How To Not Get Fucked Over with Being a Transcriptionist and Do It Full Time
I got started with transcription about a year or two ago. I have a pretty fast typing speed, and it seemed like a good way to make some money on the side. In my journey, I've worked for several companies, and I cannot overstate just how much they vary in the way they treat you, what they pay, etc. I'm making this in the hopes that I can save people the time that I wasted and the hours that I should have made more for. Freelance transcription ranges from pretty much literal slave labor to a full-time income, and it's hard to know exactly where to go. So without further ado:
TranscribeMe
TranscribeMe is fairly easy to get into and seems like the place most people start with transcription, but it is absolutely abysmal. I really mean that. They're paying people pennies, virtually. There's a lot of freedom in the jobs you can pick from and there's always a lot of work available, but if you're looking to get properly compensated for your work, go somewhere else. There are plenty of other places to work for as a beginner that will pay you better.
I've heard some people say that you have to work a long time before seeing any significant money, but I don't believe it's worth it to put in the work. The audio you're dealing with will be absolutely terrible. That's where it falls short, along with pay: we're talking like 28kbps audio only. Do you deserve better? Yes.
Scribie
Slave labor. They pay $0.10 a minute. I don't respect them enough to put any effort into this description. Avoid. Do you deserve better? Yes. You deserve so much better.
Rev
Okay. We're getting into something different, here.
First off, if you work at it, Rev pays well. They really do. During my time there, I was able to make around $400-600 a week. Additionally, a lot of their audio is pretty good quality, and they get work from a super wide range of clients and offer much more freedom than the previously discussed companies. You get the sense that you're somewhat valued as an employee, which is something I can't say for the other companies.
My problem with Rev is that their standards are simply too high. The people that review your work are super strict, and a few bad or sub par ratings in a row can result in you being fired. I also don't enjoy how I was fired from this company without being offered an actual explanation despite the fact that I was above the required limit in terms of quality of work. I simply received an email stating that I had breached my terms of service, and I was let go. And that sucked. You'll still be dealing with a lot of bad audio, and the people reviewing your work differ wildly from person to person in what they expect you to do, what they let go and don't let go.
I still think it's a good place to start. The pay is pretty good, and you'll gain a pretty great knowledge of transcription. They have some problems with pay and disturbing content and other things, and you can do a few quick google searches about that. One time I clicked on an innocently named file and it was police footage of a man who'd just been in a fatal car crash. They may have made things a little more comfortable since then, but I don't know. Do you deserve better? Probably, but this is still a good start to this kind of work.
Unnamed Company I Found on Glassdoor/Indeed
After my expulsion from Rev, I mistakenly assumed that being hired by a private company would pay more and offer more opportunities than the other larger companies.
Unfortunately, I was mistaken. I was asked to deal with absolutely terrible audio. The marketplace was so competitive I could rarely find work and it would dry up all the time, and I was expected to type everything by hand: presumably because the audio was so bad, the company couldn't have a computer analyze the speech to give their employees less work to do. Every single project I worked on was reviewed, and some of the QA people were absurdly strict. The audio quality was so bad that each 15 minute project took ages. I guess my point here is that you shouldn't assume a smaller, more specialized company is going to offer better work. Make sure to not be a dumbass like I was and be sure to be forward in asking about the pay, their audio quality, etc. Do you deserve better? Yeah, way better.
3Play Media
3Play Media is the only company I've ever worked for where I feel like I am truly valued as an employee. It has a seriously good rep in the transcription world in terms of how it treats its employees, and it is well-deserved. The experience comes close to what I thought transcription would be before I started: at home, watching several documentaries in a row, modifying some words (whatever computer program they use to analyze speech and turn it into text has likely acquired sentience: it's better than any type of that service I've ever seen) and making a living wage. Don't get me wrong, the work is still very difficult: transcription is inherently exhausting and monotonous. That being said, I really couldn't ask for much more with transcription. The module/editing platform that they use is fantastic and makes everything easier, the pay changes relative to the difficulty of the audio, and they receive a large amount of work from entertainment companies, which means crystal clear audio.
The application process/exam to get into 3PlayMedia was really difficult. I'm not going to lie. I would definitely recommend getting some experience at somewhere like Rev before trying to tackle it. It's fair, but you have to make sure that everything's pretty much absolutely perfect. You're asked to transcribe a few files within their guidelines, and you have to follow all of them, pretty exactly.
In addition, the first time I tried applying I was told that they weren't looking for employees (because they're not a company that just discards employees all the time and constantly rehires), and I would imagine that especially with quarantine, there's a lot of people trying to get in. Do you deserve better? Maybe a little. Is this the best that you're going to get? I think so.
I hope this is helpful for you guys. Feel free to ask any questions. I'm far from an expert, but I've finally found myself in a place where I feel like transcription work is something I could see myself doing for a long time in the future, and it has become one of the only jobs that I've been truly comfortable with. Thanks for reading.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoney/comments/pb7630/how_to_not_get_fucked_over_with_being_a/
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