Volunteer Your Way to Medical Transcription Job Opportunities

As soon as you are ready to find medical transcription job opportunities, volunteer your time, effort and resources to establish your professionalism. Seek out and join a local chapter of the American Association of Medical Transcriptionists (AAMT) in your area, and ask how you may be of help to your local chapter. Volunteers are always needed and will be welcomed with open arms. This is a terrific way to brand yourself as a person who is serious about the medical transcription career. Veteran medical transcriptionists will take notice of you, and that will open the doors to medical transcription job opportunities in the future.



When seeking medical transcription job opportunities, market yourself to local medical transcription agencies. Set up an appointment or interview, if possible. Expand your network by talking to everyone you can in the medical transcription field and let them know that you are willing to do whatever it takes, including volunteer work, to get your foot in the door. Do not forget to thank those who have helped you along the way.



Medical transcription job opportunities are everywhere; use some unique strategies to find them. Look for a local situation that may be of benefit to you. For example, in the 1990s, the County of Orange in California declared bankruptcy. I contacted the Sheriff-Coroner's Office only to discover that all but one full-time medical transcriptionist had been laid off and there was a nine month backlog of autopsy reports. Nine months! After interviewing there and receiving a great reception, I worked there every Saturday for almost a year and received a wonderful education in Pathology terminology. This was the best experience I ever had. Plus, the sole medical transcriptionist was nearing retirement which put me in a great position if I were offered the job.



In your search for medical transcription job opportunities, ask your instructors if they need some help with transcribing classroom assignments. When I was an MT student, I remember how bad the assignment copies were. After I completed the medical transcription course, I word processed the assignments, corrected the mistakes that had been in them, and then took them to a print shop for reprinting and binding. Then I sent these to my medical transcription instructor. It was a way to thank her for all she had done for me. I also helped my medical terminology instructor, who was writing a book. I word processed the medical reports for her medical terminology book. I was working full time as a medical transcription and word processor, but I made the time to pay back these wonderful professionals who gave me a great education.



Volunteering is a networking strategy used to find unadvertised medical transcription job opportunities. Not many people employ this technique. Although you may not get immediate results from your efforts, people will see you as a serious medical transcriptionist and admire your professional tenacity in your job search. The word will get out that you are looking for a MT job, and soon you will find what you are looking for: medical transcription job opportunities.

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Mary Ruff-King is a veteran MT who helps new MTs with tips on how to find medical transcription job opportunities. Other tips on how to find medical transcription job opportunities are provided at MT Mastery Center.