Taking a closer look at transcription jobs and how much you could make

(WFSB) – If you’ve been on social media recently, there’s a good chance you’ve seen influencers talking about seemingly easy ways to make extra money on the side.

Some even say you can set yourself up to make money from home without working all that hard or all that often.

All this week, Eyewitness News is looking at some of these jobs and asking the question: Can you really make money?

“You can’t just sign up, pass our exams, get in and expect to be making $20-$30 an hour,” said Nathan Pikover, TranscribeMe’s Chief Operations Officer.

Pikover knows what the job takes.

“I have done my fair share of transcriptions help the company get files out the door before we were able to scale up our operation,” Pikover said.

Here’s how it works.

You listen to long audio recordings from doctors, lawyers and then type out in verbatim everything that is said.

The longer and more difficult the recording, the more money you will make.

It’s a real skill and just like anything, what you put into it is what you get out of it.

“If you are willing to learn the skillset and invest in becoming a good transcriptionist, you can make, again, this is not a guarantee, but you can make $7-$10 US per labor hour,” said Pikover.

Remember, Connecticut minimum wage is $15.69 an hour.

“So it’s not something you’ll get rich at, but it is something where you could make some extra money it sounds like,” Eyewitness News said.

“That’s correct yes,” said Pikover.

One woman from the Channel 3 Mom Squad, Edna, wanted to learn more.

So we took her questions back to Pikover.

“She was turned off because the company that she initially went to asked her to pay some money to be trained. What was your reaction when you heard that?” Eyewitness News asked.

“Probably a scam,” said Pikover.

Pikover said there are legitimate schools that train transcribers.

Transcribe Anywhere has an A+ rating with the BBB.

Their training costs about $1,000, but some websites are just looking for your hard-earned cash, as this space is ripe for scammers.

“We do not ever ask workers to pay us any money,” Pikover said.

So do your homework and don’t quit your job without trying it.

You need to crawl before you run, or in this case, type.

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