How To Become A Transcriptionist?

How do you become a transcriptionist? People are asking me this question often.

When looking into becoming a transcriptionist, people are getting conflicting answers regarding the requirements to becoming a transcriptionist. Also, when talking about transcription work, many people have only heard about medical transcription. Make sure that you understand the difference between medical transcription, legal transcription, general & business transcriptinon. They have different requirements.

Some sites mention that you just have to be proficient at grammar and spelling to get a transcription job. Some sites say you only have to be slightly knowledgeable of medical terms for medical transcribing jobs. That’s an understatement and depends on the type of transcription work you're interested in. Other sites are telling you that you can get all your medical transcription training done in about 4 months.

So, that is the truth?

First, you have to realize that there are many industries that can provide you with transcription work from home. Different companies, industries and clients have different transcription requirements. Different transcription schools provide different length and quality of training.

For all types of transcription, you need to have excellent English, grammar and typing skills, be able to listen what is being said and understand and transcribe or type those words.

Medical transcription requires training.

Medical transcription does not give you immediate work at home. Medical transcriptionists have to be familiar with medical terminology and procedures.  Medical transcription requires extensive training and knowledge of medical terminology and most employers will require that you’ve worked at least two years in a medical office before allowing you to work from home.  It is almost impossible to get a medical transcription job from home if you're a new medical transcriptionist. Either you'll need to have two years of experience in medical transcription or have worked in the medical field (like being a nurse). Some classes may replace the transcription experience requirements.

If interested in becoming a medical transcriptionist, check out the online training at Careeer Step. It's one of the best online training to learn how to become a medical transcriptionist.

Legal transcription requires specialized training as well.

General transcription is the quickest, easiest type of transcription to start with.  

You don’t need any specialized training for general transcription and business transcription.  You can learn general transcription yourself by practicing.  If you need to increase your typing speed and accuracy, you can take online typing tutorials.

You can get started with general transcription immediately. General transcription is typing or transcribing any kind of dictation that is not medical or legal. You can transcribe interviews, meetings, telephone conversations, seminars, voicemail messages, memos, letters a variety of documents and more.

If you’re open to any kind of transcription work instead of medical transcription only, and want to get a transcription  job that you can work at home, and set your own hours, then you have several options for transcription jobs from home. Which kind of transcription work is right for you depends on your preference and the amount of transcription training you want to get.

You can get more information on how to become a general transcriptionist and get transcription work from home at http://generaltranscriptionworkfromhome.com/

If you want to become a medical transcriptionist, check the online training from CareerStep.

FTP Software for General Transcription Work from Home

People often ask me how to use FTP software and what FTP software to use for general transcription jobs from home

To get audio files delivered, many transcriptionists use FTP software.

Here as some FREE FTP programs:
Go to some of the free legitimate download sites like http://download.cnet.com/windows/
to download FTP software such as Filezilla (FREE), FTP Commander (FREE) Or SmartFTP (FREE).

You can find additional FTP programs at:
www.ipswitch.com (WSFTP Home version)
www.coffeecup.com

FTP Tutorials

Video tutorial for Filezilla, free FTP software
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-gr0LIWT64&feature=related

To find additional video tutorials for specific FTP programs, go to you tube, and search for “FTP tutorials"

More tutorials:
You can find ftp tutorials at the site below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IPLGeWKG_w

http://web-hosting.candidinfo.com/ftp-tutorial.asp

Below is a tutorial with screen pictures for FileZila
http://www.velnetsupport.co.uk/parrots/FTP/Filezilla/

Tutorials for SmartFTP at
http://www.smartftp.com/support/howto/

See more information and ftp tutorials at http://www.generaltranscriptionworkfromhome.com/how-to-download-transcription-files-using-ftp/

If you're looking for transcription work from home, check out these insider transcription resources - How to become a general transcriptionist and get general transcription work from home.