TV shows, doctors and industries all over the world need to keep a well-documented record of their activity. Instead of transcribing the text in-house, however, they’ll usually outsource their transcription to a third party.
To transcribe audio, you need to stay focused with strict attention to detail. To get a feel for how fast and detail-oriented you’ll need to be, you might consider typing up a few minutes of my radio show.
Remember to add in sound effects like you’d see in a captioned TV show. Why? Because there’s a good chance you might end up transcribing a Hollywood TV show if you like transcription enough.
So, where do you start?
Daily Transcription is a good site to start your career in transcription. It handles clients like ABC, NBC, CBS, Bank of America, Harvard and other high-profile organizations.
You will need to fill out an application and prove that you have what it takes to do a good job. Many of the clients expect quick turnaround time, so you need to be able to finish projects the same day if needed.
One thing that helps transcriptionists is dedicated transcription software and a foot pedal. This lets you start and stop audio and video without taking your hands off the keyboard.
You don’t need this to start, but if you’re serious about the job it will help you down the road. Here’s a good foot pedal/software combo to look at.
