Ok this is interesting...
Posted By: Shannon on 2008-02-11
In Reply to:
I just received an email stating that my post was seen on here and that I could work for this person for three to four months (unpaid internship) and then they would contract me with there MTSO beginning at 7cpl.
If it's legit, that still seems like a long time to intern when I've already gone through school and am about to receive my certification
Any thoughts? Should I go for it? I don't want to burn bridges but I would hate to transcribe for four months for free and then find out that I don't have a job!
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interesting that you say that
they wanted to hire me and asked me to fork over $400 or something like that. I couldnt do it and they suggested when I did, I could come back. I did a test piece for them twice, both times the same piece, please tell me what info you got, and the source.
Thanks,
K
Interesting.
Before you hit the send button, Char, you might want to stop and give some consideration to your audience. Many of the people who read this board are people who hire MTs. If your post is sloppy and full of ignorance, you will be dismissed as a sloppy, ignorant MT, and any potential employer will not give you another thought. If your post is intelligent, well written, and error-free, you just might be contacted by someone willing to give you a chance. I have contacted three newbies who posted intelligent comments in complete, accureately-spelled sentences on this board. I hired one of them. I would have been happy to hire the other two, but two other MTSOs had had the same idea after seeing their posts and beat me to it. Think about that the next time you want to post something incoherent and badly spelled because "it's just a message board". A sloppy, incoherent post might hilarious to you, but to someone assessing your suitability for employment, it's just really depressing.
Interesting...
For your sake, I'm glad that it works for you.
Unfortunately, for me, I don't think I could work for that little, and if I could, it wouldn’t be for long. I have a family to support, and even if I don't have expenses related to commuting or dressing up for work, there are still plenty of other expenses. Minimum wage won't pay for my girls' swimming lessons, groceries, new clothes for school, fuel to drive them where they need to go. It doesn't help pay for their medical premiums or copays. Let alone the fact that I will have to go on my husbands health insurance, that alone will cost me $350/month, not including copays.
Just because some expenses may be offset by working at home, does not mean other expenses are not incurred.
That's interesting
Hi Allie,
I didn't know they owned a Transcription Company. Do they rate highly on the BBB?
It's interesting in another way too; my company was thinking of starting a school and they approached me to be involved. We live and die based on having new young talented MTs moving up. I was so glad they dropped the idea!! I really didn't want to deal with students. No offense.
Hah, I hope they can stand all the problems involved in training people. It's not easy. You need good teachers to be able to do it well-- and patience. I guess if you intend on hiring some of your own students, you would do it well.
From a business standpoint, the school is probably a separate company or corporation from the MT company.?
BTW, I think Allied is owned by the University of Phoenix. HPI founders were the primary leaders in the AAMT. I think Vera Pyle (first MT writer) worked closely with Sally Pitman owner of HPI. I think Ellen Drake of Drake and Drake (Saunders Pharmacy book) is a moderator on MT Chat which is owned by Andrews and M-Tec and I think VLC.
Nice to have a chat site with luminaries to advertise yourself. Very good idea and it must save a bundle on advertising. I'm serious!
I think those points are correct. I've heard things through the years. I find it fascinating.
Spheris is a huge company. I've often wondered if they purchased Career Step?
And it goes on and on. It is a small world toward the top. The best talent rises higher and higher.
Good research Allie!!
Interesting
1. What equipment would a new grads have?
>>>>Headphones and USB foot pedal most common. As far as purchasing equipment, you have to be more specific as to what you would have the new grad purchase; however, figure on somebody being able to handle 200$ or so. That much could be raised either via pawn shops or a yard sale.
2. Would a new grad be willing to do a 2-week trial at no pay to see if we work well together? If there is no "chemistry" the process would be torture for both of us.
>>>Trial yes; no pay--that's kind of cold. A newbie is not going to be productive to begin with. To deny any sort of pay at all...? I should think that it would take much longer than 2 weeks to figure out chemistry, perhaps a 4-week trial would be more revealing, especially if the position was remote. If the position is inhouse, then maybe the 2-week period is sufficient.
3. Would a new grad be willing to work on a graduated pay scale, starting at a low rate and working up to .08? Experienced MTs should be paid more than new grads, IMHO.
>>>Depends on how low. A lot of new grads from the top 2 schools are starting off at .07 and .08. Of course, if they are allowed to graduate from these schools, they are quality and often exceed the quality of experienced MTs. As a new grad doing acute care, I get .07 per line, but I know of a lot of other graduates that started off at .08 per line.
4. Would a new grad be willing to enter a 2-year contract, protecting the MTSO and providing the new grad with the necessary experience to get a "real" job?
>>>Absolutely. I would even sign on for a longer period of time provided there was some sort of incentive for production and an incremental raise along the way.
5. How much work would a new grad expect to produce in a day's time?
>>>My 1st day, it was 76 lines. Second day, jumped up to 200 lines. However, there was absolutely no training and no support at all other than "feedback" from QA. Had I had some training and not been left entirely on my own, I'm sure that it would have been more. Now after 6 months of acute care (doing all the reports and all the specialties), I am averaging about 660 lines per day. Sometimes I hit 1000 or pretty close to it. If I get all ESL for the night, it can drop as low as 400 or so lines.
I might be interested in something like this.
Some interesting numbers for anyone
Wow, these companies sure have a friend and defender here. Good! Stick by your guns, although you aren't under attack by me. We are only sharing ideas. Maybe I was wrong about ownership, although who owns the ownership company? Maybe what I heard that Andrews, M-Tec and VLC were the moderators. I know Linda Andrews was answering questions as a moderator when I was on the site a year ago. I don't have time to research it now, but I know someone who knows for sure. I'm curious now.
Listen, those schools deserve tons of credit. They are the industry leaders in retail internet schooling. People like Linda Andrews, Ellen Drake, Vera Pyle (Vera died) and Sally Pitman are icons in this field.
But Deb, Andrews, M-Tec and Career Step advertise all over the internet 24X7. I've been told what that advertising costs. It is amazing. If they have a full-time waiting list then why advertise at $10 to $15 a click on Google? I think they are just businesses- good ones, but not something holy that is beyond scrutiny. I was seeing posts that said to only attend the Big 3 which is silliness. We don't want to line up like lemmings. It is good that Americans are essentially skeptical. In that way we constantly seek out the best in price and quality.
Figure 100 clicks per day on Google at $10 per click. That is $1000 on Google advertising per day or $30,000 per month. NOTE: I just checked Google Adwords (we have our own advertising account there under MTs). It is $18 per click to hold one of the top 3-5 spots for "Medical Transcription School". It is about $10 per click to be slightly further down. Someone has to pay for that- the students. This goes for all schools advertising on the internet. Figure that a school has 100 new students per month.
That means that advertising costs the school $300 per student. Deb, this is any school, I'm not attacking your favs. Just looking at costs. A school like PennFoster which always holds a top spot it seems, might get 200 clicks per day at $18 per click- $108,000 to Google each month if my guess is right. Since their tuition is lower than Andrews let's say, their biggest cost may be advertising, not curriculum or teachers- they probably don't have teachers.
Spheris is a public company so who they own is on their Financial Statement.
I know folks at Meditec. They are an MT company which also owns a school. This may be another way to lower costs and ensure employment. I don't hear bad things about Meditec from their graduates. I don't know what they charge. They probably also use the HPI educational material. This is another option I would look at if I were a student.
I still predict that staffing schools will be the solution to very costly tuition and the 2 year experience requirement.
Back to work. Throwing these ideas around is fun!!
Hmmm, interesting. If you don't mind me asking *sm*
was it a paid apprenticeship?
it's interesting to me that newbies want to make the same as experienced...sm
what I did was beg my way into a job for next to nothing ($5 an hour - this was 20 years ago and it was an 80 mile round trip hike). But then I got experience and moved on from there. It never fails to boggle my mind when I post a job opening and get 700 responses, including newbies who believe their MT teachers who told them that is what they should ask. Remember you are competing against 699 other people who want that job, including people who have years under their belt. So what makes newbies think they are worth that? Bottom line is, they aren't, and proof is: What does the market bear? If newbies were worth 6 cents a line, they would be hired at 6 cents a line. You cannot believe all the work that I have to do to take on a newbie. The last one I hired offered to do it for 3. She was smart. Rather than get 0 lines at 6 cents she is getting 2000 lines at 3 cents - and "buying" her 2 years experience. In two years, she will be in the job market while the other newbies are sitting at home, pouting that they can't get their 6 cents a line job. JMHO. I know there are some who will flame me for this but like I said, bottom line is newbies can't get hired for 6 cents - therefore proves not worth it. It's sure not worth it to me.
Oh boy, you're going to get some interesting responses! Here's mine (sm)
First of all, I am not an authority on what the MT future is. I recently got into this business myself and consider myself fortunate in my situation, as I was able to find a job with a private MTSO who was willing to give me a chance. So I do believe it is possible to find work.
Secondly, if you're considering M-TEC, that seems to be the best choice for schooling (for those who can afford it), as I have seen many posts from M-Tec grads who say they were placed the day after graduation.
Thirdly, you seem to have the drive and the affinity for the English language that it takes to succeed in this field. Personally, proper grammar and use of the English language has always come natural to me, and I have always loved typing, and those two things helped prompt me to make the decision to go into this field. That, and I wanted to be able to work at home doing something I enjoyed.
So I say GO FOR IT! I think you will do well. Best of luck to you!
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