Get your CV ready for 2010!

Hi everyone.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! I would like to point out that if you are a jobhunter, now is a great time to get your CV up to date, as within the next week or two, the job market is going to be saturated when people who have hung on for their December bonuses and leave make their move for their new job.

Most business owners are also motivated at this time of year to employ new staff, because a new year is new beginnings.

It's important to have the very best CV you can have, simply because often your CV is the first impression a potential employer will have of you, and therefore, if you don't feel comfortable that you yourself can prepare a professional CV, it's wise to enlist the help of professionals who have worked in the recruitment industry, such as Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC. Contact me today if you would like help in this regard.

Is this an easy job?

Somebody who had seen one of my brochures rang me yesterday to say she was considering finding a work from home job, and was what I do easy?

I stopped to look at my situation before considering my reply. I had just developed a head cold and was not feeling at my best - sinussy, clogged, sneezy. I was busy with transcribing a two day conference for a regular client who doesn't usually send regular work, but who contacted me yesterday to say it was urgent and she needed it back this morning (which I have completed - with the help of fab sub contractors). I am the mom of two and it's rather a choppy period for them at the moment - one is battling with his schoolwork and the other changing schools next year.

Before I could answer, the lady continued to say that she wanted to spend more time with her children and therefore wanted to work from home. And I always feel like I'm letting people down when I tell them that since starting doing this, I spend less time with my children and that no, it's not easy. I spent about 6 months when I first started out working 24/7 on my business and some days I still have to do that, depending on my clients.

When you get those regular clients in, it becomes a bit easier, but just like a boss in an office, a client wants his work back - whether or not your child has a difficult homework project, etc. And regular clients are not that easy to find and must be treasured when you do find them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put people off, it's just that I have five years experience doing this and I call a spade a spade. If you want something for nothing, to spend all day long with your children, and to be able to nurse yourself back to health in bed when you have a cold, this job is not for you. But if you want to be your own boss, build a business for yourself and a heritage for your children and have good typing and grammatical skills and a professional manner - then yes!

World AIDS Day

Hi there, I would just like to say I support the sentiment behind World AIDS day and that I make the following pledge:

For every confirmed transcription order I get in today, I will donate 10 per cent of the proceeds to The AIDS Foundation of South Africa http://www.aids.org.za/index.htm

I'm willing to extend this to say that even if it's the 2nd of December in South Africa when you place your order, if it's the 1st in your country, then the deal is on.

When do you sleep?

A friend asked me this yesterday and I'm still pondering the answer. The truth is, as a mom of two, a wife, the owner of a busy transcription company - and a person who also likes to have her own life outside of all of this - sleeping does not get the time it should, really.

I find exhaustion is my constant companion, but it's all self imposed, so I don't resent it. I don't have a boss or someone telling me which hours to work, when. So yes, if I work late in the evenings when it's quiet and peaceful in my house, even though I know I have to be up early the next morning, it's my choice, and I believe this is what makes the exhaustion tolerable. Besides, when clients need something done, or there is a transcriptionist with an emergency to sort out, or you have a child with a problem, sleep is not really an option.

I do value though the odd moments of peace and sleep I do get. I guard them fiercely and this I believe is what keeps me going.

Afrikaans transcribing, yes, typing in Afrikaans!

Hello everyone, from a very cold and wintry Johannesburg. Who can believe temps of 14 deg Celsius in summer! I've my winter clothes out again.

Today I feel I have surpassed myself. Late afternoon yesterday, a client got hold of me and said that she had a transcription for me and please would I pull out all the stops to try to get at least some of it back to her as the gentleman being interviewed actually passed away this week and they would like to use some of the transcript for his memorial service.

Of course, I couldn't say no to that, and anyway I'm not in the habit of saying no to my clients. I will always go the extra mile to try to meet a client's requirements, and so I said "of course, send it along".

I received it. It was 198 minutes of Afrikaans transcription.

Now ... I sat there contemplating this. Yes, I'm an English speaking South African, and usually when I start speaking Afrikaans, Afrikaners speak back to me in English. But my vocab is not bad, I've recently begun working on my Afrikaans again and in fact I reread Dalene Matthee's book "Fiela se Kind" last week, in Afrikaans. And the client only asked for a portion of it back this week and she said that I can have 10 days to complete the rest of it. Ordinarily my first thought with Afrikaans work is "outsource it".

But to be honest, I like the Afrikaans language. I find it poetic and descriptive, and since rereading Fiela se Kind I find I actually think in Afrikaans. So I thought, I'll take this on. I may only get through 10 minutes of it, and if so can always outsource it, but let me give it a try.

I've faultlessly typed 30 minutes of it (without a spell checker, I might add - the lack of Afrikaans spell check options is a whole other potential blog post) and I'm in the happy position of being able to tell my client she will be able to have at least an hour of it if not more before Saturday. And here is the moral of the story:
Don't underestimate yourself. Try things. Have a back up plan in place, but trust yourself and try things. Your clients will appreciate this.