. Well, I got the transcription job. And i start tomorrow, 1 day before I start my other new job. This should be interesting, and i hope not too tiring. But between the 2 jobs,I'll be working 40 hours, 5 days a week. Which hopefully should be enough to pay my bills and stay alive when my unemployment benefits finally trickle out this spring. So, despite the low pay, both these jobs came none too soon.
I can work them both until June 2013 if need be, but I will be constantly looking for a f/t job because I need the all-important health benefits. June 2013 is when my ability to continue with COBRA runs out. So it's imperative to find a salaried job with health insurance before that day, about a year-and-a-half from now.
Here's what the transcription job is all about. Before a network airs a season's worth of a TV show, they tape hundreds of hours, much of which they end up not using or editing down to just so many episodes per season.
The tapes I'll be transcribing are Q&A sessions between a TV producer and a contestant on a top chef reality show on the Food Network. This would be my baby for the next several months. Each time someone new starts talking, I have to hit the time stamp; this helps the producers find the right spots on the tape when they decide where to winnow it down and do their editing. You can at times hear the producer coaching the contestant about what to focus on when he answers their questions. So much for reality.
I'll have to sign a confidentiality agreement becus I'll know how a show ends before it airs, essentially. So this will be the last time I'll be able to talk about it.
It was a little tricky to start off because I had to get the hang of using a foot pedal to stop and start the tape as needed, if they were talking too fast, or to rewind, or if something that was said sounded garbled. There were also a lot of false starts, meaning, someone would start a sentence and then shift into saying something else.
As a natural editor, I have a strong tendency to edit as I type, but they don't want the tape edited, they want it verbatim, although they DO want you to fix grammar, punctuation and spelling. So I'm going to have to watch that becus they said someone else who kept doing that didn't work out.
I gave up trying to figure out my hourly rate. I'll just have to see how it goes. They pay a half penny per word, so i guess if I typed 1 page, about 250 words, I'd earn $12.50. It's really hard to tell how much I could do in an hour. I figure if it's only for 2 days a week it won't kill me.
A first for me: starting 2 new jobs on 2 consecutive days
February 6th, 2012 at 06:55 pm
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And congrats on your two jobs!
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Good luck and hope it goes well!
BTW: while employer paid health insurance is a lovely benefit, you can still get health insurance without it. If you run through your COBRA, you can get a guaranteed issue policy with the same company. That's what I did when I ran thru COBRA last year. And, while the policy I bought had a higher deductible, it still was significantly cheaper (389.50 vs. 606) than the COBRA policy (1500 vs 500 deductible, plus the 389.50 policy had 20% co-insurance to the out of pocket limit of 6000). There's also another version of the policy for about 60/month more that has a lower deductible/out of pocket limit. Being able to afford health insurance from now until you are old enough for Medicare is more critical; having that health insurance be employer provided is a great perk, but secondary.
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Agreed with Dido. I'd forget the health benefits and focus on the income to pay the health insurance. I personally doubt I would ever choose employer insurance if offered and it put me ahead in the short run. Just know too many people completely screwed over by the employer health system (when disabled, laid off, etc.). With private insurance, the premiums don't go up 500% overnight because my job situation changed. Of course, the reason I have always had private insurance in the first place is it is a MUCH better deal (more affordable, BETTER insurance). I certainly do not recommend just going cheap, either. But I'd shop around insurance - you may be surprised.
Having never limited my options due to benefits, I don't understand the mindset. Just seems very limiting to me.