10 Must Have Skills for a Professional Digital Audio Transcriptionists

1. Listening- a transcriptionists has to be a keen listener so that they can decipher everything that has been said. They work on single speaker to multiple participant speaker recordings. They also work with heavy accents, and people who speak too fast or too slow.
2. Problem solving- you will face daily challenges while working as a transcriptionists. It is important to know the difference between garbled speech, decipher mumbled, multiple speakers. You will also need to know how to deal with any background noises. There are some tricks that you need to have up your sleeve to deal with really difficult audio. This is where you might even need to carry out some research to know what you are doing.
3. Quality control– this is where you have to be attentive to all details and maintain consistency throughout all the work that you are doing. This is because people are always keen to spot the mistakes you have made after all they are paying you to do the work. Be attentive to note some of the mistakes the client has made.
4. English language- it is important to have excellent command of spoken and written English including spelling and grammar.  This includes words that have the same pronunciation but different meanings.
5. Time management- you have to make sure that you work within deadlines to ensure that all the projects you are working on are finished on time.
6. Speed and accuracy- you have to know how to type really fast and be accurate at the same time to finish more work within a short period of time.
7. Industry knowledge- there are some professionals who decide to work on specific fields like legal or medical transcription and this requires them to have a little background knowledge on the field to carry out your tasks effectively.
8. Discretion/ non disclosure- you have to have high levels of discretion to ensure that the clients work is safe and does not get into unauthorized hands.
9. PC and internet skills- this is very important as there are the tools that will be used for the job as well as communication with clients. You also need to know how to send the projects to the clients without too much hustle.
10. Specialized equipment and software- you need to be aware of the latest equipment as well as software that can help make your work easier and faster.

It is also important to note that skills improve with time as you work.