Financial Transcriptionist Overview
The world of finance is always expanding. Today, more than ever, meetings are held in a wide variety of places, not just in the board rooms and lunches. They may be over the internet, phone or even satellite. These meetings may cover more than one country, with each participant in their own country. That is why the need for financial transcriptionists has increased over the last decade.
A financial transcriptionist is a person who transcribes such things as: client relations, business surveys, earnings calls, press conferences, interim results, annual meeting, seminars, training sessions, interviews, speeches, analyst interviews, company reports and financial reports. These often will be recorded on some type of media, such as video or audio and may or may not be digital.
What skills are needed to be a financial transcriptionist?
For any transcriptionist, there are a certain set of skills that are required. The most important of these is typing and keyboarding skills. The typing requires both speed and accuracy. Since the pay is always based on a rate that means the faster you type, the more you receive, most companies require at least 60 wpm. If you’re typing speed is not at that level, you can visit websites like TypingtTest.com where you can practice typing, bringing your speed and accuracy up. Many companies will administer a typing test, so don’t think that just because you’re applying online that you don’t have to meet that requirement.
In the keyboarding section, because it’s financial stuff, you will need to be able to use a 10-key board (generally located on the right hand side of the keyboard) and all the mathematical functions quickly and accurately. Along with that, you will want to know a lot of the keyboard shortcuts without having to stop to look then up.
When it comes to financial matters, you may have to sign a non-disclosure clause and be able to keep what you see and/or hear private. Because some the transcription maybe highly sensitive, you may have to go through a background check. If you can’t keep a secret, then don’t apply for these jobs.
You will also need the ability to follow directions. Because much of financial transcription has to do with numbers, and the placement of numbers and other financial statements, you’re ability to understand how they want them placed is imperative. You may want to take a basic accounting course so that you can understand what exactly they’re talking about.
Is an education required to have a job as a financial transcriptionist?
Short answer is not above a GED. However, you may want to take a certification course in transcription that will give you a good basis from which to build on. These courses will cover things such as how to use various transcription equipment, how to listen and type what you hear, how to proofread and edit your finished product, basic formatting for several different types of programs such as Word and Excel along with how to use certain operating systems.
You will also be given medical, legal and business terminology if you so choose, business law, general office procedures and other related courses. You may also be given business math and a very general accounting course. Another important part of these courses is English grammar, as it is one of the most important parts of transcription-knowing how to punctuate, knowing when to start a new paragraph, and understanding the rules is a vital part of financial transcription.
What training will help you to be a good financial transcriptionist?
Following with the education, the training that will help you most is a certification in transcription that can be found online or at local schools. While not required, the courses and education that you receive in these classes will only serve to increase your employability and give you a leg up on the competition who doesn’t have a certification.
You can also take some extra course such as accounting, economics and political science to help give you a better basis to understand the work you are doing. While it is somewhat easy to type what you hear, knowing the terminology and how it all works together will help you to be more clear in your overall transcription.
How much does a financial transcriptionist get paid?
The answer to this question depends. It depends on whether you are working for a private financial company, a transcription services company or as a freelance transcriptionist. However, there are some basic ways that they pay, including:
- By the Page: You will get paid for every page that you produce. The rate on this can range from $3.00-$7.00
- By the Audio Hour: This pay rate is based on how many audio hours you transcribe. An audio hour is how long the recording or video is, not the length of time it took you to transcribe it. This rate ranges from $7.00-$20.00 per hour.
- By the Hour: Now, this is paid by the hours you work and is very dependent on whether you work for a financial company, a transcription services company or freelance and also is dependent on what state you live in. Most hourly rates run from $3.00 (freelance) – $15.00 per hour.
- By the Project: This really applies to those that are freelancers. You may pick up a project from private clients for one or more transcriptions for which you will get a flat fee. These can range from $20.00 – $100.00+, depending on project size.
Where can I find financial transcriptionist jobs?
There are a wide variety of places that you can find jobs, but here we will discuss a few of the online sources for financial transcriptionist employment.
TranscriptionJobsHQ.com: We have partnered with top companies to offer you a very easy-to-use job search engine that pulls all listings from Simply Hired, Monster, and Indeed to show you just about all of the legal transcription jobs that you can find on the internet. If you can’t find your job here feel free to keep searching elsewhere, but we are confident that our database has most of them.
Upwork.com: The transcription jobs on this website range from large to small. Once you create a profile, start out by charging a reasonable rate by audio/video minute and then build up your profile to eventually have a higher cost and repeated clients. It takes some time, but this can be a great way to get multiple clients coming back over and over again.
Rev.com: This is a great company to join if you'd like consistent transcription work provided to you. The problem with joining this company is that you'll be paid less per audio minute because they have to make money too, but they are very consistent with the work that they get.
Simplyhired.com: This is a job listing site that covers a wide range of industries. You can search by keywords such as transcription or corporate transcription. You will want to have a general cover letter that you can edit for each job and a relevant resume as you apply directly to the company itself. These jobs can be at home or in an office.
Careerbuilder.com: One of the largest of the job listing sites, careerbuilder.com has been around for well over 15 years. Again, you will want to upload a relevant resume and have a general cover letter that you can review and edit for specific companies. Since companies can also search the database for relevant workers, it is good to have a copy there as well.
Again, using key words, you will search the database for relevant jobs and apply per the specifics listed in the job details.
Monster.com: Another large job listing site, you can upload resumes, use the resume builder, develop cover letters, search the database for position and review job details. You will apply to each job per the instructions listed in the job details.