How to Read General and Medical Transcription Job Ads so You Don't Get Taken to the Cleaners

Have you seen an online ad for a transcription job thinking it sounded too good to be true? As the old saying goes, it probably was. Worse yet, did you answer the ad and get sucked into paying money just to apply for a job and later suspected it was all just a scam?

Working at home is a dream for a lot of people. The prospect of making money in your pajamas appeals to a lot of us. I've been doing medical transcription at home since 2005 and have learned a thing or two about how to read between the lines of employment ads. Here I share these tips with you so you can make the most of your job search and avoid applying for extremely low-paying jobs or even falling for a scam.

Let's say you've found an ad that pays $22 per audio hour. That sounds excellent right? Not so fast. In general, at-home transcription jobs pay on production, so you will very rarely be paid per hour. On-site hospital and office jobs are more likely to pay an hourly rate.

An audio hour is equal to one hour of dictation. Depending on the difficulty of understanding the dictator, i.e. accent, background noise, etc., that audio hour could take an average of three to four hours to type. At four hours of typing, that $22 audio hour actually equals $5.50 pay per hour in real time. If you wanted to make at least $10 an hour for your time (and remember, this is most likely as an independent contractor, so you'll have to pay self-employment taxes), then you wouldn't want to apply for a job that pays less than $40 per audio hour (based on the assumption that it will only take 4 hours to type give or take).

The audio hour rate is usually found in job ads for general transcription. Medical transcription ads on reputable sites such as MT Stars and mtjobs.com are mainly from companies that hire at home. These listings usually state pay based on lines since that is how production is calculated for work-at-home MTs. For example, one common rate would be 8 cents per 65-character line. Many companies want their MTs to type 1000 to 1200 lines per day, so the math for hourly rate would be:

• 1000 lines divided by the average 8-hour working day = 125 lines per hour
• 125 lines multiplied by .08 cents = $10

The MT industry is also quickly moving to embrace speech recognition technology which is changing the medical transcription position to that of one combining transcription and editing. You may see comparatively low rates of pay per line for voice recognition transcription. But that is because the theory is eventually the MT will be able to double their line-per-hour output.

One of the biggest red flags to alert you to a scam is when you're asked to pay to apply. I've rarely seen this with medical transcription ads but more often with data entry job listings. This will often be stated as a fee for doing a supposed required background check. This is a scam. You should never have to pay to apply for a job. Sometimes these companies slip through the cracks on medical transcription job sites, so I'm including this info here for you to keep an eye out.

One thing I have seen are companies that are actually trying to sell you a medical transcription education program. They word the ads as such that you may not even figure out that's what they're doing until you get to the end of the ad or you're told to email them for more info. Beware. If a company isn't up front about exactly what job is being offered, especially if they don't have a website and real world address and phone number for you to check, then please think twice about applying. If you do and they email back with a request for money, then you know it's a scam.

The companies that place these ads may not be trying to fool you. I don't want you to think they're all a bunch of crooks. There are plenty of legitimate transcription companies out there. Many in the industry know the facts about pay rates. But those new to medical transcription and especially to general transcription may not. So, please use these tips to your advantage in your job search and use common sense.

Are you interested in working at home but not at all interested in transcription? I share my favorite online job hunting resources in Top Choices in Work-at-Home Forums. The forums are free to join and have a lot of helpful at-home workers that will guide you to legitimate opportunities.