Podcast: What Transcription Companies are Looking for in ICs, Part 3

In the third file of our podcast series, I had the opportunity to talk with Patrick Gubbins of Way With Words. He introduces his company and describes what they're looking for in independent contractors and how you can apply. The entire podcast is now available here:

Download here (Right click and choose "Save target as..." to download a copy to your desktop.)

Open in a media player (Please note that some computer systems may only prompt you to download the file using this link.)

Professionalism When Discussing Rates

Last week, we talked about some of the factors that contribute to rates on files, specifically when contracting with transcription companies. This week, I want to talk about the flip side.

As professionals – which we are – it is important that we maintain a level of integrity so that our contracts know they can trust us. In my experience, this leads to more easily being able to ask for an increased rate on a file because they trust that you wouldn't be asking if it didn't deserve it.

For example:

• You have an 82-minute file. There's 12 minutes of silence at the end. What do you do?



• You receive a file that indicates that there are 5 speakers and includes an increased rate for that reason. However, two of the speakers simply introduce themselves at the beginning, never to be heard from again. What do you do?



• You ask for an increased rate on a file because of poor audio but once you get started you realize that you were wrong and the voices are clear. What do you do?

We come across countless situations like this as transcriptionists, and it's important that you determine to maintain your professionalism and integrity, even if it means sacrificing $10 or $20.

I'd love to hear from you on this subject as well. Have you had any situations like this? How did you handle it? Is this something you hadn't thought of before?

Podcast: What Transcription Companies are Looking for in ICs, Part 2

In the second file of our podcast series, I had the opportunity to talk with Sharon Lee Harkey of Purple Shark Transcriptions. She shares her thoughts on the changes in the industry over the last 15 years, what it takes to be a succesful transcriptionist and the challenges and benefits of working with independent contractors.

To listen, choose from one of the options below:

Download here - Right click and choose "Save target as..." to download a copy to your desktop.

Open in QuickTime

Listen on Switchpod




----------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Today we're talking with Sharon Lee Harkey, who owns and runs Purple Shark Transcriptions, providing transcription services to corporations, authors, journalists, doctoral students and others. Today we're going to spend a few minutes talking about the industry as a whole and her experience working with independent contractors.

Hi, Sharon.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Hi.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
So, let's jump right in. How did you get into the transcription business, and how have your corporate skills helped you in the industry?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
How I got started – I spent, oh, a very long time working as a secretary, and obviously transcription was certainly a part of that. And in 1995, I became disabled, and – but I already had a couple of corporate clients, so when I lost my job, I just kept going. (Laughter)

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
That's a great opportunity there.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
And didn't – yeah, it's not a recommended way of doing it, (Laughter) but I'm certainly a lot happier this way anyway.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right, definitely. And do you feel like the skills you had acquired in other aspects of working in the corporate world have benefitted you running your own transcription business?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Yes, I do. Partly because I worked for – well, I worked for lawyers (Laughter) and other corporate entities, but I certainly learned a lot from seeing how other organizations were set up and what good business practices were as opposed to not so good ones and learned some pitfalls and things like that along the way. And of course, I also learned a certain amount of organizational skills.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Great.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Because I'm basically not a particularly organized person, and I had to learn how to do things so that I could at least pretend to be organized.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
(Laughter) And so, what year did you get started in, then, on your own?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
1995.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Okay. And how have you seen the transcription industry change since then?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Well, the major change, of course, is that in 1995 there was no such thing as digital audio. It was all tape. And now it's like 99.94 percent digital. But that's the major thing, which actually made things a lot easier, both on the client side as well as on the independent contractor side.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right, definitely. Definitely. So, when did you expand your business from just working on your own and start hiring independent contractors?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Almost immediately, partly because I was ill, and I had a job that needed to be finished in a reasonable amount of time. And so, at that point, I dragooned a couple of friends, actually, into helping me with that. But as time went on and my business built, it just sort of grew. For a long time, it would be periods of really heavy duty activity, and so I would need extra people to help, and I even had a yearly – an annual event that I had a contract for for a few years where I had to turn around an enormous number of transcripts in a really short time. And so, I would hire just for that.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Okay. That's great. And what do you think in that time has been the best part of working with independent contractors as well as the hardest part?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Well, the best part has been finding such an incredible, wonderful people to work with, especially that, first of all, of course we're all around the country and other parts of the world as well, so that in itself makes life interesting. But there are all sorts of different backgrounds and strengths and weaknesses, and that's sometimes the hardest part too. (Laughter) Yeah. But being able to interact with so many, like I said, really wonderful, smart people – it's great.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
And is there any –

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
The hardest part has been finding all of you. (Laughter)

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
How many people are currently on your team?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
I think I'm up to – it's nine or ten. I can't quite keep track. I think we're back up to ten, actually, but I'm not sure.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Great. Okay, and is there anything that makes a transcriptionist stand out from the rest?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
I think I'd rather answer that in terms of what I look for, and the first thing I look for is, is the person smart. Because I have very high standards in terms of the quality of the transcripts that I send out, and somebody who doesn't have the vocabulary or doesn't have the intelligence to know what somebody might be saying because they're not connecting the dots or something, then that's – that's something that's important to me. That's what I'm going to look for first. And the English vocabulary, the grammar, those are important. And then somebody who's relatively easy to work with and somebody who doesn't require a lot of handholding. And then the last thing – well, not the last thing, maybe. It's certainly not the only thing, but somebody who's willing to accept what I'm willing to pay them. (Laughter) Able to pay them is more to the point. So, those are the big three, I think, in terms of what I'm looking for.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Okay, I'm going to go a little off script here and ask you a couple more questions based on what you just said.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Sure.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Can you talk a little bit about the importance of research in a transcript?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Oh, it's key. It really is. And I'm always impressed with the level of research that I get from – that I see that the Sharks do. I mean, I've always done it, and it's not something that you automatically expect somebody else to do, but it's really helpful when they do. Because I try to get the clients to give us as much information as possible, but either they don't respond, or they only give us part of the information. So, being able to go to Google and find somebody's name, somebody's company name, things like that, or geographic location, perhaps, really makes our transcripts, I think, stand out.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right, great. Okay, and then could you talk – I saw on your site that you reference "verbatim lite" as a style of transcription. Can you talk a little bit about what that means for you?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Well, what I mean by verbatim lite is that we don't include the "ers," the "ahs," the "you knows," things that don't actually add anything to the flow of the conversation, to what's actually being said and what the clients are actually looking for. In other words, not going to be –

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right, which requires a level of intelligence by itself to be able to make that distinction.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
That's true, because there's sometimes where you do want to include "you know." (Laughter) Most of the time you don't, but there are times. And it's also in terms of readability is the main goal, and so, putting in all the things that-that – "that-that-that-that," all those. You would take those out. All the false starts. Those things are just not germane to the conversation. They're not – just not helpful in terms of what the client actually needs from the transcript.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right. Definitely. And then, last question, would you have any advice for anyone who's just getting started in this industry?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Well, the first thing would be to make sure that it's something that you are going to enjoy doing. There are so many people out there who think, "Oh, I know how to type fast, and I'm sure I could pick this up." And the thing is unless you have actually done it, you can't really tell whether, A) you're going to be good at it, and B) if you're going to – I mean, some people just hate it. It's just not something that they enjoy doing. And so, I would recommend not doing it in that case because then pretty much –

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
It can be tedious if you're not enjoying it at all.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Exactly. Exactly. And sure, we get material that is boring or difficult, but that's the name of the game, and of course, there are those wonderful times when the material is both clear and fascinating. So –

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
That's a good question. What's been maybe the most fascinating subject – without breaking any confidentiality, of course (Laughter) – but subject that you've had a chance to work on?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Oh, well, that's – the most obvious answer is that I've transcribed some celebrities, so that's always been interesting.

I've had other much more interesting things. Amazingly enough, I seemed to, very early on, landed in a lot of management consulting jobs, and that can actually be really interesting, particularly when you're listening to people who are really, really smart talking about it and realizing that, yeah, there are people who really do spend a lot of time thinking and trying to make work life better and easier. So, that alone is fascinating to me.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
And you've done a fair amount on sustainability as well.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Yes, and I'm certainly really happy to be involved in that.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Yeah, those are very interesting. Could you share some of your tips for juggling multiple clients when you have a lot of work coming in at once?

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Oh my goodness. Just – the best way to do it, at least so far as I've found, is to just have the systems set up that enables you to really keep track of everything. And the other thing that I do – and this is just for me – is I go through my e-mails one at a time, and I deal with each e-mail right away. I don't go on to the next one and then think I'm going to go back to the original one because I've discovered that that's the way I drop balls. (Laughter)

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
I identify with that. I have that problem too, "Oh, I'll go back to it later."

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Yeah, no, it doesn't – bad idea.

Mandi, Transcription Talk:
Right, definitely. Well, great. Thank you so much for taking the time today to talk with us. We really appreciate it, and I think that our listeners will get a lot of everything you've shared as well.

Sharon Lee Harkey, Purple Shark Transcriptions:
Well, thank you, Mandi.

Podcast: What Transcription Companies are Looking for in ICs

We are very excited to be sharing this podcast with you, which is hopefully just the first of many to come. We recently had the opportunity to talk to the CEO for one of the larger transcription companies in this industry, who was kind enough to share some very useful and valuable information with us regarding this career as a whole as well as a little about outsourcing and a lot about what they are looking for in work-at-home independent contractors (ICs).

We have several options for listening to this podcast:

Download here - Right click and choose "Save target as..." to download a copy to your desktop.

Open in QuickTime

Listen on Switchpod

(Note from Tara: The Switchpod player and site were crashing my IE. If you experience this problem, please leave us a comment so we can look into this issue further!)





TRANSCRIPT

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
Today we're talking with JR, who is the CEO of one of the larger transcription companies in the industry. He's taking the time today to answer a few questions for those of you who might be interested in learning about working in the industry. Hi, JR.

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
Hi, Shaina.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
As you look for new ICs how important are cover letters and résumés to you?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
I think résumés and cover letters are actually really important. A lot of times because it's over the internet or because it's via email there's times where I think people might send off a résumé or a cover letter a lot more casually than they would if they were sending a formal letter. We can typically tell almost immediately who's taken the time to really take interest in the position of a transcriptionist versus the ones who've kind of sent of a résumé from some job posting site they found that lists a lot of different non-telecommuting jobs.

So, to me, they're very important, and it's something that anybody that's thinking about working from home should treat it just as the same as they would as if they were applying for a real job.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And are there any things that grab your attention when you look through a list of potential independent contractors?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
Yeah. There's a few things. One of the best ways to probably grab the attention for any job that anyone's applying for over the internet is to actually put text in your email, meaning like that's probably actually the best place to put your cover letter. And a lot of times, if you're going to put text in there, a lot of times the shorter the better. You could still put a cover letter and a résumé attached.

But generally speaking, what we look for is someone who's taken the time even in that email to mention the word "transcriptionist" because that immediately lets us know that, okay, they're really interested in being a transcriptionist; they're not just looking for ten different jobs and sending, again, off that blank, general résumé. So, I think that helps a lot because that way whoever's looking at it is not having to open up a separate attachment just to read the cover letter, but it immediately grabs your attention.

I think it's also important if you can put your résumé in a Word document. That's just the standard really for businesses today. Occasionally we'll get résumés in Word Perfect documents, and sometimes people will put a note saying, "Let me know if you can't open this," and 100 times out of 100 that's going to result in no one contacting them because we're not going to take the time to email someone to ask them to resend their résumé in a format that really – when Word should be the standard.

But I think those are the big things. Even if they're not qualified for it, if they don’t have a lot of experience, I think just mentioning why they're interested in the actual position is always helpful. I would encourage people at the same time to avoid sharing personal stories. We do get a lot of applicants who will tell us why they need the money or why they need the job, and it could range from health problems to maybe a spouse who just got laid off of work. I know, at the risk of sounding callous, that, honestly, it doesn’t help get a job. It's actually personal information you probably shouldn’t share in applying for a professional position, no matter how hard things might be right now for you financially. I think the more professional you can keep it the better, as compelling and tempting as it might want to be to share that. I think it's just – it’s better all the way around to kind of keep it to why you're interested in the position.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
Great. What things most stand out to you when you start looking at transcription tests, both negative and positive?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
The biggest one is following the directions. I think the ones that haven't followed instructions on the test files that we send we can literally probably take five seconds to look at and immediately know that they're not in consideration because it's that obvious. We're really sticklers for who we bring on, and we basically figure if someone can't wow us on a test file, then they're probably not going to be that good of a fit for the company.

It's something that if a test file is kind of your one chance to get your foot in the door and to kind of say, "Look, I am a hard worker; this is what I can do," a lot of the tests we get back sometimes don’t look like people spent that much time on it. So, that's the biggest thing I can say without probably – without giving anything too specific away, I guess, in terms of what we're looking for.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And then, do you have specific guidelines as to whether people pass the test, such as how many inaudibles they have or how many misplaced commas they're allowed before the test is considered failed?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
We don’t have anything – there's not a formula, I would say. There are clear things that we're looking for and clear, specific things, and usually there's clear, general things that we're looking for in terms of, again, formatting and following the instructions and basically having the document look as identical to the sample template that we give them. But then there are also specific ones we're looking for that might be related just to that test file.

So, one big thing that I think impacts people's ability to hear the files is doing it with headphones. People that maybe don’t have experience transcribing or think, "Oh, this is easy. I can type and listen," they might be listening to it through their speakers, and there's just a lot, lot more that you can hear through a good pair of headphones and also – also, sometimes, depending on the quality of some people's sound cards. We find those are two really big things that will impact people's ability to hear audio because we do pick audio that's a bit harder to do than just perfect audio, because we do want to work with independent contractors who can do good audio and occasionally bad audio too.

So, we're not really picky, I would say, as much with the number of commas or that sort of thing as, again, we are just really wanting it to look like a clean document and look very similar to the template that we've given. So, the positives would just be, again, following the instructions, just doing their best to look up terms they couldn't find, just really just showing they took time to make this file look as good as they can. And when they do that, I think it will typically – it will stand out.

The negatives that we see are usually people guessing on words and being kind of sloppy, not indicating that they had guessed on the words by putting them in red text, not looking up terms, not putting the header and the footer in the right place, forgetting to – just, again, the nuances of the formatting, forgetting to follow that. Because it's really a test in following directions because we feel like if we can – if people can do well at following directions and are teachable, they're going to do great.

Because we've hired people that have worked for years in the transcription industry, and we have several transcriptionists who we're their first job, but because of their ability to learn and their humility in kind of learning new things and wanting to do their best – their teachability, I guess, is the word I'm looking for – that just goes so far because they're going to continue to want to get better, and they're going to be open to suggestions as well. And those are the kinds of people that we want to work with.

So, generally speaking, that's kind of what we look for, and we tend to only bring on a tiny fraction of the people that actually test with us for that reason.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
So, you sort of already answered this, but what do you expect from your independent contractors, and what would you consider key to a successful long-term relationship?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
I would say the two biggest things that we expect from our ICs and probably the same answer maybe to both questions is professionalism and good communication. We're actually very understanding and, I think, gracious when emergencies do arise because they're gonna arise, just like they would in the real world. If you were sitting here in the office, there's going to be times where your – one of your kids is sick and you have to rush to the hospital or whatever it might be. But so, like any, I think, working relationship, I think trust does need to be built over time, and I think one of the things that that is based on is on good communication and that professionalism.

So, for example, we've had several times where an independent contractor might not finish a file, and that's one thing, but then to be told at the last minute on the day that it's due is just not acceptable. We'll be told that they weren't near a computer or something to that effect, but we think, "Well, why couldn't they have called?" Again, in the real world it would – that's how you would do it. You wouldn’t just send an email to someone. You would probably pick up the phone and say, "Hey, I'm having problems on this."

So, I think that's the big thing is just good communication, and that goes for both ends. We're not perfect on our end, and so whenever there's confusion or something that we're not clear about on our end, we always want our independent contractors to know they should always clarify with us and that that door is completely open to do just that. But the ones that have been with us the longest probably are the ones who treat this just like they would a real job in the real world because that really speaks volumes kind of to who they are, and also, it does build a lot of trust in that working relationship.

So, my suggestion would be, I guess, for people who want to make a career out of this that they need to treat it and think of it as a real job, not just the fact that because they're getting to telecommute that it makes it more casual or less of a profession. And I find the ones that really do see this as a profession are the ones that really shine and make a great career out of it, both financially and also in longevity in their relationship specifically with us.

And so, you asked – let's see. You also asked – or I mentioned communication, I guess, in regards to your second question about long-term relationship. Again, communication I would say and even just directness from independent contractors, that if there was a file that was more difficult or, again, if there's some sort of problem that's arisen, for that communication to be really prompt and timely and also direct and succinct is also really helpful. Because we're dealing with so much stuff that we're trying to manage that longer emails are sometimes kind of harder to respond to because they take more time to sit down and focus on. So, a lot of times if the problem can just be kind of out there and, "Here's what it is," that helps us then in making sure that the expectations are fair and clear on both sides.

But let's see here. What else? I think that's it. I'd say, again, our most successful transcriptionists are the ones who do communicate like that. I know I can think of one example where we had a transcriptionist who I think was working with a new account executive here in the office, and she wasn't getting as much work as usual, and she let us know. That's happened I think maybe even a couple times. So, I know independent contractors sometimes don’t want to rock the boat or maybe come off as complaining, but if we don’t know – just as they don’t know what's going on in our world, if we don’t know what's going on in theirs we're not able to realize, "Oh, gosh. We haven't gotten them work," or whatever, and people start to assume and assume the worst sometimes in thinking we're not interested in using them anymore or whatever.

So, I think anytime there's questions like that that are impacting that trust relationship, I think it's good just to kind of ask and have the communication be really clear and out there so that neither side makes any assumptions and everything like that. So, we are trying to implement some tools in the future that I hope will kind of increase the efficiency for everyone in terms of that communication and make things even easier than they are now, but for now, those are the big things.

And just to be available too on the phone. Again, just like a real job, if there's an emergency that we have or we need to get a hold of you ,we want to be able to get a hold of you. To get people that don’t have voicemail or don’t pick up their phone or whatever, that can be kind of frustrating, just like it'd be frustrating for independent contractors if they can't get a hold of us during business hours.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And has your company ever considered outsourcing transcription work overseas?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
We've not, and I'm hopeful that we never, ever will. I'm hoping that – my thought on it is that from day one we really wanted to provide a service that used – basically that kept jobs here in the U.S. And the one trend that I do see is that I think with all areas of outsourcing is that I think more and more people are really getting kind of fed up with it, not just from an economic perspective because of how much it's impacting the economy, but the quality, I believe, on every front, from transcription to getting help with your computer when it breaks down. People might be really well intentioned and helpful, but at the end of the day there's just something very nice about talking with people that speak your own language, literally.

And so, yeah, our goal is to always keep that here in the U.S. because we just think the value and the service that we can provide for our independent contractors and vice versa is just something that is really important and something that we wouldn’t want to compromise just to make a little bit more money because you can get it done cheaper overseas.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
Along that same note, would you ever consider working with U.S. citizens that are living overseas?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
We would, and in fact, in the past we have, and that's – so, one of our – our only really one requirement at this point is that you have to be a U.S. citizen. We have had one, I think two, maybe, in the past that were full U.S. citizens but did work overseas. And, yeah, so we have done that in the past, and it tends to not be the norm, but it's something that we're absolutely open to and have done in the past for sure and will do in the future.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And what is the most satisfying or rewarding aspect of working with independent contractors you currently work with now?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
Well, I hope for them, meaning the independent contractors – I hope they realize, I guess, that they know that they're not just providing financial for themselves or their families, but they really are actually helping people. Transcription really isn't one of the more glamorous jobs. When I often tell people what I do, a lot of people don’t even know what it is. And so, I think a lot of people don’t realize what a helpful service it is. We're really helping people get their information organized in a way.

So, I guess my hope – that's one of the satisfying things for me, I guess, is hoping that the independent contractors see that and know that it's more than just a job. But in the end, our entire team of people that we're providing a really great service to some great, great people out there.

And for us, on the satisfying end, it's just that we truthfully really love working with our independent contractors. We work with some of the best people possible and have just met some incredible people through the process. And despite us not working physically in the same office there's very much – I would consider there very much to be a real relationship that's established. We have some that have been with us for – gosh, almost over four years and others who are just coming onboard.

And so, I think that relational aspect is nice, apart from the service and apart from the business side. It's nice to know that we're providing work for our independent contractors, and they are, in turn, providing things for themselves and their families. But the bigger picture is the relational end of the relationship between us and our independent contractors and, ultimately, how that impacts our relationship with our clients. It's a full – the whole process is tied together. You can't have any without the other.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And then, what's next for your company? Do you have any big changes in the works that you could tell us about?

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
We do have some big changes coming up, none of which I can talk about now. But I can say there will definitely be changes that will make things a lot easier for our freelancers or for our independent contractors and our clients and then, hopefully, for everybody all across the board. So, we're always trying to get better at what we do, and my hope is that some of these changes that are upcoming will reflect just that. So, time will tell if they do, but I'm pretty confident they will, and I'm excited about it.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
And I think those are all the questions that we have for you. I just want to thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

JR, Transcription Company CEO:
Absolutely. Thanks so much for the time as well. Thanks, Shaina.

Shaina, Transcription Talk:
Yeah.

Getting Started – Companies that Hire Independent Contractors

There are numerous ways to find transcription work. You might go out in search of your own personal clients offline. You could also try services like Guru.com or Elance or even Craigslist. Or finally you could search out companies that hire independent contractors, which is the topic we'll be covering today. We'll be covering the two other areas in the near future, and I'll be posting about tips for contacting companies that hire ICs next week.

We've got a long list of companies that are known to contract with ICs for you today. The majority of these companies hire for general transcription work. Between the three of us, we have worked with many of the companies on the list; however, because they are listed here should not be taken as a personal endorsement by any one of us. It is important that you always take the time to do your own due diligence work on any company you are considering contracting with.

Accentance
http://www.accentance.com/

Accutran Global
http://www.accutranglobal.com/

ANP Transcriptions
http://www.anptranscriptions.com/

Cambridge Transcription
http://www.ctran.com/

Chromolume Transcription
http://www.chromolumeinc.com/

CyberDictate
http://www.cyberdictate.com/

Domenchelli Business Services
http://www.moderndayscribe.com/

Escriptionist
http://www.escriptionist.com/

Express Document Service
http://www.expressdocument.net/

GMR Transcription
http://gmrtranscription.com/

Mass Transcription
http://www.masstranscription.com/

Morningside Partners, LLC
http://www.fdch.com/

Neal R. Gross
http://nealrgross.com/

NetTranscripts
http://www.nettranscripts.com/

OSI Transcription
http://www.ositranscription.com/

Production Transcripts
http://www.productiontranscripts.com/

RapidText
http://www.rapidtext.com/

SpeakWrite
http://typist.youdictate.com/

TASK Document Services
http://usetask.com/

Tigerfish
http://www.tigerfish.com/

The Transcription Company
http://www.transcripts.tv/

Transcription 2000
http://www.transcription-services.org/

Transcription Center
http://www.tscribe.com/

TSI Transcription Services, Inc.
http://www.tsitranscripts.com/

Ubiqus
http://www.ubiqus.com/

Wheelers
http://www.wheelers.co.uk/

Wordz Xpressed
http://www.wordzx.com/

Getting Started – Tigerfish Test for Practice

If you've already been practicing with audio and have reviewed the basic style differences, perhaps you'd like to try your hand at an actual test. Most companies will not offer to let you test until you've applied and they've reviewed your qualifications, but a handful of companies have their tests located on their website so that anyone may attempt them. This is a very useful tool for anyone looking for a real-life scenario of how a test would be formatted, and you may even end up with a contract from it!

One such company that has their test online is Tigerfish. After reading the instructions on their employment page, you can download their style guide as well as the test audio. I would recommend that you read the style guide thoroughly before attempting to transcribe the audio. If you are interested in actually submitting your test, instructions for that are included on their site. The receive a large number of tests every week, so you may or may not hear back from them, but it's still a valuable experience.

Please know that this is not an endorsement of the company but simply an additional resource for practicing and getting a feel for a testing situation. If you have questions about Tigerfish as a company or working with them, you should contact them with these directly. Although I have contracted with them in the past, I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of employment with them. I will state that they were a good company to work for and the pay was slightly better than average.

Check back later this week for tips from Shaina on putting together a résumé and cover letter to submit applications, and I'll have tips on testing next week!