Working as a transcriptionist from home is a terrific way to generate a consistent income while having the flexibility and safety during the outbreak of the pandemic. Transcription services might be a lucrative job for people who have an experienced typist with excellent grammatical abilities.
Our today’s post will give you the necessary fundamentals of online transcribing jobs to help you get started without delay.
What Do Transcriptionists Do?
A transcriptionist is someone who listens to an audio or video recording and then accurately writes all that is said, resulting in a document that is free of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation problems. Because some transcribing businesses demand accuracy down to the last meaningless sounds like “uh” and “um,” it’s critical to have good attention to detail in this position. Podcasts, interviews, business meetings, and classroom lectures are some of the things you could be requested to transcribe.
There are various sectors that need transcription services, the following are the most common categories of transcriptionists:
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- Medical transcriptionists: People transcribe medical records that contain patient health information.
- Legal transcriptionists: Unlike court reporters, who transcribe live court hearings, legal transcriptionists use word processing software to interpret audio recordings.
- General transcriptionists: Any form of transcriptionist who does not specialize in medical or legal transcription is referred to as a general transcriptionist.
How Much Can You Expect to Earn When Providing Transcription Services?
Transcription is a lucrative profession with several prospects. Newbies usually get roughly $15 per hour, whereas experts earn around $25 to $30 per hour. If you labour 2.5 hours each day for 24 days at this pace, you can easily earn $1,500 every month.
According to PayScale, the average hourly wage for transcription services is $15.22. You also have the flexibility to choose your own hours and have enough power to work as little or as much as you desire on a weekly basis. While 2017 BLS statistics showed that the median annual wage for transcriptionists was $16.95 per hour.
The average yearly compensation for a work-from-home transcriptionist in the United States is $58,441 per year, according to research from Zip Recruiter on January 9, 2022. If you need a quick salary calculator, that works out to about $28.10 per hour. This number equals $1,124 each week or$4,870 per month.
What Are The Other Perks Of Being A Transcriptionist?
Besides a good income, you also receive a lot of benefits from working as a transcription service provider. Some of the most notable are:
#1. Flexible Working Time
As a freelance general transcriptionist, you may work whenever you want. This means you will have the ability to manage your personal and professional calendars. So working at night or during the day, how long it can take, and when to take a break will depend on your choices.
Transcription jobs free you from the constraints of a company’s regular working hours. As long as you don’t flake and can meet stringent deadlines, you’ll be free to prioritize family bonding and other priorities.
#2. Work-Life Balance
Working as an online transcriptionist also allows you to achieve better work-life harmony. As previously said, working as a freelance general transcriptionist allows you to take charge of your personal and professional life. This means you’ll have more opportunities to improve the work-life balance that many people struggle to accomplish when working in an office. You may establish your own hours, keep your professional and personal lives separate, and so much more. The best part is that you’ll be able to concentrate on your business without having to sacrifice your leisure time.
#3. Opportunities For More Jobs
Even if you have a non-transcription line of employment, you may work as a freelance to provide transcription services whether you’re a stay-at-home parent, retiree, or even a college student. You will undoubtedly be able to provide greater results if you possess the required talents of a skilled transcriptionist. Obtaining transcription credentials can also provide you a competitive advantage in the market, and is essential if you wish to apply for specialist transcription professions such as medical transcriptionists or court reporters, or stenographers for legal purposes.
What Skills Are Required For Transcription Services Providers?
#1. Speed and Accuracy of Typing
To fulfil deadlines or write transcriptions on short notice, you’ll need a rapid typing speed. Moreover, transcriptionists must be able to maintain a high degree of accuracy in what they transcribe, regardless of the business in which they operate. Medical transcriptionists must be accurate since the correctness of written documentation helps ensure that a patient is diagnosed and treated appropriately.
#2. Technological Skills
Transcriptionists should be able to use a variety of tools that allows them to pause, rewind, or speed up the audio file they’re working on to match their typing. In addition, they must be able to work with a variety of file types as needed by clients.
#3. Understanding of Languages and Accents
Transcriptionists must be familiar with a variety of accents and have a strong command of the English language in order to effectively transcribe an audio file, especially when the audio quality is poor.
Moreover, most businesses prefer transcriptions that are simple to read and have little modification. To make a clean transcription, transcriptionists should be able to use correct language, punctuation, and spelling.
#4. Industry Knowledge
Legal and medical transcriptionists must be conversant with industry lingo, therefore industry expertise is required. Anatomy, physiology, and common procedures and drugs should all be familiar to medical transcriptionists. Also, people who provide legal transcription services should be knowledgeable about legal jargon, court procedures, and legal systems.
#5. Proofreading Abilities
Once the audio has been converted into written words, transcriptionists must go through the whole transcript to ensure there are no errors. They must also correct any grammatical, punctuation, or spelling errors in the source audio for clean transcription services.
#6. Focus and Adaptability
Because it takes an average of six hours to correctly transcribe one hour of audio, a transcriptionist must be able to focus for lengthy periods of time to finish the transcription on time.
At the same time, transcriptionists that specialize in general transcribing may work in a range of businesses. This implies they must be quick learners in order to grasp a wide range of topics and transcribe audio to provide high-quality transcripts.
Read Part 2 of this series here.
If you are looking for working as a transcription services provider or a transcriptionist for a professional media localization agency, contact our team now. We provide comprehensive transcription services for all major languages in the world.
