Searching for transcription jobs and want to earn money online as a transcriptionist? Worrying that you do not have sufficient knowledge or experience previously? Don’t know how and where to start!
Let’s keep a full stop to all your doubts. In the end, after reading this, you will feel confident and ready to start applying for transcriptionist jobs. Come, let’s get started.
What is the Meaning of Transcription Jobs?
Well, let’s try to understand it from the basics. The word transcript means writing or printing some content or information by converting it from another form. So the role of a transcriptionist is to convert from a medium that is an audio file into a written document by typing.
Transcription jobs are popular and amplifying career options nowadays. The transcription job includes listening to an audio file which can be anything and of any subject like nature, medicine, law, or anything.
While listening to that audio file, the transcriptionist needs to have a hundred percent concentration while listening. By listening with focus and attention, the transcriptionist needs to type whatever they listen to in the audio file with the same speed and with maximum accuracy.
The complete audio file should be converted into a document by typing every word accurately. Sometimes it also can be a video file for transcription. A transcriptionist job is very flexible and suitable for students and freelance workers a lot because of its convenient working hours.
Types of Transcriptionist Jobs
You can find many types of transcriptionist jobs. There are numerous types of segregation. But for our convenience and better understanding, let’s just divide them into two types.
- General transcriptionist jobs
- Specific transcriptionist jobs
General Transcriptionist Jobs
You can understand from the term itself that it is not linked with any field or subject so particular. It includes audio files from multiple segments like meetings, speeches, podcasts, conferences, videos, etc.
No previous training is required for a general transcriptionist job because it focuses on multiple areas. It deals with the outline and medium-level subject, it doesn’t dwell on anything so deep.
Still, for a general transcriptionist job, too, one should achieve keen observation and excellent typing skills. Along with them, the typed document should be accurate and good enough.
Specific Transcriptionist Jobs
The name can suggest to you that it’s related to a particular field like medicine, law, etc. Let me help you understand with a real-life example. For example, if you are a medical transcriptionist, you need to type or write whatever the doctor says.
Let’s say the doctor is dealing with a cardiac disease patient and telling you all the patient’s information, analysis, and updates. You need to type or write them precisely without any mismatch too fastly with the doctor’s flow of words.
In typing, you come across different kinds of terminology you may not understand if you don’t have that subject knowledge. You may not get the exact word and spelling for it after listening to it.
You can’t grasp and run with the doctor’s flow because you probably hear about it for the first time. You may not also get the shortcuts used for medicines or tests. Hence a specialized or subject expert is required for specific transcriptionist jobs.
Specific training should be acquired to become a medical transcriptionist. There may be a possibility to take a certification to become a medical transcriptionist. As this is something related to life, everything should be perfect.
Another case of a specific transcriptionist is legal transcription. The transcriptionist here needs to understand the terminology in law and be familiar with the procedures. It may not require specific training but looks for at least experience or familiarity in this to understand court hearings.
There are many other specific fields like finance, accounting, laboratory, etc. These fields require some amount of knowledge to transcribe with speed. Having proper training before and subject knowledge not only helps you to get good transcriptionist jobs but also can help in sustaining and developing your career.
In both cases, whether it’s general or specific, it can be offline or online. A transcriptionist should be able to work on a recorded file and even in a real-time situation.
Skills Required to be a good transcriptionist?
Do you have enough patience to deal with anything? If yes, you are good to go because it’s one of the prominent skills required to be a good transcriptionist.
Excellent typing speed and accuracy is the most important skills to be a good transcriptionist. Along with that, you also need many other important skills that you should acquire.
The skills you should polish are mentioned below with a brief overview and the necessity of it.
1. Active Listening skills
The basic skill to become a good transcriptionist is to have proper listening skills. Proper listening skills enable you to understand what they are saying and help attain a hundred percent accuracy.
Listening skills help you to grasp the words correctly and focus on what the opposite person is saying. Practicing and developing listening skills is a must. For that, you can start by listening to podcasts.
Also, listen to the audiobooks at a slow speed and start writing notes by listening to them. And then also, cross-check whether you have written right or not to develop accuracy.
2. Speed and accuracy
The two components, speed and accuracy, are hard to acquire together. Because if you are running behind the speed, there are chances that you may miss accuracy and may type errors. If you focus particularly on accuracy, you may take a lot of time.
To achieve them together, you need lots of practice at the beginning and also a lot of experience. In the initial days, try to achieve more accuracy than speed; after attaining a certain level, slowly increase your speed in levels.
3. Computing and Excellent typing skills
You should be familiar with computer software, MS Office, word, etc. Along with them, the important one is you should type in the range of 60 to 80 words per minute. You need to type in a good speed level.
There are many websites available to improve your typing skills. Make use of them to become a good transcriptionist. Here are some of the websites suggested for you –
4. Language skills
You need not be a high-level language expert, but you need to be at least at the medium level. Without language skills, you can’t understand anything with the flow. You may take some pauses or might be required to listen to them again without proper language skills.
Make your grammar and vocabulary skills brushed up to the necessary level. You can take the help of the Grammarly site by writing something and can check your grammar.
5. Comprehending and editing
You need to understand, comprehend and type. Omit the expressions and unnecessary content. Also, after everything is done, you need to do your best editing job too. Check your grammar, punctuation and format, flow, etc.
These are the top five main skills you need to develop to become a good transcriptionist.
How to Get Transcription Jobs?
This is the most popular and most searched question in recent times. Especially in these online terms, getting a transcription job is not so difficult. There are many sites which are offering transcription jobs like Upwork, rev, Gotranscript, TranscribeMeetc. Let’s see top sites for transcription jobs.
- Upwork
- TranscribeME
- Rev
- GMR Transcription
- CastingWords
- GoTranscript
- Daily Transcription
- TigerFish
- SpeakWrite
- 3Play Media
- Quicktate
- Scribe
- Crowdsurf
- Transcript Divas
- Babbletype
You can also get lots of jobs on a professional social media site, Linkedin. You can also be active on some social media pages, groups, and forums.
You need to fill in your details on the sites. If there is any test, you need to go for it. On sites like Upwork, you must fill in your details, write a good cover letter, and apply for projects. You can watch a video about how to get a transcription job on Upwork.
It may take some time because there is a huge competition. You need to apply for many projects and try different sites. Somewhere you could find a job, and slowly you can become an expert transcriptionist.
All you need to do is apply for as many projects as possible. Make sure your cover letter is quite impressive, and your sample work should be attractive.
How much do transcription jobs pay?
Well, this question depends on many factors like your level and experience you have. We can’t estimate the exact range, but the entry level can start from around 15 dollars.
It keeps increasing with your experience and can reach around 200 dollars or above. Transcription jobs are paying a good amount to workers nowadays due to the increase in the demand for them. I think you will get an idea from the following image.
Top 5 Places for Searching Best Transcription Jobs Online
It is a great marketplace to get transcribed jobs. They allow more than 60 languages to transcribe. You will also get captions, translation, and foreign subtitles related jobs here.
You can earn lots of money from this marketplace if you can prove yourself as an expert.
Main features
- Flexible working hours
- Choosing own projects
- No charges
- Multiple languages to work
- 0.60$ per minute
After signing up, you need to give a short quiz. Actually, they want to know the level of your experience in transcribing jobs. I think it is good. If you know the general guidelines, standards, and legal requirements of transcription, then you can easily pass it.
2. Upwork
Upwork is one of the most popular freelancing marketplaces. You will get more than 100 types of work here. As it is the most professional freelancing marketplace, you may not get jobs here at the beginner level.
Main features
- Apply for projects you like
- Negotiable rate
- Negotiable time
- Multiple languages
- Select the client and subject
One thing that you need to keep in mind that your Upwork profile is your first impression on potential clients. So, I believe you should complete your profile 100% before bidding for work.
3. Transcribe
If you are looking for raw transcription jobs, Transcribe can be one of the most suitable options. Because of the features Transcribe provides, it gained popularity within such a few periods.
Main features
- 15$ to 20$ per hour
- Regular payout
- Steady workstream
- Expert training
- Flexible working hours
You need to be familiar with the guidelines Transcribe provides. These guidelines will help you to cover the topics like formatting, punctuation, and speaker identification.
4. Scribie
Like other transcription sites, Scribie is also a site where you can earn money by doing transcription jobs. You can start working here by signing up and accepting their terms and conditions. Scribie provides some great features that will be suitable for you.
Main features
- $5 to $20 per hour
- Automated transcripts before
- Beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels
- Transcriber Guide
- Monthly bonus
Scribie keeps your profile confidential. That means no one will see who did the work. So, you can do transcription easily using this website.
5. Rev
Rev provides professional audio transcription services. If you can get inside Rev, you can develop your transcription a lot. It offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features. The features include –
- Own project selection
- Weekly payment
- Flexible working hours
- Good support
Rev needs you to become a freelancer on their platform. To get started, you need to complete a series of assessments to ensure they meet their transcription standards.
Conclusion
This is the whole discussion about transcription jobs. Hope now you have understood well about the transcription jobs.
Develop all the necessary skills mentioned above and start with the process. You need some patience initially. But later you will be busy with so many projects. Hope you have enjoyed reading.
