What You Should Know About Career Advancement

If you want to truly have success and find career advancement opportunities in your industry, you will do all the research necessary to ensure you can meet every requirement. You need to be doing something you want to do and something that you will want to be doing every day for the rest of your life. If you are already satisfied and happy at the end of your workday, you are already one step ahead. If you have your eye on a higher position doing the same thing, you will be experienced and ready for more responsibility. If you are unhappy every day, grumpy and miserable all day and even when you go home, you should consider changing careers so that you will not be stuck doing something you hate for the rest of your life.
Get the highest degree you can get in your field to advance as far as you can. Your education will speak volumes to the people you need to impress in your industry. There will always be bosses to answer to, and you will always want to be able to impress them with your knowledge. If you plan to be your own boss, you will have to accomplish the opposite - impress the clientele. This could prove to be even harder than trying to get your bosses to appreciate you. When someone is unfamiliar with how an industry works, they may have a hard time understanding all the issues that can come up. If you are completely knowledgeable and confident about what you are doing, it will show and your customers will notice.
In business, you will need to give something to get something. To advance in your career, you will need to give a great deal of time and effort. There will be others who want your position, want to rise to the top just as you do, and this competition should always be kept in mind. You want to get extra training, cross train yourself in different aspects of your field, and practice your techniques until you have them down perfectly. Make sure you are completely qualified for the promotions that you desire.
You may be relying on staying at your job long enough to see some career advancement, or you could be doing just the opposite - heading out on your own. If you see a need for your particular specialty in your location, you might want to advance your career by venturing out on your own and starting your own business.

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Best Transcription Tips for New Graduates

It's Tuesday, and a time for you to share your tips! This community has a wide variety of experience. We have students, new graduates who are looking for their first job, MTs with a few years of experience, and some MTs with many years of experience. Each and every one of you has something to offer to this group.
In the past week, one of the groups I belong to had a discussion for new professionals about how to go about finding that first job. It was started by a new graduate who was asking if anyone wanted to purchase her reference books because she's giving up. She's been out of school for five months and unable to find an MT position. It's no secret that this is perhaps the biggest challenge for someone who has just finished a medical transcription program. These new graduates come out of school excited about their future, and often hit that proverbial brick wall that says "two years of experience required." So how do you get the experience if you can't get the job? And how do you get the job without experience?
I also talked with a student this week who finds herself in a program where the school has decided to cancel their internship. She's in a community college program, feels a real lack of exposure to the real live industry, and happened on this site. One of the things we talked about is how very open this community is and how supportive you all are of each other. A telling comment she made to me was that this industry often feels like a "closed group," where it seems people have the "trade secrets," but nobody really wants to share them. We also talked about how that doesn't seem to be the case here and that people were pretty open to sharing ideas with each other, which is, in my opinion, a HUGE kudos to all of you!
The world of medical transcription has changed a lot since I started. When I started, there were no medical transcription programs. I took a terminology course and a machine transcription course and then drove the transcription manager crazy at the hospital where I worked until she gave me a shot. And it was so very different back then! We didn't have the pressure of turnaround times like we have now. When I started, we had ONE person in the department who could transcribe operative reports. Nobody else had ever learned. When that person went on vacation, the tapes (yes, it was all tapes back then) with the operative notes on them were all put in a box to wait her return. With less worry about things like turnaround time, I think people perhaps were more open to taking on a newbie and training us. Today, it's a very different story.
If I were to offer a few tips for new graduates, here's what they would be:

• Begin to network BEFORE you graduate. Do that through sites like this, through an AHDI chapter if you have one. Find where the MTs hang out and get to know them. You will find that networking gives you some idea of what's happening in the industry and can also give you some ideas of where jobs might be.
• Pursue your credential. Take a study course, then take the exam. While I still think the RMT has a long way to catching up in perceived value, it does show you are serious about the profession and that you understand that getting credentialed is a part of the process that many professionals pursue.
• Polish that resume. Along those lines, be sure you have a profile on places like LinkedIn so you can make connections and get noticed. Employers today aren't just looking for new staff by running an ad somewhere and it's important to understand that this process is changing.
• Continue your education while you are looking. Yes, I understand that may be a lot to take on. At the same time, most of us don't come into this profession knowing all we need to know to do the job. And continuing your education is something you will need to do all through your career. Doing it now shows that you're serious and committed.
• Stay positive. If I'm a recruiter, I really don't want to hear "This is the tenth company I have applied for, do you have any jobs?" I want to hear why you will make a difference if we hire you. I want to hear what you're going to do. I really want to hear that you understand that it's a partnership between employees and employers and that you're willing to do your part.

So today for our Tuesday Tips let's talk about tips for those newbies. If you have some experience, I want you to sit back for a minute and remember what it was like to seek that very first transcription job. What helped you succeed? If you're new here, a new graduate, or even still in school, what are you finding works and what are you struggling with? Everyone has something to contribute, let's hear it!

Kathy Nicholls has been involved in the MT industry for over 30 years and is currently the president MT Tools Online, which provides continuing education for healthcare documentation professionals. MT Tools Online offers a credential study course for those wishing to take the CMT or RMT certification exams given by AHDI. Nicholls is also the published author of the "Stedman's Guide to the HIPAA Privacy Rule." Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Nicholls