Have you been practicing your local news, talk shows, and sports? I hope so and that you are still interested in becoming a captioner.
COST
Let’s talk about the costs associated with becoming a captioner. If you think you’d like to become an independent contractor, as opposed to an employee, you will likely incur the expenses of upgrading to captioning software, installing two land lines, and being sure you have reliable Internet. Some employers provide all of the equipment. Some provide everything except steno machines. Employees who work at home must also have reliable Internet.
TRAINING
Your next step should be to seek training. If you are going to be an independent contractor, I recommend attending a boot camp or working with a personal trainer. Some companies provide training, and you can find boot camps and personal trainers online. If you work with a personal trainer, she or he will review your files and help you attain 98.5 percent accuracy. You may be thinking 98.5 percent means a 1.5 percent untran rate, and that you’re already there. This is not related to your untran rate. Your untran rate thinks that the word humanity translated as “hue man tee” is perfectly acceptable because they are real words. In captioning, it is three errors. Use NCRA’s “What is an Error?” as a guide for grading your files. A general guideline is if you write 3,000 words in a half-hour with 30 errors, it is 99 percent accuracy; 60 errors would be 98 percent accuracy.
I hope that you will join the many that have gone before you to find a new, exciting, and rewarding avenue to utilize your skills.
