If you are planning to pursue a part-time, work-at-home career at this point, an online transcription platform can be a good place to start. However, there are hundreds of transcription service companies you can find over the internet at present that promise anyone a better work environment and decent pay rates, so you should be careful when choosing which company to join. If you haven’t heard of National Capitol Contracting, a transcription company that regularly hires talented work-at-home transcribers from different parts of the world, you might be interested in working for them.
Is National Capitol Contracting a Stable Business Organization?
National Capitol Contracting has been working with the federal government in many areas of Washington, D.C., for more than 15 years. This reputable service provider offers a complete line of professional transcription services and business solutions for both the private and public sectors.
National Capitol Contracting started out its business campaign as a closed-captioning service enterprise in cooperation with the National Institute of Health. The company has further expanded its comprehensive service portfolio to other valuable niches, including media solutions, production design, and even information management over the past years.
National Capitol Contracting also recognizes the importance of providing high-quality services to clients through the creation and execution of tailor-fit business solutions based on the objectives and priorities of the clients. And hiring the best remote transcribers available on the market is one of their key business strategies to keep up with the industry demands.
National Capitol Contracting is constantly searching for talented individuals who possess excellent listening skills to convert audio sources into written documents of various formats. Transcribers are expected to deliver high-quality verbatim transcripts on fast turnaround time, which will be used for documentation, closed-captioning, language translation, and communication purposes. NCC covers a huge variety of transcription jobs which include:
- Medical
- Legal and court proceedings
- Corporate and finance
- Legislature and public policy
- Academic and research development
- Private and public investigation
National Capitol Contracting Application Process
Working for National Capitol Contracting seems fine as long as you are able to meet the minimum required audio minutes per week. NCC allows independent contractors to choose when and where they want to transcribe. As a start, you will need a high-speed internet connection and a working laptop with an updated operating system and Microsoft Office Suite.
NCC will provide successful candidates with a free transcribing tool and several career suggestions in order to improve performance and typing speed during employment. When you apply, kindly fill out the online application form with your personal details, work history, and recent contact information. You should provide a brief description of your previous transcription jobs, if applicable, to determine your strength and expertise.
After you have submitted the form, NCC will redirect you to its test page https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bQoOXvq8W_A9r0_qVlSynAhK25OolXPg?usp=sharing to know the Style Guide and standard working templates of the company. You need to accomplish two separate audio tests, which you can download directly from the page. The test files will download as Mp3, and you can play them using Express Scribe or any other transcribing tools you prefer.
Use the NCC Standard Template to create an individual transcript for each test. Both transcripts should be written in AP Style Guide as directed by the company. After completing the tests, you will know the results within two weeks.
Before you submit your application, NCC is expecting you to possess these initial qualifications below:
- Ability to work with minimum supervision
- Keen to details, including style guidelines and formatting requirements
- Fast typing speed (not specified)
- Experience with AP, MLA, and/or Chicago Style writing guidelines
- Outstanding research skills, particularly technical terms and popular names
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
- Proficient in using word processing tools for document creation and formatting
- Ability to perform basic computer troubleshooting and software installation
- Proficient in different foreign languages (excellent translating skills)
- Windows 7 or higher operating system since NCC will provide you its own transcribing software
- Stereo headphones with high-quality sounds and foot pedals
- Working contact numbers and apps for communication use
Work Process
Before you start receiving assignments, you need to complete a brief training course to familiarize yourself with the entire work process, including file upload, audio download, project briefing, and grading system. Each project will display its audio length, project rate, media content, and other valuable descriptions to give you a better picture of how you should transcribe the file.
National Capitol Contracting requires at least three hours of audio minutes per week. According to the internal measurement standards of NCC, three hours of audio minutes will take you around 12 hours of work time on the average. But your overall work output will still depend on speed, project complexity, and audio quality. You are also allowed to set your own work schedule, making NCC a viable option as a supplemental income source for many people.
Salary Rates
When you transcribe for NCC, you may potentially earn at least $40.00 per audio hour, but it may take you a while to accomplish one hour of transcribed audio. Your earning potential will vary since you are dealing with several challenges during work, such as overlapping speakers, poor audio quality, and highly technical terms being used. Some audio sources are easy to handle, while others will give you a hard time to understand.
In some instances, you might need to perform research tasks on technical terms and speaker profiles, aside from listening to difficult accents. Available payment options include PayPal and check deposit, and payouts are sent every week after compiling your approved transcripts.
Also note that specialized transcribers, like medical or legal transcriptionists, can earn better than general transcriptionists due to project complexity and needed expertise to perform the tasks. Transcribers with language proficiency can also earn higher since many of them will be tasked to translate one source language to another or produce closed-captioning and subtitling.
Pros and Cons
The vast majority of job positions in National Capitol Contracting are supported by legal contracts and confidentiality forms. Here’s what you can get when working for this company:
- Flexible work schedule
- Better work opportunities for transcribers who wish to focus on one type of industry
- Higher-income generation for translators, transcript proofreaders, editors, and head transcriptionists
- Good remote office environment since team members are supportive by supervisors
- Access to better project listing, though you need to keep up with the required performance rating of NCC
With regard to its disadvantages, transcribers may likely experience these typical work problems:
- No work benefits since you are hired as an independent contractor
- Workload may become inconsistent due to heavy competition among fellow transcribers.
- Strict implementation of NCC Style Guide which greatly affects your overall performance score
- Transcriber promotion takes time, which hinders them from accessing longer audio files.
- Nature of work seems repetitive.
National Capitol Contracting may provide the rare opportunity to help you boost your online career portfolio. But just like any other transcription jobs, continuous listening to audio files can get boring after doing it for a while.
Aldrich Tan is a duly registered Filipino architect and is currently working as a freelance writer focusing on content writing and blogging purposes.