Where to Find Medical Transcription Jobs

By Anne Martinez from Medical Transcription For Dummies

When you first start looking for a medical transcription (MT) job, skip the big job boards — there are much better places to start your search. The most useful, by far, are

The school you obtained your MT training from
MTs you know personally
MT online communities

This isn’t to suggest that medical transcription jobs listed on all-purpose job boards are automatically inferior; however, the vast majority do seek experienced medical transcriptionists.

Speaking of which, if this is your first medical transcriptionist job, you should be seeking an experienced employer — one that has hired new grads before. Getting up to cruising speed on your first medical transcriptionist job will be a lot harder than you anticipate.

Even if you breezed through medical transcription school, type blazingly fast, and have a grasp on medical matters that would make Hippocrates proud, it isn’t going to be easy. Employers who routinely hire new medical transcriptionists know what to expect and (hopefully) have processes in place to help you get up to speed.

If you can swing it and the timing works out, a trip to the AHDI Annual Convention and Expo (ACE) is an unbeatable opportunity. Many employers actively recruit there. You also can meet and network with fellow medical transcriptionists, who may have job leads to share.

Your training school’s job resources

Without question, the first stop on your job hunt should be your medical transcription school. Almost all medical transcription schools have ongoing relationships with potential employers and offer career coaching of some kind.

The best will hand you a list of potential employers, complete with contact information and details on the kinds of employment relationships they offer. Even those, however, can’t hand you a job — that’s something you’ll have to earn on your own.

Here are some ways you can leverage your medical transcription school connections:

Ask your training school about job placement assistance they offer, specifically if they have particular employers who regularly hire their graduates. You probably already investigated that before you enrolled, but it won’t hurt to refresh your memory on the details.
Take advantage of opportunities to network with current and former students. Most online medical transcription programs include private student message forums. Start frequenting them before you graduate and familiarize yourself with employers that people there are discussing. If there’s a graduates-only board, get access to it the minute you’re eligible. You may identify employers you definitely don’t want to work for, as well as some you’d like to.
Approach your instructors for advice and recommendations. They’ve probably shepherded plenty of students through this process and likely have valuable tips and leads to offer.

Medical transcription websites

Online medical transcription communities should be a key part of your job search for numerous reasons, including the following:

Many of them have job boards or forums where current openings are posted.
They’re ideal places to get the scoop on pros and cons about particular employers. You can find out who’s hiring, cutting back, merging, and who’s treating their employees how.
Medical transcription recruiters hang out in them.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a more generous group of people than your fellow medical transcriptionists. They’re avid networkers. Many will freely share their knowledge of particular employers, though you may have to private-message them to get the full scoop. Occasionally, someone will post that his current employer is hiring. Here are a few places you can tune in to medical transcriptionist job listings and employment discussions:

MTDaily and its sister site MTJobs
The careers section of the AHDI website
The Medical Transcription Networking Corner group on Facebook
MTStars

Take what you read in online forums with a grain of salt. After all, you’re only getting one side of the story.

All-purpose job boards

Although they shouldn’t be your starting point, general job boards are still worth perusing. Keep in mind that some of the job listings on such boards seem to be semipermanent, perhaps serving more as a way to collect résumés than to fill current job openings.

However, if you’re looking for a job at an individual facility rather than with a medical transcription service organization (MTSO), these job boards do carry a greater percentage of them. For example, you may uncover an opening at a nearby hospital or medical facility. Two of the better options are Monster and CareerBuilder.com.