My Life as a Medical Transcriptionist

how did you get into this field and with how much/what kind of training?

First of all, it's only due to a couple of major administrative foul-ups that I even made it out of my probation period when I got this job. In the first, no one noticed after my first 30-day period that I wasn't anywhere close to meeting minimum production requirements. The second allowed me to continue receiving an hourly salary until I had been with the company for about 10 months, when it should have ended after 14 days. By the time those two things got straightened out, I was both meeting production and making enough to actually pay the bills when they took me off of hourly pay. So I lucked out big time.

I got into the field entirely by accident(?). I needed a job quick back in 1991, went through Kelly Services and ended up getting assigned to the genetics department at one of the local teaching hospitals. The job turned permanent, and I worked there for about six years before going into the computer field for another five or six years. That particular department gave me exposure to a lot of different terminology from just about every specialty you can name, so even though I never had a formal terminology course, I was able to pass the transcription test when I was hired.

What little I know about how hires are made in this field is that usually someone either needs a year or two of current experience (my experience was not current when I was hired - another administrative goof - no wonder they closed that office!) or else an approved training program. Some companies will state right on their web sites what courses they will accept.

Don't expect to make big bucks right out of the gate. Even though I had previous experience transcribing hospital dictation, it still took me a good six months before some of the doctors stopped sounding like they were drunk, and it took about a year before I actually was making what I consider a decent salary at it (which is still about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I was making as a computer tech).

Maybe my sis Annette has some additional insight into the question that she would like to add as a comment to this post?