Cathy
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I had a post pulled once for mentioning my school because another poster had mentioned it (sm)
over and over again. When I emailed the other poster, she forwarded me an email from a moderator saying that the mention school we were discussing WOULD get our posts pulled because it was "not up to the standards" of this forum or something, no matter that we both managed to get jobs just fine working for them. I just thought that was stupid and it's no skin off my nose, but it did get posts pulled. That was at least eight months ago now, so if things have changed now, good, and they should have. But I still won't risk saying where I went to school. I don't rock boats.
Disappointed
First finish your course and then see what is out there. If you do not find anything, then go back to school.
As I sad you are extremely rude
You're not talking to a mom of a 2 yo. I have 3 children, 2 in college and 1 in high school, so if you think for a minute you can tell me how to raise a child, you are very mistaken. All three are scholar athletes with consistent high honor roll grades. You obviously spend a lot of time alone or with your 2 yo by the way you "talk" to adults on this forum. You really do need to get out of the house and interact in an office where you can learn some social skills.
With expectations like that, you are sure to be disappointed...
you are right when you say "getting a Medical Transcription service up and running from your home is nearly impossible?!?!" From your exact words, it sounds like to me that you are wanting to start your own medical transcription service from home? Nearly impossible is a good choice of words. It seems to require a combination of perserverance, skill, intense networking and just plain luck. And there is a reason why "Everyone wants someone with "EXPERIENCE" only." I can't imagine a doctor's office saying, "sure, we would love to send you our voice files and depend on your untested skills for our patients' medical records...not to mention keeping our office running." Physicians work very hard to take care of their patients. They can't take an integral part like medical records and just hand it out to any ol' body. They need someone who is VERY GOOD at their job, not only getting the records transcribed, but finding a file transfer method, troubleshooting, fair pricing, etc. Certainly fresh out of school you would not have those skills and it would be as completely unreasonable to expect any doctor's office to contract with you as their service, as it would be to ask the office nurse to do your appendectomy (on her kitchen table LOL).
You say, quite emphatically that "Working from home is my ONLY option right now." Working from home may not be an option at all. You can't DEMAND a job from any one. You can only see what's out there, beat the competition and prove you can meet the requirements. If you can supply what the market demands, you can get a job. But if the market is glutted with MT's with 2 years' experience, well, you are in a tight spot then. So your choices are: either spend months applying, try to get an inhouse job, spend months on an internship, or go into another job market.
While I understand your feelings ("just paid alot of money to train for this, etc"), sometimes it's just not that simple. I am not trying to be discouraging, just honest-- and honestly, it's a very discouraging time right now in the MT field.
What I don't understand is how come so many newbies post here, saying they just finished their program and NOW they are finding out how hard it is to break into the field? Seems like communication between all of us is failing somewhere
Disappointed Newbie
Nothing new with that confession, I'm betting. From the looks of some of the posts on this board, the money I paid to get trained as an MT was a waste. I began my studies so I could work from home. I have a job already, my position is MOM. Doesn't pay monetarily though, so I need a second income so DAD can take a break! But everything I read says 2-5 years experience a MUST. Well, I can't offer my services for free to the hospitals or doctors because I can't work "in-house"...I must work from MY HOUSE! I posted here before and I had a few people give me a try....one, a woman, I unfortunately did not save her email address and did not send my "test" back to her. My mistake. The other, a man, was great training. I trained with him for a few weeks, but it became apparent that he needed almost IMMEDIATE turn around AND I could not set my own hours, they had to be HIS hours. I understand where he's coming from...but, I have children....2 toddlers and 2 teens...so setting my OWN hours is necessary. Ok...I've rambled on long enough. Can someone PLEASE give me some hope for this! Thanks! LISA
You won't be disappointed with Andrews!
I made a career change. I use to be a technical training instructor (lasers, scanners, etc.), and I use to write courses for a living. I retired from that field and wanted something else that I could do that I could handle with my physical handicap.
I chose Andrews because of its curriculum. Yes, M-Tec has a pretty good thing going and it's a superior choice to CS.
But, I chose Andrews because I wanted the best for my money. I didn't care for some of the philosophies of the other school. I want to learn transcription--I didn't want to learn OneNote or other unnecessary software applications.
I have not regretted my choice in selecting Andrews. The curriculum is sound, high-quality, and their grads are getting hired just as much as (if not more) than any other school.
You won't go wrong with either school. However, I did choose the best--and that's the name I wanted on my resume.
Good luck with your studies!
MTSO's can be extremely busy...sm
Not only can they be overwhelmed with trying to handle the new work load, but they have to sort through resumes, interview and hire someone, plus paperwork. So if they do have more work, this just adds to the workload. I dread bringing on someone new because it is such a huge amount of work - that takes away from getting the work at hand done in a timely fashion. So patience is good, I'm sure they know you are there, but maybe just keeping their head above water...
Or rather, newbies that do extremely well on their testing, not necessarily
s
How extremely childish. You are in for a BIG surprise. This is a tough business. nm
"
The 3 that I see mentioned most often as being the
best are M-Tec, Career Step, and Andrews. There are companies that will hire you right away if you graduate from the first 2 listed. Stay away from At-Home Professions.
You mentioned that you would even ..sm
be willing to do an intern to get experience. Well I did one with the AIM program. It is through Allstate Transcription. She hires some interns too.
Would love one! but like I mentioned
locally, there aren't any. I have went to all the dr.'s offices and the hospital and they have went to a paper form. They had used a service in a town 10 miles away and I applied and tested with the owner, who I knew and she would have hired me but she was notified that the work she had was being cut, since the paper form was being implemented, and she was going to have to down-size her workers. I had had a job line-ed up that paid hourly before they decided to go to this new form and lucked out. Now, I need to find something over the internet.
Search this board for 'schools' and a few will be mentioned. nm
s
Been ripping people for years. There were even mentioned in
Family Fun magazine about them being a company to stay away from. Numerous unresolved complaints with the BBB. Alan claims to be an upstanding Christian - which makes me want to puke.
Also look up a possible knee control option. Was mentioned years ago on MTD. nm
s
To be clear, this is the posters view of the mentioned school
and not the opinion of MTStars. MTStars has no position pro or con on any school even if they are a sponsor. We are merely a venue for people to post within the Terms of Service/Disclaimer of mtstars.com
please e/m me -- my post didn't post.
x
Where should I post it?
Is there a section on MT Stars that you post resumes or are you saying to just post it in a message? Thanks
I appreciate your post and I do
recognize what has been happening in the field. As you stated, many MTs are allowing it to happen which is sad. There is no way to go up from there and they don't have a clue to recognize that.
sorry..about my last post..
I thought I was answering on another string of posts.
In regards to my post
I never said MTec was dishonest. The gist of the post was that an MT training school could not give objective advice to a person considering purchasing their product. The OP was simply told to take this into consideration. Surely no one can disagree with that statement? 
they won't let me post to you...
e-mail me.
Thanks for this post.
I have another six months before I reach that "two years experience" everyone seems to want. I did bite the bullet and settle for a less than top paying job to be working and getting that experience straight from training. My outlook was the same as yours. I am glad to know I'm in good company. I thought your post was very nice.
Very useful post. I wish
this post would automatically pop up every time somebody came here asking about schools, and whether the extra $1000 or whatever is worth it.
i only got about 2/3 of the way through your post.....
and thought there are much better ways for you to do this. Here are some suggestions that might save you a little money.
1. Try finding another internet provider. I pay $30 per month for my high speed.
2. Do not spend money on books anymore. Use reliable web sites. This is the beauty of Internet. In the old-days when we worked on-site and there was no Internet, we had to rely on books, but nowadays you can have the AAMT Styleguide on your computer, and there are so many reliable web sites for surgical instruments, medications, etc.
3. Can you possibly e-mail your invoices. This will get it to your provider quicker, and hopefully a paycheck back to you quicker, i.e. no paper or ink. My printer has been out of ink for 2 weeks. I do everything on line now, and never print anything anymore.
3. The cabinet was a one time purchase, but will be a tax write off.
4. Talk to your husband about the importance of your job and income. I hate to work when my husband is home. Some times I need to, and he and the kids all know that mom is working and cannot be disturbed (for the most part).
5. I hear you on the CPA thing. Mine charges me so much money to do my taxes. I am seriously considering disolving my corporation and going back to using my social security number. I really have not seen any perks there.
Anyway, hope some of these help.
I said in my post that she can't get
a TRANSCRIPTION job with just a coding education.
Thank you for this post
The office that I work for is going to EMR soon. I was so afraid I was going to lose my job. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to be doing, but I have EMR training starting next week.
Any certain post, or are you seeing many? nm
XXX
there must be at least 10 different MTs who post with the
username 'anon.' This 1 is a new 1, still in the 'basic program?'
post your resume
when you are ready. Some companies do hire newbies even if they do not post.
post resume
there should be a link at the home page of this site.
check post below
regarding posting your resume on this site.
reply to this post
I understand what you are saying and can see the reasoning. One of the problems is that the employer does not know how well you can do the job because they won't even let you test with them being a newbie. They aren't willing to see if you can make the grade. Many of us who are new have done very well in out course. Meditec may not be one of the top ones, but Davenport University specializes in business courses and I felt that they did not do an adequate job in teaching MT, that is why I went with an on-line course. Not all of us are able to AFFORD the top three school's to go to. There is no way I could have afforded it with what my daughter and I have been living on for the last two years while I was trying to better our life by going back to school. Better, ha! all I have so far is loans that I am paying for because like I said in my first posting, locally, there are no transcription jobs and the closest city is around 50 miles away and financially it is not possible to travel there daily for part-time work. Maybe, if someone would give us newbies a chance, they may just be surprised!
Reply to your post.
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
Thank you for post. It gives me hope
since I'm getting frustrated at the moment.
Was there really a need to post it in two different places?
And really, she could be a little more appreciative considering the fact that we, the MTs, are picking up her expenses for office space, utilities, computers, office furniture, supplies, software, etc. I totally get the point about following instructions and spellchecking, but there's no need to SCREAM about it with her rude attitude.
Post edited. (NM)
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Agree with your post
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.
what happened to my post? nm
x
just two comments re above post...sm
"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.
Might want to post on Word Help
NM
Maybe you should read before you post.
"I don't remember anyone mentioning Spheris. Maybe they did. I don't have time to go look."
I think "Goji" is a set-up post (sm)
I.E., the post was put there to take the pressure off Proficient Transcription.
I could be wrong, but....
Setup Post
Goji is not a setup post. I did indeed get my refund as stated. I posted as an FYI to let others know I got my money. The owner actually contacted me to see if I got my refund. I hope you get your money soon.
You said it all in that post, your REAL job is being a mom
so it's coming off like you don't consider MT'ing a real job, and rather just a way to make some cash in between burping, feeding, changing, entertaining the children, and it most certainly is not. Perhaps that is why the not so nice posts. I have said it from day #1, you absolutely can't be a full time mom and work a job where you are expected to produce quality work unless the kids are in daycare or school part of the day or you have another adult at home with you to help out with the children while you are working. Contrary to what the "ads" say, it just doesn't work very well. I was an MT trainer/mentor for at-home newbies for many years so I know first hand.
great post... nm
x
Last post on this subject!
I think! :) I apologize to those of you I offended. That was not my intent. I was looking for advice and support. Straight forward and honest, I can take...being rude or spiteful I can not. I will continue searching for the "golden ticket" I am looking for and if I never find it, fine. But, maybe I will, and when I do I'll be able to tell a "newbie", "Hey! Don't stop trying! It can be done." If that sounds like a "teenager arguing with mommy and daddy" well, fine. So be it. I'm still not going to stop looking. Good luck to those of you in the same boat, and to those of you in the "bigger boat" ahead of us. :) Thanks for the real advice. I am a little less jaded about the whole thing. LISA
In agreement with your post sm
Even as a seasoned MT, there is still a lot to learn. I think that is what is so invigorating about the field. There is always a new challenge and changes are happening on a minute-to-minute basis (no pun intended). You will definitely find something you like, I think. There are ones who post they love OPS or ER. I'm a clinic-lover myself, but there are others who really love the Basic-4 or psych. Good luck to you, and glad you had a great trainer. They are out there if you look. 
Great Post!
Couldn't have said it better mahself!
I would have to agree with your post sm
I also recommend on-site transcription at first. I have been in the business for 18+ years with four years of training at a vo-tech high school. The on-site experience helped immensely to prepare me for at-home (independent) transcription. I am not a CMT, but have a lot of experience with different accents, report types, account specifics, etc. You must find your nitch, and this can take years. I have heard some who love acute care. I have found clinic to be more rewarding personally. Different strokes for different folks. I welcome the OP to the world of transcription as you are our future. Take into consideration the responses you receive here as a lot of us have been there and done that. Good luck to you! It does take a lot of work and there are frustrations, but at the end of the day, I always feel that I have played a part in helping people just like any other hands-on patient caregiver/healthcare provider because I have done my best to provide a quality report and take very much pride in what I do. Just one more thing, by working on-site, you will get compliments on your work ethic, which is very much a personal moral booster as well as makes it all worthwhile. When you start out online at home, these types of compliments are not always readily available to you. As the other poster stated in her great post, online at home is mostly production and you must have thick skin to combat QA that can sometimes make you feel incompetent. Keep in mind that IM and e-mail are not warm and fuzzy as they are words on a page. On-site you have real people and a real sense of worth, and once that is gained, you carry that in your heart, which carries over into your career online at home. This is all just my opinion so please take it for what it is worth from a longtimer. I wish you all the best!
I think some Canadians post
over on the MT Chat board. There are a lot of smart people over there, but I'd read much and post little there at first until you get used to that crowd. Very opinionated, shall we say.
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