Why I Left Freelance Writing to be a Rev Transcriptionist

The following post was written by JulieAnn Corbin, a New York-based transcriptionist that has been with Rev since April 2017. This post first appeared on JulieAnn’s website, and we’ve published it here with her permission.

This past spring one of my closest friends sent me a link to an article sharing various work from home opportunities involving transcribing. One of the company’s listed was Rev. As I’ve been typing fast ever since I took keyboarding class in middle school, transcribing seemed like an interesting new avenue to explore. A highly appealing part of Rev was that they pay every Monday and for a self-employed person, that was music to my ears!

I’ve been a full-time freelance content writer since I quit my secretarial job in July 0f 2013 and while I’ve loved being able to work from home and have more time with my girls, being self-employed has its challenges. I’ve enjoyed success on several content marketplace sites but quite often I’d find myself “chasing the money” as I hoped a client would accept my work or waited for someone to buy my articles listed for sale. Reading that Rev paid for all accepted work and paid weekly was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

I went through the online application process for Rev, which involved an online grammar test followed by a test with a sample transcription file. Although I’ve been a writer for almost 30 years and am currently majoring in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University, I was still ridiculously nervous taking the grammar test. I was afraid all the rules I’ve learned over the years would fly out of my brain. Fortunately, I did fine with the grammar test and then it was on to the transcription test.

When I started the test, I was immediately impressed with the user-friendly transcription editor Rev has created. There are numerous options that make transcribing files easier and they have an online style guide that helps transcribers understand the correct formatting for Rev. I don’t remember how long it took me to do that test transcription job but I remember my hands shaking as I did it because I really wanted to pass and see what Rev was all about.

Much to my delight, Rev accepted my application and I promptly started taking a few transcription jobs during the week. I was still mostly working as a freelance content writer and was also doing all my usual jobs of being a mom, homeowner, and college student. In hindsight, I should’ve started typing more frequently for Rev much earlier because the more I transcribe, the better I become and the more money I can earn.

A few months ago, I threw myself into Rev as my full-time job because I had fallen in love with the work. I’ve transcribed so many different types of audio files and learned a lot in the process. The jobs are brief glimpses into other areas of the world and industries I previously knew nothing about. Quite often I end my day feeling like I’ve had some really interesting conversations with people until I remember that I’m just the unseen transcriber listening in. Even so, it’s helped me feel like I’m more part of the world, which is a great thing for me since I work from home and live in a rather rural area.

I started as a Rookie as all newbies to Rev do and quickly moved up to the next level of Revver and in early June, had transcribed enough minutes to become their highest level of Revver+. The amount of jobs available daily is astounding and even on light job days, I always manage to find something I can do. I’m happy to report that I’ve received the highest grade of five on almost every job I’ve submitted (one 4.5 out of 5 in 30 graded jobs isn’t bad in my opinion!) and I often get five-star reviews from customers. I do my best on every job, submit every job on time and love that they provide feedback and review opportunities.

As a writer, I view these transcription jobs as little stories that people are telling. That may sound odd when referring to conference calls, video interviews, focus group meetings, and so on, but to me they’re all people with a story to tell and information to share. My experience as a writer of fiction and nonfiction helps me format the jobs in a way that makes sense even during times when the speaker might not pause for breath through a long discussion. My job is to help them make their information shareable and searchable and I do my best to always submit quality work.

An interesting thing I’ve discovered while working for Rev is that I’m good at understanding certain accents. I credit that ability to my love of watching TV shows and movies with various accents throughout my life. While I might struggle a bit at the beginning of a job with an accent, as I continue to listen and type, it starts making sense and I barely notice the accent anymore. By the time I’m done typing the job and do my final listen through, I can usually fill in any parts I marked as inaudible during the first lesson. Learning how people speak in other areas of the world and understanding the context of the conversation helps everything make sense during the final listen through.

I can proudly say that my upcoming family vacation with my girls has been made possible in large part by my job as a Rev transcriber. I’ve been working diligently since late June to save up for this trip and I’m so proud of myself. On days that I have my girls I’ve been doing two to three jobs and on days I don’t have them I do three to five and have been working from sunrise to sunset. I feel so accomplished at the end of the day and I really love being paid reliably every Monday from Rev.

Another great part of Rev is that they keep improving their transcription editor to make it more versatile and user-friendly for Revvers. I love the ability to create my own shortcuts for commonly used words because that improves my speed and prevents my fingers tripping over words and slowing me down. I have my own transcription language now thanks to Rev and I find myself wishing their editor worked in everything I typed so I could get my messages across faster.

Rev really is an innovative and intuitive company that listens to their transcribers and their customers and I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to work for them. Working for them has greatly improved the life of this self-employed mom and self-sufficient woman and I’m sure numerous Revvers feel as I do. So keep up the good work Rev as I hope to be Revving it up for years to come!

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