If you’ve looked much at getting trained as a medical transcriptionist, you know it’s not particularly cheap, at least not if you want quality training. Is it really worth it to spend $1800 or more just to get enough training to find a job?
Do you really want to work, and get a good start at it? Then it’s worth the money.
It’s possible to go cheap in your training. You could even train yourself as a medical transcriptionist, or at least try to. You could buy the materials on your own and just start studying.
Here’s the problem. Do it that way and your job hunt is going to take much longer for most people. It’s hard to find an employer who will trust to someone whose educational quality is unknown. Taking a respected online medical transcription course is a way to show potential employers that you have really learned what they need you to know before you start working.
The cost of your training is just one factor you need to consider when looking at its value. A high quality course costs more most of the time, yes, although you should note that some poor quality courses charge a lot to make it look as though they must be good.
But you cannot forget the expense of any time spent not working. What will it cost you if your job hunt takes several months or a year rather than just a month or two?
Not that even the best course can guarantee you a job. They do give you a better chance at one, however.
Many training courses also have job placement assistance, which may simplify your job hunt as well. This won’t work every time – nothing does, but you use the tools available and see where that takes you.
Then there’s the cost of being a well trained transcriptionist compared to being one who kind of knows the job. Medical transcriptionists are paid on production. If you don’t really, really know what you’re doing you won’t be as fast and you won’t be as accurate. You’ll spend far too much time trying to puzzle things out.
If you’ve gone through a high quality training course and done well with it, there’s still a learning curve you’ll be dealing with when you start to work. It will be much shorter than the curve of the transcriptionist who was poorly trained.
These are things that have value beyond what you will pay to learn medical transcription. Not being properly prepared to work can cost you far more than even the most expensive course out there.