Home Based? The Truth

Wanna ba a home-based transcriptionist? It's easy, or so they say! We do see a lot of ads these days touting some 3 month training scheme or the other and promising quick training e.g. to turn housewives into HB transriptionists.

The truth is that it is rarely that simple. Home based (HB) jobs are available in plenty for the right candidates, but to convince any decent company that you deserve that job means that first of all you should be better trained than your run-of-the-mill fresher. Now that's because the HB candidate has to be able to work alone. The big advantage of working on a production floor is that one has colleagues to lean on. Working at home however, you are strictly on your own. Whatever be the doubt, you will have to sort it out on your lonesome ownsome - whether it's a question of formatting, or busting a blank, or a tricky accent, or equipment trouble... your training should have grounded you well enough that you are able to finish the job comfortably.

Not that it is impossible to properly train folks for home based careers, but it is not by any means the same as going through a 'standard course' in MT. We have found that to train good HB MTs, special care and attention have to be given to inculcating independence. It is very important to initially correctly judge whether a particular individual is capable of making it on their own and if they are not, then they should be counseled that doing HB MT may not be their cup of tea. Another secret of our success with HB training here at Phoenix is that we do not leave our trainees to fend for themselves once the training period is over. Our support and mentorship (and on-line IM presence) is available for as long as it may really be needed.

Any effective MT training will require that the sessions in lab should be at least 3 hours long (preferably longer). Here itself one finds that many so-called MT training companies are doing what is effectively a scam job by telling people that they can get by with just an hour or two of training three or four times a week. Then comes the issue of total hands-on training time. My estimate is that for any MT at least 150 hours of hands-on work with actual dictation files during the training period is the absolute minimum. At Phoenix, for those who wish to be HB, we insist on at least 170 hours of actual transcription time!

Then comes the vexing question of experience. Most 'mainline' MT companies will not give HB jobs to freshers. There are a few companies that may accept as little as 6 months experience but your performance on the entrance exam will have had to have been exceptional to get this sort of a concession.

Phoenix counsels would-be HB trainees that they should count on doing at least six months to a year of production floor work before they can expect to get a good HB job. Of course there are many small companies that are not that picky but then working for these 'small locals' can be self-defeating as many bigger companies take this sort of 'experience' with a good pinch of salt.


And then there's the question of your set-up at home. The expense of starting and maintaining your own home office is by no means small. You should have a good and reliable computer. Then a solid UPS and with power back-up for at least 4 hours. Primarily you need to install a good broadband connection (that's at least 512 kbps bandwidth) and if possible back that up with a decent dialup or another cable at around 256 kbps. The OS, software, firewall, and other necessities will be as specified by your company. Remember that now that you are on your own, you absolutely must have at least two good antivirus scanners and a couple more that pick up specifically on spyware, adware, trojans, and worms. Being online these days can be dangerous... Finally there's that little matter of HIPAA compliance. Any decent MT company will require you to sign confidentiality agreements - and you had better stick to them. If you haven't been trained in these niceties, as well as having been given a solid grounding in how to effectively utilize your SEs, then you are not going to get very far in your HB career!