How to train your Dragon.
I guess you never really notice how horrible people can talk on the phone until you caption words for a living.
Y'know, for a job whose premise is simple -listen and repeat- there are a few hoops to get through before you are officially IN.

You apply.
Once you get an e-mail saying they are interested, you go and the recruiter interviews you, asks you to read a few sentences on a piece of paper, then tests how accurate you are at parroting back a few recordings on a software called Dragon. Those get graded and if your scores are good enough, you have what it takes. they tell you they want to hire you, start training and have you fill out a few sheets for background check and references. If you don't test, you're out. This job is all about percentages and accuracy.

You go to training for 5 days in a room with computers with other people training with you.
You get information about the company and train the program Dragon to your voice, how you speak so that it can basically learn from you. all that gets saved under your name for when you go out there and start listening to real calls.
You must make it through training which consists of more tests or assessments. by Friday you get a final assessment and if you make a good enough score, you make it into"nesting"...
if you don't, they let you go but still pay you for going through training.
I made it through the training along with another girl. the other two did not.

You start your nesting which basically means, you get to sit in a cubicle and do real calls.
A captioning agent listens in to calls with a head set. the person you hear is the one who is perfectly fine and has no hearing impairment. That's the person i must speak behind in real time. the person who can't hear well has a special phone with a screen so the words i say get transferred into the screen so they can read. they do have some hearing and most of them for the most part can hear well enough but the captions are there in case they need them and can be turned off when they like.
Seems simple enough... until you realize a lot of people suck at speaking.

Some have hard accents.
Some talk like they have a mouth full of food.
Some talk too fast that you can't keep up.
Some calls involve Doctor's names that you can't pronounce.

you can get tongue tied. skip words. sometimes the Dragon will pick up a different word than the one you say. all those things are mistakes that get counted and affect your overall percentage.
There are factors that get in the way like static, cutting in and out, muffling and there are keys we can hit to save us as long as when the call is over, you do a small problem report if you encounter issues during the call that made captioning difficult. those can be your saving grace but i don't know up to how much.
Sometimes people don't make it out of nesting.
you can get let go then too.
If you make it out of there, you're in Production. that means you're IN but still need to have consistency.
They usually want you to make it out of nesting in 2 weeks.
My 2nd week starts tomorrow.
i don't know how my scores are or how I'm doing. i don't know if I'm performing up to their expectations but i do go into work positive every single day these last 2 weeks I've been employed. I tell myself that this is a learning curve, that I'll get better, make it through nesting and into production and that once i have my Dragon trained to how it's supposed to be, I'll be okay...
i tell myself that i didn't go through all of this training and nesting and worrying as well as go way out of my way and drive 45 minutes or more to just be let go of in the end. I think about my future, my boyfriend and how it's important to get my life in order financially if Fabián and i are going to go all in and be together and married. I'm trying to be a good example even for him to truly trust in God and His plan and that i wholeheartedly believe that He opened doors for me and things have worked out so far because i am meant to work there.
It's important for me to do well so when they implement the work from home option here like they have in the Philippines and UK, i can request that, avoid driving that far, and keep this job for a long time and be a working stay at home parent in the future.
I can only stay hopeful right now, pray to God i have what it takes to make it out of nesting into production and then make it three months so i can get Insurance and feel safe about having stability in my life.

Well, tomorrow is another day and all i can do is my best. let's hope that's enough.

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posted on 2016-08-21 @ 7:13 p.m.