General Transcription is a relatively new field compared to Medical or Business transcription. Because the field is young, and growing, it presents a promising career choice for people with the right skill sets. In this post we are going to talk about what this job entails and the opportunities in this field.
Skills
The basic skills required for general transcription is good typing speed (minimum of 40 words per minute) and excellent comprehension of spoken English. Most of the time you will encounter North American, British and Australian accents of English. However exposure to non-native accents is a plus. The ability to apply contextual judgment is also important in transcription to differentiate similar sounding words. Internet research for names of places and people is another skill required in this job. You have to be able to construct search terms which return the most relevant results.
Job Profiles
There are two broad categories of work: typing and review. Typing, as the name suggests, involves listening to the audio and typing it out. It’s the most effort intensive step of the transcription process. It generally takes around 4 hours to type 1 hour of audio. The most important skills required here are typing speed and comprehension.
Review is the step after transcription where the audio is matched against the transcript and all mistakes are corrected. Review is much less time-consuming than typing and it takes around 2 hours to complete a review of 1 hour of audio. However, it greatly depends on the quality of the transcript. The important skill in reviews is ability to spot mistakes and apply context.
At Scribie, we have also hire Proofreaders and Quality Analysts. Both of these are specialized types of review and requires higher degrees of skill and experience.
Career Growth
The typical career in general audio transcription starts as a typist level and goes on to QA, on the technical side. To reach the QA level it takes around 5 years or so, but depends mostly on the ability and merit of the individual. On the managerial side the opportunities vary depending on the structure of the organization, but management positions would involve managing a team of few transcribers and reviewers.
Conclusion
General audio transcription can be rewarding career for those who pay attention to detail and excel at doing repetitive tasks. It is also a good choice for people who absorb knowledge of any kind and like learning new things. If you would like to try it out then come visit us at our office (if you’re based in Bangalore, India) or apply online.