Isaiah Roberts, RPR, Magnolia, Ill., recently posted this in the Facebook group “Encouraging Court Reporting Students.”
Students,
So many times I see you guys asking the question, “Is this worth it?” “Is there truly a demand?!” “Am I going to make enough!?” They’re VALID questions. I had the same exact ones when I was in school!!
All I want to say is this: IT. IS. WORTH. IT. I can PROMISE you. I’m in Chicago and there are SO many opportunities and jobs available for you. Opportunities to travel? You name it. Last week I flew to Louisiana for deps, yesterday I got to work at my dream location (the federal courthouse downtown Chicago ?), next week I got asked to fly out to Laguna Hills for a deposition, and if not for previously scheduled depositions, I got asked to go to Hong Kong this week for depositions. On top of everything, I scored some free tickets to Lollapalooza in Chicago this weekend from a connection I made at a past captioning gig, Coachella.
I don’t say ANY of this to brag. I say this because THESE are the awesome opportunities we have in this job, and I wish someone would’ve told me as a student that they’re out there. I’m nothing special — I didn’t fly through school, nor have I won (ha, or let alone am eligible to compete ?) in a speed competition. I’m just an average stenographer. If you work hard, the opportunities are LIMITLESS.
School is hard. Theory is hard. Speed building is super hard. But seriously, guys, I PROMISE you it is so much more worth it than you can even imagine … whether that be measured by income potential, travel opportunities, or most of all, how much you’re going to LOVE this profession. Keep up the hard work! ??
[…] at Coachella this past summer. He will speak to the students and answer their questions about life on the ‘”other side” of the RPR. There will also be several other court reporters from the professional community on […]