Pros
TranscribeMe has been instructive and helpful since the beginning. Using the Yammer forums really helped me gain insight and education about the transcription world. I work full time as a scientist and was needing something that I could do whenever I had some time because I'm always on-call. I was just needing some extra pocket money. I never considered myself a great typist, but average. After watching the videos and taking the tests I felt it was something I could handle. I joined one other transcription company at the same time as TranscribeMe, and if it's any sign as to how welcoming and helpful TranscribeMe is; the other company fired me months ago because their criteria were almost unattainable. And they didn't offer any usable feedback to get better. TranscribeMe also has better audio files than the other company, way less feedback and fewer files that have multiple speakers. I started in July with the exams and was getting a few files a week for about a month. After about a month and a half one of the special teams reached out to me and since I've joined them I've been invited to other special teams. Now I can get all the files I need and I get paid different rates for the files. It's now the middle of October and I just passed my QA exam so I will start that adventure next. I probably could have gotten there sooner because I had more than enough logged hours, but I wanted to feel confident in my abilities as a Transcriber before testing for QA. The company has never made me feel inadequate even for files that I felt were poor. They are supportive and the Yammer communities are familial in nature. I look forward to doing this after a long day at work because it's something different. I also feel like my grammar and sentax are better than they used to be!
Cons
What I've noticed is there are lulls in the amount of work available. But since the summer time ended the amount of work has been steady and really I've only noticed lulls on holidays. Joining special teams has made the lack of work almost non-existent. Yeah, the pay isn't great just starting out, but getting more and more files under your belt gives you more experience and you get faster over time. I've read that some stay-at-home parents are earning enough to support themselves by doing this, but I'm not at that level yet. This was always meant to be extra money in my pocket so however much I want to earn I can.
