Aimee Rubinowitz is a transcriber from Long Island, New York, and has had a long career in the transcription world.  She began scoping in the early days, but she soon realized that transcribing was a better fit for her skills.

Let’s hear more about Aimee!

How did your transcription career begin, Aimee?

I started as a scopist for a couple of years.  My mother was a notereader for court reporters at that time.  Then things switched to dictation.  My mother hated it.  But I realized that apparently I was a “natural.”

So what happened at that point?

I started my own business, A&B Typing, in 1992, and for 14 years I grew to having ACS, Legal Aid, and many government contracts. At that time, we used couriers to pick up and drop off the physical audio and transcripts. We’ve come a long way since then, though!

Do you still own your own transcription business?

No.  I won’t bore you with a long story, but I lost my business.  Why?  Because I grew too fast, got too greedy, never denied a job, and crashed because I couldn’t hire people because they weren’t “perfect” enough.

I was too OCD to not be in control of everything!

My mom, who was my office manager, also passed, and that was a big blow for me. Honestly, I really think I would still be too intense if I had my own company.

Did you make a change at that point to work for transcriber companies instead of owning your own company?

Yes, I did.  Owning a transcriber business brings in more money but also more stress.   My decision led me to find a company or companies I was comfortable with so that I can take weekends off and go on a vacation sometimes without stressing!

Having owned a business, I LOVE now working for a few established companies as an independent contractor. Now I no longer worry about deadlines except those I accept for myself. The best for me, though, is not having to worry about losing business.

In case you didn’t get it, LESS stress!

What types of work do you do now as a transcriber?

I mainly now do depositions and then anything that comes up the pike.  So the usual: family court, criminal, civil trials, bankruptcy.

So legal is your favorite type of transcription?

Yes. I also love doing depositions because they’re non-colloquy Q&A.  Not only that, I love them for the ease and the great money.

But my least favorite is law enforcement transcriptions such as police bodycam on the field or gangbanger interviews.  And the absolute worst is jail calls.

RELATED:  Law Enforcement Transcription.

Do you have any national certifications, Aimee?

Yes, I have an AAERT Certification (CET-1068). I think that tells you how few of us there are, when in 2018 I was only the 1068th certified CET in the world.

RELATED:  Certified Electronic Transcriber.

Any advice you would care to share with transcribers who are interested in becoming certified?

Well, the written exam is actually quite difficult. You need to know your stuff, down to Latin suffixes and prefixes, to the basics of legal formatting, to the functions of different factions of government!  The practical exam you should ace if you belong in this business.

The pay is also reflective if you have your CET, so it’s a good thing to have.

Do you believe that any training is necessary for transcription?

I believe insane training is necessary for legal transcription. Corporate, not as much. Just legal transcription in general, we all need not only training but continuing education, as grammar and formatting standards change constantly!

RELATED:  Legal Transcription Training.

If you had a word of advice for someone considering transcription, what would you tell them?

Like getting to Carnegie Hall….practice, practice, practice. Study, study, study. The work is out there. It’s a budding profession. Worth it if you want to work at home and have the discipline to do it!

On that note, discipline is key. Working at home, make sure you budget your time, don’t overbook, and get into a routine. Self-discipline in this particular business is the most important. It’s a beautiful summer day and your deadline isn’t until tomorrow…do half the job at least! Then enjoy.

Finally, Aimee, what do you foresee as the future for the transcription industry?

I think it’s going to blow up more than it has already.

Voice recognition technology like Dragon will never work, might be detrimental to the medical transcription field, where software learns one doctor’s dialect. But only we can understand English (or whatever some people actually speak that resembles English), crosstalk, accents, and lawyers who make up their own words a lot.

Conclusion …

We sincerely thank Aimee for giving her candid responses.  More importantly, we thank Aimee’s mother for introducing her daughter to the transcription world.   As a result, the industry gained a hard worker, a perfectionist, and a truly dedicated transcriber. We know her mother would be so proud of her!

Aimee can be reached through her LinkedIn profile to speak with her or ask her any further questions.