The Transformation of an Indian MT to a Saudi Project Secretary

This is a reader story of one of the readers of this blog, Dhiraj Kartik. As you might know, I have told earlier a few times that there is no scope for advancement in medical transcription career, the future is bleak, and if you want to have good prospects, you should move out, and newbies should never ever think about foraying into this trade at all. I had given the same advice to Dhiraj; to improve his skill sets and to move out to a new trade that has better prospects, probably in business finance and accounting. He enacted it successfully, and I am very much glad about that. You too could get out of this medical transcription swamp! How did Dhiraj make it? It is an interesting transformation story from a medical transcriptionist to a project secretary! Read below Dhiraj’s story in his own words, “The Transformation of an Indian MT to a Saudi Project Secretary!”

I joined as a trainee MT on October 4, 2004, and uploaded my last transcription file on September 11, 2011. Looking back, these seven years that I spent in this field were my best years and frankly speaking I do not regret working as a medical transcriptionist, although on comparison with my friends from other industry, the pay, the perks as well as the scope of growth was nothing to write home about. Still I feel indebted to transcription and my friends and colleagues in the industry who guided and molded me into what I am today.

In 2009, I was facing some personal problems (mostly financial) and that event motivated me to start working harder at my job i.e., transcription and also scout for other opportunities. I had tried to go abroad for work, but it did not materialize at that time. I started home transcription as it helped me to stay at home and deal with the problem apart from earning some additional money. It was during this time that I started seriously thinking about making a career change. Working from home gave me the freedom to manage my time. I am a commerce graduate, and I thought about developing my profile in that direction. I joined a computer institute for a diploma course in accounting packages. I purposefully chose the afternoon time as there were mostly no jobs in my transcription account at that time. After completing that course, I was on lookout for some spare time working experience, when I came to know that a sales tax practitioner’s office needed trainees. I contacted them but told that I will be available only from afternoon until evening and they agreed. They are the oldest sales tax practitioners in my area and have lots of clients. The work consisted of preparing monthly sales statements and returns in order to get the tax credit for VAT (value added tax, similar to the sales tax in the United States). The clients included cloth merchants, retailers and wholesalers of grocery, gas stations, construction companies etc. I learned to use Tally ERP 9 there. I worked there only for three months when I came to know that a well known non-banking financing company (India’s largest NBFC) was looking for audit executives. No experience was needed and the selected candidates would be trained at the company expense. I applied and was called for a short test and interview. I was selected and asked to report to the head office in Kochi on September 13, 2011. I was one among the 18 guys selected in Batch #156. All of us were to be posted in different regions of North India. The next few months were tough as Delhi is cruel in summer as well as in winter and to beat it all, I went down with typhoid. After a 51-day long hiatus, I was back in Delhi with a vengeance. I started cooking myself. Although my dishes were not delicious, I knew they wouldn’t get me admitted in a hospital either.

My work required a lot of travel and it was little tough to balance work, all the cooking and traveling. It was during this time that medical transcription once again came to my rescue. In our audit department, there is a separate cell looking after NPA (non performing assets – a term for loans which have turned bad). The loans which have turned NPA are publicly auctioned. This auction takes place only after legal notices have been sent to each party. The NPA department is a small subsection within the audit department and has a lot of workload. The guy who was doing all the support work suddenly became ill and was hospitalized for chronic appendicitis. They needed someone who is fast on the keyboard and ready to work in a high-pressure situation. I was transferred to this department and was given training for one week. I was able to perform this assignment without any hiccup, and I was not released for field audit after that. Compared to MT, my work here was very dynamic because I had to coordinate with the branches, coordinate with our legal department as well as legal advisors, coordinate with our marketing department for media related work, coordinate with the audit teams from different regions etc. Also, the work involved travel but lesser than the regular field audit. Just when things started happening for me, (I got double hike, out of which one was with retrospective effect), Saudi Arabia came calling again. I had to do some deep introspection as my current job was secure, there was scope for growth, and I had to do a lot of spadework to reach where I was. I checked with my bosses, (I was reporting to two guys), and they told me to not let the opportunity go waste. I consulted with the guy who trained me for one week in the beginning. He said “Dhiraj, you should go and try this out. I feel you will do great. Even if this turns out to be not so good, our company will be glad to take you back.” And thus I resigned from this organization on January 1, 2013.

I joined EPC (Energy and Power Contracting Co. Ltd.) on February 2, 2013. My designation is Project Secretary/Document Controller. I am dealing with correspondence as well as controlling all the documents in this project. Life is good compared to Delhi, work is going fine. I am a work-in-progress right now, as this is an engineering construction firm and just like our medical language, the engineers have their own technical language. I am interested in adding some technical expertise to my profile, although currently I am just trying to complete my masters in commerce this year. I have already received a post graduate diploma on completing my first year courses. Completion of the second year course will make me eligible for receiving a masters in commerce at IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University).

Yes, I took medical transcription as my launchpad, the skill sets that medical transcription provided as my tools. Had I stuck with my launchpad, I would have ended up nowhere! My advice to fellow MTs is that we are second to none. MT skill set is an asset and will come handy in whatever industry one switches to. MTs by default are hard working because that is how we are trained. Generate line count, get paid; this is the golden rule we have followed and you know what, you will realize that whatever work you are assigned, you will do it faster and that you are an indefatigable fellow compared to your peers. I am saying all this from my experience.

This is the story of my journey so far. Let me hope this to be a catalyst, a new ray of hope at the end of the tunnel to all my fellow MTs who are still striving hard to make the ends meet. Wish you good luck in your endeavor in transforming and getting launched into a new orbit.