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I'm working towards a career change
shortfiction:
Almost nobody at my workplace knows about this.
I have been teaching college for 19 years but I am still part time. It is exceedingly difficult to get an interview, let alone a full time position, in English these days. The economy and being in Cali. don't help either.
I don't want to be PT the rest of my life. It's too unstable and the pay is hourly.
So....I have taken my mad skills in English and editing and have started medical transcription class. First I took medical terminology. I am also typing as quickly as I can but trying to be accurate as well. Did you know that there are over 215,000 medical terms? And they keep adding more! :o
It's hard, but I am going to keep at it. It takes up to 1.5 years to get enough training to take the exam.
I hope to work with an agency or in-house to start.
Just wanted to tell someone.
ZK:
Good for you. I guess you are aware there are typing software programs which help develop your typing skills?
Wow 215,000 medical terms? that's a phenomenal amount! Now how many words are in the English language?
I think its great that you are looking at something different and the challenges that it brings.
I changed careers two years ago, doing something I never thought I would do, and I have never looked back. Love the job and the lifestyle
Kelda:
wow! Good luck with it all SF!
Jeff Wrangler:
Good luck!
As an English teacher, you'll catch on quickly to the language, terminology, and usage. Heh, I went from writing history for a living to working as a proofreader and then an editor for a medical publisher.
I don't want to be discouraging, but I feel obliged to mention that in my current job (here on the East Coast), I have a teammate who spent many years as a medical transcriptionist--until the hospital where she worked outsourced her job to India! :o That said, I'm not really familiar with the field; perhaps there are opportunities with individual practices where that isn't a danger.
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on November 11, 2009, 09:45:51 am ---Good luck!
As an English teacher, you'll catch on quickly to the language, terminology, and usage. Heh, I went from writing history for a living to working as a proofreader and then an editor for a medical publisher.
I don't want to be discouraging, but I feel obliged to mention that in my current job (here on the East Coast), I have a teammate who spent many years as a medical transcriptionist--until the hospital where she worked outsourced her job to India! :o That said, I'm not really familiar with the field; perhaps there are opportunities with individual practices where that isn't a danger.
--- End quote ---
OMG. That sounds incredibly dangerous. It's hard enough for transcriptionists whose first language is English to get the transcription right let alone other people not from the same country.
I was a weekend clerk for a medical transcription company while I went to college. While incredibly convenient - you can pretty much set your own hours and work from your own home - you also get paid by the volume of work you do so you might want to keep that in mind. i.e. sometimes the work is slow and a Big Gun transcriptionist can come in and eat up all the work. You're racing each other to get your numbers, so to speak. Also, it - ah - takes a certain kind of person to be a transcriptionist. You might meet a strange new breed of people when/if you do become one.
All the transcriptionists keep medical dictionaries. They don't expect you to know ALL of the terms.
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