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#103488 - 07/13/08 12:11 AM
trying to be realistic...
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kmcmullen
New Member
Registered: 07/12/08
Posts: 2
Loc: texas
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hello all!
i have a couple questions for the experienced MTs. i don't believe a question has been asked this particular way, but i do apoligize if it has been covered on the forum. my eyes are swimming after 7 pages of threads! yet, it has been helpful.
a little background -- i am 28, newly single. i am a middle school business teacher (currently teaching typing). i'm looking to supplement my teacher's salary. i love to travel. and i'd like to be able to splurge now and then on this or that without feeling guilty. i have always been interested in the medical field, but took the easy way out with a marketing degree and a teaching certificate in college. i currently type 80 wpm. i am not looking to get "rich" and i do not expect to earn a large paycheck in the first months. i'm trying to be realistic. all that said, here are my questions:
~ could i limit my work load? could i work a couple hours a night or maybe a few hours a couple nights, on a saturday, whatever.
~ could i pick up more work when needed / wanted -- such as summer vacation, spring break, etc?
~ what is the start up cost of a "business" and the general upkeep expenses of equipment and material? (excluding the intial schooling)
~ considering all above, am i being realistic in this venture?
thank you so much for reading this far... ;) any honest and realistic information is greatly appreciated.
~kelly
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#103490 - 07/13/08 12:39 AM
Re: trying to be realistic...
[Re: kmcmullen]
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kmcmullen
New Member
Registered: 07/12/08
Posts: 2
Loc: texas
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i just want to further clarify my above description and questions. i am by NO means suggesting that MT at home is an easy way to make cash. i sincerely don't mean to come in and insult you all -- because that is not what i think. i do realize that it is real work. it would be supplemental income and hopefully something that i could (and i am wanting to) do full time during the summer months.
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#103492 - 07/13/08 02:06 AM
Re: trying to be realistic...
[Re: kmcmullen]
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14tonks
Member
Registered: 10/25/01
Posts: 7170
Loc: Only 3rd world country in US
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The problem with doing only a few hours a week as a newbie is that it doesn't really give you enough practice to improve your ear training and knowledge base--it would take a long, long time for you to get up to speed working that way, more than most employers would allow for. It's also going to take considerably more than 3 or 4 hours a week of study to get through a decent training course to start working as an MT in the first place.
As for switching between working a couple of hours a week during the school year and full-time employment in the summer, that would get a little tricky since doctors dictate more or less the same volume year round and employers need to cover it year round. Why would they want to lay off a full-time year-round worker in the summer to provide more work for you? OTOH, maybe you could find a mother of small children who didn't want to work much at all in the summers or during school holidays and offer to share a full-time position, with her doing most of the work during the school year and you doing most of it during the summer and over holidays. Of course, you'd need to find someone whose school year started and ended when yours did and gave the same weeks off for breaks during the year, and you'd still have the issues of getting through a school training program or ever getting yourself up to speed with little practice time most of the year. Then you'd have to convince an employer to hire two people time-sharing one job rather than just dealing with one full timer. They say never say never, but I think there's a lot of issues you haven't really thought through here.
(PS: Do you think you could capitalize your first person singular pronouns in your next post? Those i's just...grate.)
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#103501 - 07/13/08 10:01 AM
Re: trying to be realistic...
[Re: 14tonks]
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bippy
Member
Registered: 11/01/06
Posts: 460
Loc: Summerland.
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Since you already know the deal about going to the right school, I would say it could be possible, but like above, it will not be easy. I think you will have a really hard time finding a position where you only work a few hours a week, but it's not impossible.
I'm trying to get the reason for this--if you are working only a few hours a week, you will probably make around what, an extra 200-300 bucks a month? Why go through a year or so of school and all the hassle for setting this up (as an IC you will probably go through a bit of hassle, let's be honest, with testing, setting up equipment, no work sometimes, them wanting you to work more at times).
My friend actually asked me this. She's a realtor and she said she wanted something for when times are slow. I told her what she would have to go through and she decided against it. Might as well pick up a part-time job at the drive in during the summer or something, know what I mean?
I'm not trying to be mean. I just don't get learning all this crud unless you are going to do it full time--not on newbie wages (which is probably what you will be stuck at for a loooong time, working so few hours).
Edited by bippy (07/13/08 10:04 AM)
_________________________
Love my new house!
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#103792 - 07/16/08 12:00 PM
Re: trying to be realistic...
[Re: bippy]
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Donna2
Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 6152
Loc: Sunny FL
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For all the trouble you would go through in an MT training school, then not use it in a big way, it doesn't seem worth the money for school or the time spent. This is a very hands-on thing, especially when you're fresh out of school. It's a technical training and once you learn it you have to work with it or you lose it, or at least have a very hard time getting it back. It would be different if you already had years of MT experience, then let it go for a while, then went back to it, but it needs to be a primary focus when building your skill.
_________________________
Donna
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#103880 - 07/16/08 11:31 PM
Re: trying to be realistic...
[Re: kmcmullen]
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Redpen
Member
Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 987
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i just want to further clarify my above description and questions. i am by NO means suggesting that MT at home is an easy way to make cash. i sincerely don't mean to come in and insult you all -- because that is not what i think. i do realize that it is real work. it would be supplemental income and hopefully something that i could (and i am wanting to) do full time during the summer months.
Teachers do need something to do during the off season, that's for sure.
Let me see how to explain this. Would you consider learning court reporting instead of MT? There are lawyers, depositions, and courtrooms in every locale. Wouldn't that be as good a choice as MT?
They are much the same. I think that you might understand the issues involved more easily with court reporting. If you wouldn't consider court reporting, why would you consider MT?
Right now, you teach typing. MT uses a keyboard, so you perceive it as typing. Possibly as a lot of typing, but still . . . typing. In reality, MT is far, far MORE than typing. It's so much more that you can't grasp how much until you've learned it.
The best way to describe it is to say that it is as much not-typing as court reporting is not-typing. Court reporting involves a keyboard to produce the finished product, but typing pales in light of the magnitude of the REST of the job.
It's exactly the same with MT. The part of it that is visible is almost incidental to the rest of the job.
That's not to say that you should rush off to sign up for a job at the craft shop. You might find that you enjoy MT so much and have such a gift for it that teaching typing becomes your . . . second job.
Edited by Redpen (07/16/08 11:32 PM)
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Redpen
(The Andrews School)
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