A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

kid's career testing

Posted: Apr 27, 2011

This will be quick and this will be funny. My boy comes home from 5th grade today, explaining how they all went to computer class and answered questions to ascertain their perfect career. (He tells me his qualifying choices are nuclear engineer, mechanical engineer, etc., -- but that's beside the point).

So, when he gets home, he and his best friend are now at home playing with this career-assigning website. As a joke, they type in "Strongly Dislike" for every single one of the possible 39 questions. Only 11 job possibilities come up by "strongly disliking" everything.

You guessed it!!! Wait for it --- Medical Transcriptionist !!!

;

That's precisely how I landed in Med. Transcription - years ago, by disliking every other job!

[ In Reply To ..]
By the time I landed my first MT job, I had worked everywhere, had dozens upon dozens of regular secretary, receptionist, and "girl Friday" type jobs. The work was okay, though I absolutely detest phones. (Imagine how thrilled I was when E-mail was invented!) Mainly what I disliked about the other jobs were all the SO stuck-on-themselves salesmen, industrial parks, office where smoking was allowed, and certifiably insane bosses. Also worked for several temporary agencies. The jobs I found by answering newspaper ads were usually the WORST of the bunch, and some of the best were temp jobs I got working for Kelly Girl. Funny, how back then, I was considered "highly marketable" because I could:
- Compose a business letter.
- File.
- Spell.
- Read.
- Type.
- Run a 10-key by touch.
- Run an Address-o-graph.
- Operate a Teletype machine.
- Operate a switchboard.
- I was YOUNG!

I've worked at a couple of magazines, a race-car-building company, a toilet factory, a law office, & the Department of Water and Power, to name a few.

(Remember the Carole Burnett Show back in the 70s, and that office-lady character she played, "Mrs. Whiggins"? Well the Water & Power Dept. was JUST EXACTLY LIKE that office! I used to sit there and giggle all day watching people. We even had a "Mrs. Whiggins" and a kind-of-slow boss with a thick accent, who had the hots for their "Mrs. Whiggins".)

I worked as a medical biller in a hospital as a Kelly Girl, long-term. (That hospital hired long-term Kelly Girls instead of making them employees, I guess so they didn't have to pay for insurance.) I worked at one manufacturing company where we were expected to dress up to work in an office where nobody saw us, and at lunch time and break time, the only place to go, or to each, was out in the warehouse with all the Mexican men. Needless to say, I wasn't there long.

I worked at a place that manufactured pens, pencils, and drafting supplies, and for reasons I won't waste your time with here, they overhired for a very simple office-girl job. Most of the time there was NOTHING to do. On a "good" day, we stuffed envelopes or cleaned up the break room. I was bored to tears.

I worked for 2 weeks for a large bank, where their idea of "training" was to sit in a chair all day and watch people make phone calls. (YAWN!)

One of my better temp jobs was at Walt Disney Studios. They had an amazing employee cafeteria with incredibly good food, and lots of it, for not much money. I was sitting there eating my lunch one day, and Eva Gabor walked in. (She was doing voice-work for the animated film, "The Rescuers", at the time.) Another day, the lady in my office who was training me took me out onto a part of the movie lot that wasn't being used that day, and we ate on a set that looked just like New York City.

My favorite temp job was as a typist at an architectural firm. It was high in the mountains, a good hour and a half drive each way, but I loved the job because you could be sitting there typing, and watching deer walk right past your window, or a hawk fly by. And far below, about 7 or 8 miles away, was the Pacific Ocean. All the architects were young, cute, and athletic. Every day after lunch (which by the way, the company PROVIDED for us, free of charge!), we all put on shorts and tennis shoes, and played volleyball out in the parking lot. That was in the wintertime, and in the summer, since there was a swimming pool on the site, they all went swimming on their lunch break. I REALLLY wanted to be hired there full-time, but sadly, the job was only temporary, for about a month.

After I bounced through about 8 or 10 more non-temp jobs, where sometimes I lasted 2 months, and other times, I gave up in as little as 2 HOURS, I finally stumbled into medical transcription when a friend who was an MT let me listen to her tapes and try to transcribe them. I liked it, and after that I went to MT classes at night school.

The MT gig was great while it lasted, but alas, greed & corruption have made it into something that, if I were 25 again today, I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.

How I got into medical transcription....sm - mb

[ In Reply To ..]
My first job out of high school was in a coat factory. I was shacking up with my boyfriend and he had a job at Montgomery Ward in the auto dept. and I ran a sewing machine. I can remember being so happy because we were making so much, he made the princely sum of $5 an hour (this was 1976) and I made minimum wage then, which was $2.30 an hour! We did okay because our rent was only $175 a month and gas and everything else was a lot cheaper then.

Well, after 3 years at the coat factory my boyfriend and I decided to get married. About 6 months later I got pregnant. Back then if you were pregnant you pretty much couldn't tell your boss because you'd be fired. Besides, I had one of those touchy-feely bosses who just loved to put his hands on us girls whenever he could. A select few of the girls got to go riding with him in his sports car at lunch, but that's another story.

The coat factory closed and shipped all of our jobs overseas in early 1980. So I was then pregnant and out of a job, but at least I had a husband who was working and also I got unemployment. Oh, and I got TRA money, too, because my job went overseas. I think it was about $1500 and I used it to buy a little Datsun pickup (ironic, I know). I didn't go back to work as my husband had gotten a better (union) job by then and was making a little more money.

My marriage fell apart in 1984 and I was a young mom with a 4-year-old. I had no skills to speak of and certainly no one was hiring sewing machine operators anymore, so I decided to go to school and Social Services would pay for it. Well, I had 2 choices, accounting or medical transcription. I hated numbers but was a whiz at spelling and typing so guess what I chose? lol

I graduated from the program and right away got hired, but it was at a bank and not at a doctor's office. I had to take the first job that was offered to me because Social Services wanted to get me off their rolls.

So, I worked at a couple of banks for about 5 years, and hated every minute of it.

I decided to go back to college and started out as a medical assistant, but then switched over to coding.

Well I got ripped off by that school as the coding curriculum wasn't approved by the state board and so I couldn't sit for the coding test. What a bummer.

But I did finally get a transcription job. I worked part-time at a radiology clinic and it was great. I really loved it. We typed on these very old computers that had gigantic floppy disks. It took about 10 minutes just to boot them up every day. The radiologists dictated on a belt system and every once in a while if us girls typed too quickly we "ran into them" as they were dictating. That made the doctors very annoyed and so we tried not to do that often.

I made a lot of good friends there and there was really a sense of teamwork, too. The radiologists told us that every report dictated had to go out that day and there were many days when we would be furiously typing away after 5 o'clock and the doctors would be standing behind us, grabbing the reports as they came out of the printer and signing them one by one.

Then I got a job at a transcription service. I worked there for 3 years and then the boss let me work at home. How I miss those days! I was making much, much more than I make now and I only had to work 5-6 hours a day with no set schedule. It was really handy since my daughter was by then entering her teen years and I could keep an eye on her while I worked!

I worked for that service for 13 years before I switched to Medquist. The Q was great for about the first 3 years I worked there, then along came ASR and the pay cut and the cesspool and I guess everybody knows the rest of the story about that.

Now I'm looking for a complete change of pace as far as a job. I don't retire for another 10 years or so and I want to do something different. So who knows what's on the horizon for any of us? I guess only time will tell.

My story... - Old part-timer

[ In Reply To ..]
I went to a vocational/technical school in high school, choosing Medical Office Secretary. I enjoyed every part of my training; taking shorthand, typing letters, etc. We also learned transcription, which was the one part I REALLY didn't like. Once we became seniors, we were eligible to go out on co-op, working half a day. I started looking for a job in January of my senior year in high school and my teacher showed me an ad for a transcription job at a hospital. I didn't really want it, but I wanted ANY job at that point, so I applied. I found out the job paid close to $5/hour in 1975, which was a LOT.

Long story short, I took the job, learned to like it, got pregnant in 1979 and from 1981 on, did transcription from home.

Looking back, it was the hand of God that took me that direction, as the traditional shorthand-taking secretary is a thing of the past and I could never have been home to raise my 3 kids had things gone a different direction.

Similar Messages:

Jul 06, 2011
What do you think when someone that's going through something horrible says 'God is testing me, my faith'? It's one of the many reasons I doubt there's a God....if there were, and one is a believer, why should they be tested? Sounds like torment to me, and why would someone that loves his children torment them in such a way? Would God (if there is a God) be so insecure that he'd need constant proof of one's faith? I thought God knows everything? So wouldn ...

Jan 04, 2014
Can anyone tell me how to do test reports for job in Express Scribe ? SIMPLE instructions please. Tks Theresa ...

Apr 16, 2014
Hello all, tomorrow I am testing for an at home MT job. I'm worried beyond worry. See, I've tested 4 times with other companies, yet not passed their tests. When I've taken these tests, I feel very confident, then my hopes are bashed. I'm highly experienced! I've been out of work for about 3 years. Has so much changed? Or is there a test secret I don't know? Lol! I have done every kind of report there is to do, I have been an MT for 25 yea ...

Mar 21, 2010
It's been in the news here in GA lately so I thought I'd ask.Should recipients of welfare, food stamps and unemployment benefits be subjected to random drug testing? With anyone testing positive being denied benefits. ...

Feb 20, 2012
I'm glad Santorum is getting a lot of attention so Americans can see he is friggin nuts. Rick Santorum said on Sunday he believes specific types of pre-natal testing leads to a greater number of abortions. "A lot of pre-natal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions," he said. "We know that 90 percent of down syndrome children in America are aborted, so to suggest, where does that come from?" His remarks on CBS's "Fa ...

May 26, 2013
link ...

Jan 30, 2017
Thanks Obama! ...

Jan 12, 2015
Are there any medical transcriptionists (current or former) who have embarked on a new career or job? If so, could you please let us know in what field and how it has worked out. I am so excited about getting out of this field, and I could use some extra motivation! : ) Thank you ...

May 04, 2015
Just curious! How many of you have ditched the MT world and started a new career or ventured out into a brand new job? If so, what are you doing now and are you glad you changed careers/jobs? :) ...

May 31, 2010
Has anyone taking a real estate course to become a sales agent? I am thinking of making this move and would like to take an online course, so I can keep transcribing and study in my spare time. Many slow days lately so should have plenty of time for the course. Please share your opinion and advice for an online school. Thanks! ...

Feb 20, 2013
Would be funny if she ended up on Fox! http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/soledad_headed_out_at_cnn_NGuo73hdisQIzTlt8EkkYM ...

Mar 12, 2016
I was looking on some job sites and happened to come across "Internet Researcher" category. We're excellent at that! Most of them want on-site workers, but it's worth a shot to look in your area under this category. ...

Jun 18, 2015
Hi all, I'm wondering what my career alternatives are. I've been an MT for only a little over two years now but I have the beginning of arthritis and carpal tunnel in the same hand. I'm only 38 and was not anticipating this problem so early... I love what I do (minus the crappy pay) and I especially love working from home. Can anyone suggest any alternatives that pay decent with my medical background? I do straight typing and have a pretty large dictionary in my autocorrec ...

Aug 16, 2015
said: The patient was started on Lopressor ASR: The patient was started as an opera singer ...

Jan 18, 2012
I need to find something else. Perhaps you can chime in here with some ideas and help me as well as others! I am VERY detail oriented and have excellent command of English. I love animals. I enjoy puzzles and just about anything that is thought-provoking. I prefer dealing with things rather than the public but can deal with interacting with a handful of coworkers. I don't want to sell because I'm not a liar and am not fake. Generally speaking, ...

Jul 24, 2014
I'm 37 with an almost 4-year-old. When she's in school I'm tempted to take a coding course go back to school for an HIM degree. Is an HIM degree worth the cost? ...

Oct 16, 2012
By taking responsibility for the lack of security in Benghazi, I think she may have just blown her own future. Is she hoping that it will all be forgotten by 2016? What the heck was she thinking? To cover for the President and VP is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Hillary may have to share some of the blame but let's put the blamed where it belongs. Right at the top. The way this story comes out, it's all in her lap...another one bites the dust. Does the WH have something on her and ...

Sep 30, 2016
Let's see... ...free room and board... ...free medical, including any major surgery you might need, and even transgender operations in case you get a whim in that direction... ...free dental, including orthodontia, transplants etc... ...free legal services... ...free college (grad school even!)... ...free gym membership... ...free job counseling and training... ...free cable TV... ...free swimming pool... ...library... ...all the drugs you could ever want... ...and now the vote ...

Jan 10, 2016
Hello, I do not have the money to keep spending on no where careers. I am wondering what people think would be the better at home career for someone who is already an MT? Someone a few years back said she was an MT and got into copyediting after. For those who don't know, a copyeditor is kind of like a proofreader but they also look at content. A medical coder codes procedures, etc. for billing purposes. I have looked into both and cannot make a decision. &n ...

May 04, 2016
The infamous Romanian hacker known as “Guccifer,” speaking exclusively with Fox News, claimed he easily – and repeatedly – breached former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email server in early 2013. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/04/romanian-hacker-guccifer-breached-clinton-server-it-was-easy.html ...

Jan 08, 2016
I know it pleasured me. Not sure if you will feel the same. They need to be exposed. Both of them. Link ...