I graduated from a local community college. sm
Posted By: inhouse on 2009-03-26
In Reply to: Please answer about starting as an MT - SarahE
Had my first job before graduation but it was in-house with hourly pay and great benefits. Those are very hard to find anymore. I worked in-house for my first 2 years and then went on maternity leave picking up side work through a company for more income. Realized I was tripling my money going from hourly to production by that time, turned in my notice, and never looked back. Been at home ever since. If at all possible, in the beginning I would recommend to anyone to work inhouse even if it is for a transcription company. The value of having other "ears" is definitely not something to take for granted. I also learned as much as I could while getting that hourly pay as time is money when on production. I have to say I probably would not be near as proficient of an MT today had it not been all those hours learning and having another ear around to help out when stuck.
You bring up a point too though that I haven't really thought about before....With all the transcription being outsourced out of the office, it is only going to get much more difficult for anyone to get those breaks and get the required "experience" as a beginner.
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Your local community college...
It will cost a **** of a lot less, and your education will be just as good. Many will tell you that you only get help in job placement, externship, be ready to work, etc. via Andrews, etc., but that's just not true because they just don't know any better. Besides, that's a great sales pitch/gimmick, isn't it?
In learning this field, you need a classroom setting and hands' on experience/instruction. You'll see exactly what I mean when you get in the thick of it, or even starting out in learning it, for that matter.
I went to a local community college
I started working for a small local MTSO.
Local community college nm
x
Check out your local community college -SM
I can't speak for all of them, but the one I went to offered externship programs and job placements for their best and brightest students. An acquaintenance of mine also got her MT training at a local college, and they did the same thing. Be careful, however, of the online courses. They cost a lot of money - much, much more than your local college, and you won't get the hands-on training or be able to get your questions answered in a flash with them as you would in an actual college setting. Also, an associate's degree at a college is much more impressive than admitting you received your training via an online course. That, to me, just sounds so "fly by night." 
I vote for local community college.
If you attend a community college, it helps to network. If you do on-line training, you won't have the social part of your training. Also, it helps to try and find an on-site position at first to gain the knowledge although since you are already in a clerical position, you probably know more about anatomy and the hospital/medical setting than you even think. I wish you all the best. Another good thing about a local community college is that sometimes they know of great jobs because the teachers are also employed or know of jobs. You will have a certificate of training in an MT program, but a certified MT is done through the AAMT or whatever it is now, and is not worth the money in my opinion. You wind up after paying a few hundred dollars getting to put CMT after your name, but not when you transcribe a report. For example, even CMTs cannot put XXX/xxx, CMT if you catch my drift. 
I'm going to a local community college for culinary arts, I'm 52. nm
xxx
Your local community college. Just as good and a heckofalot cheaper!
If you want to work at a local hospital or doctor's office, go to community college. Otherwise
if you want to work from home, for a national company, you need to take the course from either Andrews School or M-TEC. It does you no good to save money by taking the Penn Foster course, because most companies will NOT hire grads from that school, it is a poor course and does NOT prepare you sufficiently for MT work.
Either one are 9 month courses at the local community college..worth a shot!
!!!
How about your local community college and save a heap of money & get just as good of an education?
Pharmacy tech 15 weeks, polysomnography 7 month course at local community college..worth a shot!
!!!
Both. Graduated from a junior college with sm
medical secretarial degree, but learned 99.9% on the job. Schooling proved to be an invaluable foundation for the years to come.
33 years of MT.
I also went to a community college
and never had any problems finding a job. In fact, I got my first job at home before I was even finished with school. I took all my classes online and have worked from home for the past 3 years here with my kids. I say go for it!
Like that's so easy? Divorced bud of mine at 51 graduated college w/her BS last year ...
s
Given by a community college? What school is
z
I was fortunate with community college
I took courses through my local community college's continuing education program. The instructors were people who worked in the medical field during the day and taught at night. By doing exceptionally well in the classes and being a model student, I was recommended by a couple of the instructors and got a start at the office where one instructor worked before I even finished my transcription class.
Once I got my foot in that first door, I've been working steadily and successfully ever since. I had only a couple of classes under my belt!
The approved schools are probably the best chance for work after graduation, but opportunities can arise wherever you train.
I went through Bellevue Community College
Also the CareerStep program online with once a month meetings if we lived close. Got a Sallie Mae grant. Got hired by MQ right out of school (after testing). Careerstep is one of the best schools and one of the only ones you can get hired straight out of school. I would not really recommend transcription anymore, though. It is not the job it used to be, paywise. Coding is still good pay I hear.
Everett Community College
online has a transcription course and since it is a community college, should be able to get financial aid. Try that. Google it.
I actually borrowed a set from the library at the community college here.
I used them as long as I needed to, then returned them.
When I said vo-tech, I meant community college just in case you were wondering (nm)
nm
Went to community college too..had a job in-house within 2 months, the first and only place I applie
//
community college. those online courses/schools are not very good and
very expensive.
but don't do it just to work at home.
My SIL finished a course at a local college
She got a job on-site and could be sent home, but she has decided to cross-train for a management position. If she takes it, the salary is $65,000.00 per year. So tell me there isn't money in this business. She just finished her course!!!
I went to a local business college which sucked.
My first job was a p.r.n. position with a local hospital filling in for vacations and people off sick. That's where the real education came from.
See if your local college has an MT program that you can just take certain units of, like terminol
s
I probably read about it on MSN or someone mentioned it to me. Maybe call local college or JUCO
?
Well, not really. In college I did a gruelng intership at a local express emergency clinic and got p
gas, lunch, uniform, etc., AND the head doctor ended up sexually harrassing me! I kid you not! So, I don't think anyone without any experience getting paid 3 cents to learn MT in their own home setting is half bad.....It could be worse. They could ask you to do it for free.
PS: My college major was nursing.
Buy local. The local stores pay taxes to support your city and state. (SM)
Using online and catalogues does nothing to promote the local economy. We complain about outsourcing and about the big companies gobbling up all the work so the jobs at local hospitals are gone, yet we do the same thing when we buy on ebay, catalog, and these web sites that may be located any place in the world as their primary business location.
Graduated from....
Mandarin High School, Jacksonville, FL
not everyone is like this - my kid graduated
Not everyone buys into/bought into the changes you describe. My kid bought the car with $$ saved/earned when 17. Outside of that, worked full time/still does and goes to school and expects nothing but to move forward in the life and strives to do so.
And we are not a poor family either - just didn't and don't buy into commercialism of every occasion in this country.
Graduated from M-TEC
It cost me about $2600 when I graduated in 2001. Right out of school I made excellent, unheard of money by being paid on a gross line. I was able to top out at around 60K after 4 years, increasing steadily each year. I worked about 60 hours a week, as I knew when these accounts went away I would make *regular* money. They did after 4 years. I now make around 28K a year and work 30 hours a week. You may want to stay where you are!!
I graduated from AHP
Just about 12 years ago I graduated from At-Home Professions and am still doing transcription. I've worked for Medquist for 8 years and worked for a hospital before that. So now you've met a graduate of AHP who is able to do the job. I've learned far more with on-the-job training than I ever did through the program, but just wanted to let you know there are a few of us oddball AHP graduates who are actually productive...
I went local. Great local tech support, they know what I do and were able to set it up just for me
:)
18 here. Graduated and then married
two weeks later, still with the same man 16 years later.
I graduated in 1989 (sm)
Good to see someone from back home, though! :)
I graduated CS and do have regrets
The reasons are the same as you have read elsewhere. There are no instructors, but rather an impersonal "grader" that you aren't quite sure you can trust since what might be right one time is wrong the next. There are errors in the material that can make you end up looking like a fool. I had nitroglycerine in my spell check on word for a year before I realized I had added it from a cut and paste report taken out of FOMS and was incorrect. Of course, that is only one example of many. I could go on and on, but I won't. All in all, it is inferior, and I wish I had gone to M-Tec or Andrews so that I could have started out excellently instead of clawing my way there of my own volition.
RE: I hear you on that one - same for me. Baby just graduated :-(
\
I graduated from M-Tec, and MQ hired me without experience. nm
nm
It depends on what school you graduated from.
If you graduated from one of the top 3 schools many MTs have a job by the time they get finish the program. I take it that isn't your case. You would probably be better off trying to find an in-house job locally until you get some experience. You can post your resume on the job boards and might get some offers that way. Be careful though and ask questions as there may be some less than desirable companies trying to take advantage of newbies.
I went to career step & graduated 3 yrs ago. I think it prepared me well.
Hey FC girl--I graduated in 1994 at FCHS
/
When I graduated high school in 1967, sm
I got a set of matching luggage and a manual typewriter!
I was fortunate to have parents able to afford all tuition, books, and on-campus living expenses. Many graduates don't have what I was blessed to have and need a little help from family and friends.
33, Medical Secretary Degree, graduated in 1999
nm
Thanks..school wont give another copy since I am graduated now...also went to a whole new comp, sm
not just an upgrade. Could not pull the free program off the old one. thanks anyway. Just looking to get by on something inexpensive until I get some $$$ coming in.
I know of a company who is restarting up their mentoring program for newly-graduated MTs. A GREAT
company to work for - I think they are independent contractor status, though not sure about their mentoring program status. At any rate, they are willing to take new grads and help them transition into actually working! The women who owns the company is truly wonderful. I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to work with her, though I don't at the moment. The company is Accu-Stat in Wisconsin! Keep that name somewhere on a sticky or something! Really great people, and she did mention that she really wants to restart this program she used to have for newbies! Blessings to you and good luck! Have fun! Cause it sure can be fun, while having to work, which, of course, is not fun in and of itself, huh?? Oh, to be independently wealthy. Congrats on your new baby, by the way!! And that's SO great that your Mom is there for you! You have a good example to follow!
You have to go outside the community....
nm
Community hospitals
Hi. I just recently got outsourced by my local community hospital which I had worked for for 8 years, the third hospital where I've lost my job to outsourcing.
We were paid hourly from $9-$15 hourly. We had to have a minimum line count of 135 an hour based on a 7-hour day, so 980 63-character lines a day was exceeding standard, worked every 4th weekend and rotated holidays. I loved it. Then they outsourced to Spryance and most of the work in the entire Dayton Ohio area went overseas. There are only a few transcriptionists left working for the hospitals.
Who is to say that these people are pillars of the community?
x
Actually, I live in a rural community sm
and left a hospital where that was very good pay. Starting wages for MT was $8.00 an hour with a 25 cent raise every year if you were lucky. $11.50 would be like gold for the transcriptionists that work there.
Community near me succesfully fought one off, but sm
that was only because there are about three within ten miles of there. If there are none in your town, I wish you luck.
Santaluces Community HS - Lantana, FL
nm
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