Thursday, March 22nd, 2018

CALLING ALL TRANSCRIBERS – WE ARE RECRUITING!

We don’t recruit on a casual or ad-hoc basis; this role is permanent and indefinite.

Joe McGowan, Managing Director

McGowan Transcriptions are recruiting for both full-time and part-time professional transcribers who are specialists in transcribing group discussions and interviews. You will need to have experience working with a diverse range of material and you will be experienced at transcribing regional accents.

Tuesday, December 19th, 2017

Looking back on 2017

Where has 2017 gone?! It was McGowan Transcriptions’ 24th year, and what a memorable year it has been. To sum up: there have been challenges, there have been opportunities; we’ve welcomed new additions to the team as we’ve waved goodbye to others; we’ve even had some familiar faces coming back to us, too (hi Carol!); we’ve had no shortage of complex projects and demanding deadlines to meet, and I’m pleased to say that we have consistently delighted our old and new clients alike with our super-fast turnaround and quality delivery.

Tuesday, February 28th, 2017

Why you would want to work with McGowan Transcriptions

The fact that I have worked for Joe for many, many years, I believe speaks volumes. In fact, I’ve only just realised that this will actually be my 20th year!! Time flies as they say. I cannot deny that I did struggle at the beginning having never done this type of work previously but because Joe was always so encouraging and supportive, I managed to get through the challenges.

Monday, July 4th, 2016

Transcription – A Beginner’s Guide

I’ve been transcribing with McGowan Transcriptions for three months now and I’d like to share some tips and ideas for super-new beginners to transcription.

I found it really hard when I was brand new and couldn’t find much useful advice out there. I’m hoping to help any newbies out there reading this to get your speed up so you can progress your career more quickly…

Here are some examples of tips and techniques that got my speed up. I’m sure there are plenty more, but here’s what’s in my box so far:

Friday, April 15th, 2016

Can we see you?

As transcribers, we spend our days with other people talking through us, like mediums! Our writing isn’t of the automatic kind, the stuff of the world of fake ghosts and séances; our job is to make sense of the very real spoken word and the world researchers investigate. ‘Surely we make sense when we speak?!’ you may cry in protest. Of course you do, but since roughly 80 per cent of our work is ‘written’ in intelligent verbatim, we do have to think about what you say and that means we need to work out where you stopped one thought and began another even if there’s a string of ands, buts and erms in between. And when you are looking for a word, we’re willing you on and sometimes second guessing you.

Thursday, April 14th, 2016

A Month With McGowan Transcriptions

Hands up at the start; this is shamelessly copying the theme of a previous blog post by Marian Cleary (September 2015). But one of the main reasons I applied to McGowan Transcriptions was because of her blog post. So I think that writing my own contribution is a good way to pay it forward, and hopefully show others that it’s possible to earn good money working from home with a lovely, friendly company.

Wednesday, March 18th, 2015

Spring is here

Finally, spring has sprung!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been back in our offices for four months, it feels like four weeks as we have been so busy transcribing! Christmas is normally a quiet time for transcription but not 2014, we’ve never known a Christmas like it in 21 years – which is great news for the entire industry.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

One Thing I’ll Miss…

In December we will be moving back to our office in Egham after having been displaced due to the floods in February. The flooding was a disaster but, due to a tested disaster recovery plan, we never missed a deadline and the transition from flooded offices to temporary offices was seamless.

There are many things I really can’t wait to enjoy once we are back in our own offices but the one thing that I will miss is being so close to Windsor Castle and experiencing the changing of the guard routine every other day. I never tire of this. The video below was filmed by me today, immediately outside of our offices.

Wednesday, February 26th, 2014

When Disaster Strikes

We have had a disaster recovery plan in place for a few years now and unexpectedly got to test it out in January…today I am very grateful for having had that opportunity!

When I first set about putting together the disaster recovery plan it was a chore and the paperwork was immense. Trying to plan for events that you couldn’t even think could ever happen was difficult and at the time felt like paying for insurance that you’d never need to cash.

How I undervalued that time spent and how relieved am I that I put in the hours needed to ensure McGowan Transcriptions stayed afloat (pardon the pun) in a disaster.

Wednesday, October 16th, 2013

How Times Have Changed

Having read Joe’s blog entitled, ’20 Years Established Today’, I felt a bit nostalgic (and very old!) and started reminiscing about how things have changed in transcription. I feel very privileged to have worked with Joe for 16 of those years and have seen McGowan Transcriptions grow from two or three transcribers to around seventeen transcribers today.

I started off transcribing with Joe at her home for only a few hours each week where we shared her office upstairs. From there, Joe moved house and then I also shared her office with a new member of her family – a gorgeous little puppy (well, not so little) where there was never a dull moment! When I started to transcribe full-time for Joe, I moved into my own office at home.