General Transcription Jobs Overview
Today, more and more people, especially stay at home mothers, are looking for a way to earn money at home. With the economy sluggish, there are many sites that promise easy money, but only for a fee to enter their system. One of the best up and coming ways to bring in that much needed extra income is through general transcription jobs.
But, you may be wondering, what a general transcription job is and more importantly, where can I find them and how does it work. This article will explain the details, give you the requirements and show you some various ways so that you can get started in this very beneficial and rewarding industry, all from your own home.
What Are General Transcription Jobs?
If you are not familiar with transcription, the term general transcription may be foreign to you. First, let’s define what transcription is and then we can define general transcription jobs. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines transcribe as:
tran•scribe transitive verb tran(t)-ˈskrīb
: to make a written copy of (something)
: to write down (something that is spoken)
So, transcription is the process of writing (or typing) something that is spoken, generally from audio or video files. There are several different types of transcription including general, medical and legal.
General transcription jobs are those transcriptions that are not specialized. These can be telephone conversations, YouTube videos, teleconferences, webinars, seminars, classes, speeches, just about anything that can be recorded.
What skills are needed to do general transcription jobs?
One the most important skills for any type of transcription job is the ability to type accurately. Now, today, more people are capable to typing quickly due to the use of the internet. We type in everything, which has given more people keyboarding skills.
Typing speed is another factor. Because more and more people have keyboarding skills, the speed at which you can type then becomes a factor. Many general transcription jobs are paid by the audio hour or minute. Many have a certain typing speed to which they require, with most starting about 60 wpm.What this means is that for every hour of audio, not your time typing it, is what you are paid on. So, the faster you type, the more you can get done. The more you can get done, the more you can make.
Depending on what country you are from, often a requirement is understanding and speaking English. Many transcription jobs are in the US and so, understanding English is a prerequisite. Also, a good knowledge of Microsoft Word is helpful as most transcriptions are put into a Word document, so knowing how Word works and how to format is extremely helpful.
There are other skills that you will develop as you work in this field. Each client will have their own format instructions, particular ways they want to handle things. Some will want a verbatim (word for word) transcription, some will have specific instructions for areas of a recording where people are talking over each other (cross talk), inaudible or unintelligible sections and how to notate these areas.
Is an education required to have a job in general transcription?
For most general transcription jobs, no specific education is needed. However, a good working knowledge of English grammar and rules is helpful. Because recordings don’t come with anything that says new paragraph, understanding how to know when to start a new paragraph is important, otherwise the transcription will look and read awkward, reducing the likelihood the client would reuse you.
However, each company is different and you will need to look at their specific educational requirements to know if that company/client is right for you.
What type of training will help you be good at general transcription?
As mentioned above, English grammar and keyboarding skills are both extremely helpful. If you want to increase your typing speed, there are free programs on the internet that will help you to practice keyboarding as well as helping you increase your typing speed.
A Microsoft Word class would also be helpful so that you can easily open, format and build your text.
How much do general transcription jobs pay?
This depends completely on the company or client. Many offer an hourly rate that range from $5.00/audio hour all the way to $15.00/audio hour. Some offer a per transcription rate which can range from $8.00/transcription all the way up to $20.00/transcription. Others will pay by the word or by the page.
You will need to check your clients pay rate to determine exactly how much you will be paid.
What are the types of general transcription jobs available?
There are many different types of general transcription jobs available, but this is a list of the most common ones you’ll see while scouring the internet. Clicking on any of these items will give you greater detail about what they are.
Offline Captioning Transcriptionist
Where can I find general transcription jobs?
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.