Tuesday, May 29, 2007

because I had a comfortable hold on English.

Graduating as a homoeopath and hospital management student, a job in a medical transcription company was not on the agenda. I used to work at the Pune Fertility Centre as a medical officer, and it was my boss who suggested that I take a crack at it, because the business was booming. Apparently the only reason why she asked me to give the interview a shot was because I had a comfortable hold on English.

Though the job of a transcriptionist is supposedly quite mechanical, I decided to accept the offer because there was good money involved, almost thrice as much as I was earning at the hospital. I underwent training that involved understanding the various styles of American accents and spellings of medical terms that differ from British English. In fact, this is what keeps many Maharashtrians away from this field. The American accents can get quite confusing and differ from area to area; a tough call, unless you’re really conversant with English. No wonder then that out of 80 transcriptionists, you would find only 15 Maharashtrians. However, a few weeks of night duties, travelling 20 km from home took a toll, and I began to look for a new company

No comments: