This blog is part of a series on transcription. If you haven’t read the other blogs in this series, make sure to check out the summary page for a listing of all transcription blogs.
Missed part three? Check it out here! Otherwise, read on to find out how to bring the ideas listed before all together to work for you.
Many mothers use a combination of these techniques: They work after the kids go to sleep for an hour, they work during naptime, they have the kids watch their favorite show in the afternoon and they work during that show, they work for an hour in the evening while the husband has some father-children bonding time with the kids, or any other combination. It isn’t easy though, and I want to emphasize, again, that the wage will be low when the work is done this way. If you’re jumping up to help the kids get a snack out of the cupboard, or stopping and starting and stopping and starting for whatever reason, that flow is never going to come. I talked to a gal who used to have a lot of distractions throughout the day, and her wage never went above $10 an hour. Once she cleared her distractions out and was able to concentrate fully on transcribing without anything else pulling her attention away, her wage started to climb steadily, and she now averages around $30 an hour.
I wanted to make a big deal out of this because this field is pushed very heavily to the average stay-at-home mother. “Stay at home with your children and make great money–$40,000 a year!” You are never going to make $40,000 a year starting out, even without children, and even if you’re working full time. It just isn’t going to happen. I see ads where the mother has their child sitting on their lap, playing, while the mom types. Amazingly enough, there are no headphones on the mother’s head–perhaps she’s getting the dictation through osmosis, I don’t know. I do know that not even the most talented, been-doing-this-for-twenty-years transcriptionist could work with a child on their lap. When I see the work being portrayed this way, it makes my stomach sink. I know that people see that and think, “I could do that!” They sign up to become transcriptionists with a very false idea of what being a transcriptionist entails. I don’t want that for any of you, my readers, because I have seen how hard people take it when they find out the truth, and I want y’all to go into this with your eyes open, knowing what you’re about to get yourself into.
Speaking of knowing what being a transcriptionist entails, I am going to finish this series off by interviewing both a working MT and QA gal. Don’t miss it!