Beth Worthy: President, GMR Transcription On What Companies Look for In Transcriptionists and More...

We just launched our podcast channel and Beth Worthy, President of GMR Transcription, is our first guest. Beth joined GMR in 2008, and through hard work, she rose through the ranks and became president of the company. GMR Transcription is one of the first transcription businesses to go digital. It’s also one of the few transcription businesses that hire 100% US-based transcriptionists.

Topics covered on the podcast:

• Is transcription an interesting career?
• What kinds of transcriptionists do companies prefer
• Working from home

Here are the excerpts from the interview.

Minnie:  I want to start by asking that you have been into this transcription industry for 10 years. Please tell us, what is the best thing about this industry?

Beth: Well, I would say that the best thing about the transcription industry and specifically general transcription is that the work that we get, we just come across so many interesting topics and projects. We're dealing with, you know, audios regarding groundbreaking research and super interesting legal proceedings. So, many of our transcriptionists have told me that they've learned so much from the audios that they've transcribed. I think people feel like they've become more worldly and educated themselves just from the different types of topics and projects that GMR gets. So I think that's definitely the most interesting part. 

Every audio that you're transcribing is completely different. And, you know, you just learn so much. We transcribe for all the top universities around the United States. So as you can imagine, all their interviews and everything are just really interesting. And with that being said, confidentiality is extremely important to us. So even though we're learning so much, our transcriptionists are learning so much from these audios legally, they or we can't share any of the information.

Minnie: That's good to know. All right. So let me go down to my second question. So what are the three main qualities that you look for by hiring a transcriptionist?

Beth: I would say that and most important is going to be just having a good understanding of the English language and grammar.

You know, all of our transcriptionists are required to just produce the best transcript possible. So we need them to be able to, you know, know how to proofread and just really have a good understanding of grammar. So that's definitely important. I would say another huge one is the ability to work on your own without hand-holding.
So you know that in concludes, being able to, you know, be computer-savvy if you're having an issue, uploading a file, troubleshooting with yourself to get the file uploaded to us. We don't really have the resources to help transcriptionists. You know, we have so many of them that we just wouldn't be able to help them with everything. I mean, we definitely help them to an extent, but we just really look for people who can basically just work on their own, get their transcripts done with little help, and also be able to follow written instructions.

A lot of our assignments have special formatting or special instructions that are required. And it's important that transcriptionists be able to follow those instructions without too much help. And the last thing that I was gonna say was just being trust trustworthy. Like I said, confidentiality is one of our top priorities for our clients and we take it very seriously. So we want to be able to trust our transcriptionists that all the information that they are getting from the audios they keep to themselves and keep confidential.

Minnie:  How important is it to get training and certification before getting into transcription for anyone?

Beth: I personally think it's really important, especially if you're a brand new transcriptionist. I feel like it's a must to have some sort of training or introduction into transcription or the most recent grammar guidelines. I think it’s really important. There are just so many things that you need to know from being able to play or use the different audio softwares to being a grammar expert, I feel like those are things that you're going to need to know.
You know, when somebody comes already with their training or a certification in hands, we don't have to worry about those people.

So to me, I feel like if you're brand new to transcription and the training is essential, but also if you're a seasoned typist and you've been transcribing for 20 years, I feel like a refresher course could definitely be helpful. You know, one of our internal employees, she's one of our proofreaders. She was a transcriptionist for 20 years, a long time back. And when she came in, she was just surprised at how much things have changed. So I think a refresher course is always good, even if you've been doing transcription for years.

Minnie: Can you please tell us or tell our audience about the application process? If someone wants to become a transcriptionist at GMR transcription.

Beth: What you would do is go to our website at GMR transcription.com. There is a tab up at the top that says careers. You go to that tab and basically everything on that page is what you're gonna need to know. You can see testimonials from other transcriptionists on how they liked working with us. There's an FAQ page answers, basically, all the questions that you might have. And then it's also the place where you can upload your resumé and get started on our transcription test.

Minnie: Being a mom of 2 and working full-time, how do you manage both? Can you please share your experience for our community of stay at home mom?

Beth: Well, although I have an office outside the home I still bring a lot of my work home with me so I can get a sense of what work from home life is for moms, and I can surely tell you that it's not easy but I feel that once you create a good balance that works for you. For me turning off work at a certain time and focusing on the family, you know doing fun activities during the time instead of just watching TV or you know, just really playing with them instead.

I think that when you're a full-time stay-at-home mom and you decide to take on a work-from-home job, one really good piece of advice is - it's really important to set hours for yourself. Also, once you get started really try your best to create a quiet space and create that time that you're going to be able to really focus on your work.

You can also listen to the whole interview on our TCI Podcast channel. Subscribe to it for updates.