Work on Increasing Your Income – Validate Your Skills

In my pursuit to find a work-from-home position, I decided I would try to become a transcriptionist. Good transcriptionists can average $20/hr from home and the work can be pretty flexible as long as you meet deadlines. My typing skills were good, but I didn’t have any experience.

Then I heard about Brainbench. This site offers testing in MANY different subjects. Some testing costs money, but they do have some free ones (such as typing speed). So I registered and took the typing test and figured I could meet the general minimum typing speed for transcriptionists.

I found out my typing speed was 71 words per minute and they provided a link that I could put on my resume that would pull up my attained certifications on Brainbench. Having that on a resume can tell a potential employer something…this person means business. They went out and did something they didn’t have to do – become certified. That shows some initiative and the desire to succeed, as well as being serious about their career.

Although I am a horrible salesperson, a resume is really just an advertisement for you and how you will benefit a particular employer. Always think of ways you can make yourself stand out and certification is a great way!

Back to my experience, I applied to a well-known (and good paying) transcription company, Escriptionist.com. I tailored my resume the best I could with the skills I thought would make a great transcriptionist and I proudly displayed my Brainbench certification in typing.

Some time passed (not unusual, work-at-home positions are in VERY popular demand) and then I received more information. They wanted to test me by sending some audio files for me to transcribe. I was so excited – my foot was in the door!

The files arrived, and I transcribed them trying to follow their rules as best as I could. When I was finished, I sent them and waited…and waited…and waited (a note: patience is key when trying to land any work-from-home position).

In the meantime, I obtained my current position so things worked out well for my pursuit to work from home. A few months ago, I did receive official word that I wasn’t hired by Escriptionist.com. Yes, a little bit of a bummer but in hindsight I realized I made a boo-boo on the test. Something that I could have easily avoided, but with any experience it can be successful as long as you learn from it.

Once I have time, I plan on taking a few other free tests over there. All it takes is your time and you can see what you really know. Even just the confidence one can obtain by scoring well on a test can show through when you write your resume and cover letter.

A thanks to LifeHacker for blogging about this recently and reminding me about Brainbench!

Posted by Tricia on July 22, 2006 at 12:04 PM in Making Money | 1 Comment »
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