General Transcription: Am I cut out to do it?

So folks, I've gone ahead and taken the plunge into transcription. The only other experience I had was over 10 years ago when I transcribed a few audios of focus group dialogues for a test product. I quite enjoyed the challenge, and am a stickler for detail, so when I saw the ad seeking transcriptionists on Craiglist, I applied.

Transcription is most definitely not for everyone. At this point, after ploughing through over an hour of audio (which has taken me at least 7 hours since I'm so slow, being a perfectionist and all), I'm not sure if I'm cut out to be a transcriptionist either!

I love using my new Infinity Foot Pedal, that's for sure. And I also invested in the Express Scribe Pro, which doesn't work 100% correct on my Mac OS Mountain Lion. (It crashes when I try to type it in, but does fine if I type in another word processing program i.e. Textedit in Mac).

This first job paid 32-1/2 cents per audio minute (my boss keeps half of the 75 cents), so I've made a grand total of $40 for about 8 hours of work. That's a pitiful $5 an hour. Probably less. So once I realized that, I let go of my perfectionsitic tendencies a little bit, and just tried to get the transcriptions done.

Let's see how this goes the next couple weeks. It's nice to have some money coming in, even if it's below minimum wage, but I am pretty sure I could make more by blogging!  At least I've almost recovered the cost of that foot pedal :p

xo Gracie 

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