Before I formally start another round of sleepless writing frenzy, I would like to make a post about one of the projects I’m working on right now.
When I first took up the job, I thought it would be easy. But like anything in life, we should not judge at face value because nothing is really as easy as it looks. I thought posting comments on 200 blog posts would be quite easy. Apparently, it isn’t. Even though I have tweet deck to generate for me the latest blog posts in the internet (or at least a percentage of them) still the posts generated are not enough. Even though I do not have to read each post word for word (sometimes skip reading will allow you to read through blog entries real quick) still it is hard to generate a really intelligent and not generic comment.
I thought the job would be easy because I was a blog hopper myself. I understood the importance of blog hopping to increase the traffic to your site. But the fact remained that the site I was attaching to the name I’m using for the blog posts was a commercial site, and so blog owners who have the privilege of removing the URL attached to the name makes full use of that advantage. So I have seen a lot of good comments go to waste – that is the name was devoid of the URL and as such losing the whole purpose of the endeavor. But funny thing was, since I also comment using my own name and URL, the blog owners, after checking out my site, would leave the URL untouched. So the tide turns in in favor of my site but not in favor of my goal of 200 blog comments.
This project is due in a week’s time. It is at the bottom of my priorities though even if it pays 30 bucks. I’m a writer first and foremost. And so my writing assignments comes first. In any case, I will not mind too much if I don’t get to finish the project and I’m not paid. I gained a whole lot of new websites to look into because of it. 😀
Finally I can breathe. Finally I can write for myself. Yes I am a selfish writer – writing for myself but this is how I vent out, how I cope with stress.
I still can’t believe I was able to survive the weekend. I can hardly believe I made it out alive.
I was buried, literally, on tons of work! Freelancing work. Not academic writing since my principles won’t allow me to take such kind of work but instead I was buried doing tons of content writing.
It all started when an avalanche of projects poured in last Friday. First, the company who introduced me to freelance writing gave an assignment for 20 political articles that I needed to rewrite. Almost at the same time, I won 2 projects I bid on at GetAFreelancer.com thus adding another 10 articles that I had to rewrite. Apart from that, there were other clients who were interested in hiring me and were asking me to submit sample articles.
I was shocked. Petrified even. Can I do all these in so short a time. They were all due before the weekend was over. But God willing I was able to accomplish them.
After working non-stop, and looking even worse than when I was working in a call center – shrunken eyes with black circles from lack of sleep, pale skin from lack of sunlight, dizziness from lack of hemoglobin, muscle spasms from excessive stress – I made it. I survived.
And how I love the feeling that I am, or at least I can say, that I am a writer. It may not be the kind of writing I had imagined but still I can now take on officially the title of “Writer” as a profession. How much I earn and if I get paid is another discussion.
Even after the thousands of words I’ve cranked out over the past couple of hours, words are still flowing from my mind right now. I still can’t stop writing as evidenced by what I’m blogging about. And if I thought writing professionally would ebb the flow of original ideas, I was wrong. Ideas for topics of what I would want to write here are flowing nonstop just like before.
breather
Finally I can breathe. Finally I can write for myself. Yes I am a
selfish writer – writing for myself but this is how I vent out,
how I cope with stress.
I still can’t believe I was able to survive the weekend. I can
hardly believe I made it out alive.
I was buried, literally, on tons of work! Freelancing work. Not
academic writing since my principles won’t allow me to take such
kind of work but instead I was buried doing tons of content
writing.
It all started when an avalanche of projects poured in last
Friday. First, the company who introduced me to freelance writing
gave an assignment for 20 political articles that I needed to
rewrite. Almost at the same time, I won 2 projects I bid on at
GetAFreelancer.com thus adding another 10 articles that I had to
rewrite. Apart from that, there were other clients who were
interested in hiring me and were asking me to submit sample
articles.
I was shocked. Petrified even. Can I do all these in so short a
time. They were all due before the weekend was over. But God
willing I was able to accomplish them.
After working non-stop, and looking even worse than when I was
working in a call center – shrunken eyes with black circles from
lack of sleep, pale skin from lack of sunlight, dizziness from
lack of hemoglobin, muscle spasms from excessive stress – I made
it. I survived.
And how I love the feeling that I am, or at least I can say, that
I am a writer. It may not be the kind of writing I had imagined
but still I can now take on officially the title of “Writer” as a
profession. How much I earn and if I get paid is another
discussion.
Even after the thousands of words I’ve cranked out over the past
couple of hours, words are still flowing from my mind right now.
I still can’t stop writing as evidenced by what I’m blogging
about. And if I thought writing professionally would ebb the flow
of original ideas, I was wrong. Ideas for topics of what I would
want to write here are flowing nonstop just like before.
Although freelance writing has a lot of benefits and opportunities available, I realized that one has to be careful in choosing the projects one partakes of. Not so much because of issues of getting paid or not but more so on issues about what the project really is about.
I was aghast to find out that there are legitimate companies who really hire professional and good writers to write papers for their clients who are, sad to say, students trying to get someone to do their school papers for them. I knew that somehow there are first world country students who are thick enough to avail the services of a writer, most probably from a third world country, for their school term papers and projects but what I was not prepared for was that there are valid companies – professional looking ones at that – who can handle such things.
This company that I have recently applied for was what showed me such. I was impressed by the professional look of their website and I took pains in accomplishing their application form, which asked me about my knowledge of citation styles and my experiences with academic writing. Then their examination was equally strenuous since I was given 15 minutes to write a composition whose outline and topic they have dictated. When I got in, I spent a day learning their system – the writing guidelines as well as how I can take job orders and submit them. The company was very professional, all right. They even had an online chat support. Best of all, they were really big on plagiarism and how sternly it is punished.
But when I began looking at the orders, I was gravely disappointed. I was so disappointed to find that most of them were term papers of students, undergraduate and masters alike. I was expecting companies looking for writers to write contents for their websites or brochures, or perhaps something like Wikipedia looking for people to check their contents or something like that. I looked at order by order, trying to find something that I could write. I had no issues whether I could write the content or not even when it involved research on my part. I knew I could. I had issues with my conscience though for I can never seem to get away the bothersome feeling that I was doing someone else’s work and my work would be passed off as someone else’s.
I am not trying to sound self-righteous. Nor am I saying I am better than anyone else. I am not. But I do adhere deeply to the value of integrity – integrity even in one’s study. I am not saying that the company condones such practices. It’s just that they don’t censor what clients they get. I even saw an order wherein the client appealed to whoever would take her order to make a good job because the last time she asked the company to create a job for her, her professor gave her an F. Imagine that! I bet the professor knew she asked someone else to do the work for her.
The pay is good alright. Three dollars is the minimum I saw for one page of a paper and a paper usually has a minimum of 2 pages. Mostly the pay is $20-$30 dollars per project. Not bad really. In fact, it’s one of the highest paying freelance writing job I saw. But then the downside is, someone else get to pass your work as his or her. It is not plagiarism per se but it is a violation of intellectual rights not to mention sheer integrity.
Disappointed, I had to leave that company. I realized that it is better to earn $0.01 per ad clicked on those PTC sites than to earn $30 on a “term paper”.
Next: Various Ways of Earning through the Internet
That’s what I feel right now. Not because it’s Halloween – I don’t believe in ghosts in the sense of all the horror stories the media has fed us with but rather because of all the lies I’ve been forced to commit the past days and because of the prospect of seeing her. Apparently, and ethically that is, I have to explain to her why I opted out. And I fear that encounter.
Not that she is scary (which in fact she is) but I hate the prospect of lying again. She didn’t became my friend or someone I can safely confide in. My superior in my previous work was someone whom I have formed bonds with and I can confide in him the real reason for my resignation. And though lies were needed to sort of cover my tracks, at least I knew someone knew the truth. Then again the HR of this last company was another person I can safely confide with and so it was easy for me to tell him the truth even though again I needed to lie to cover both our asses.
But this next person I have to talk to, I’m afraid I must muster enough courage to tell her the acceptable reason I’ve concocted for my resignation.
You see I am allergic to lies. I am not allergic to foods like chicken or fish or even to dust and fibers but when it comes to lies, I have a very hard time coping up. My parents raised me to adhere to honesty and integrity so much that I would rather get scolded and punished than lie. I can never keep a straight face while outright lying.
I hope there was some other way out of my predicament than procuring all those white lies which are lies whichever way you look at it. Although there is a shred of truth to them, I can’t still shake off the feeling that I’ve been lying all along and someday I may pay for them. I have repented, yes. But my conscience still gets the best of me.
I have heard of this before and I have been fascinated by the industry but I have always been hesitant to try it out. My hesitation stemmed from the fact that there is not much assurance of stability in the work I will enter. What if there are no jobs to be done or what if I am not able to sell my skills properly? And so even if I knew the advantages of freelancing, I never had the guts to try it out.
Until now.
I left my medical transcriptionist job, not because I hate the job per se, on the contrary I love it, but because I can’t take the company policies. Besides, my mom made a very valid point that I would fare better if I stay at home first, rest quite a bit (no one is forcing me to work, after all) and finish my ever-delayed thesis (and as such my hopelessly delayed graduation). Besides the pay for freelancing, whether it really would be stable or not, is way better than what I am currently earning.
So I made the switch. I must have had 3 job experiences already within the year! So much experience for someone barely out of college (technically).
But I am not complaining. By the “explorations” I’ve made I formed a pretty much clear picture (or goal) in my head on how to get rich without engaging in business (which I am not so keen to enter just now) or doing illegal stuff (which I will NEVER do).
For one, I found out that MT’s, really good ones, earn at least $9 an hour and some are even paid per line such that they earn really ludicrous amounts. Since I saw during my 4 weeks training that I have the skills to become a good (even excellent) MT (and I’m not bragging), I know that I could earn as much as several thousands a day doing home-based transcription work. But of course that’s a long way off because I would need proper training and perhaps a license to boost my credentials. Then perhaps I could pursue that application I have with RareJobs for online Japanese English Tutorials. Then I could continue my current freelancing writing jobs and maybe look for more.
In the end, I realize that employment opportunities for me are never endless. I just need to be brave enough to seek out the right ones and leave the wrong ones. And of course, there is no higher paying job than the job I once had with NuSkin. Perhaps in the future I will go back but for now I am content to remain where I am.
I guess I hit rock bottom when I took the cliff dive. A month ago I was so eager to make the jump that I must have jumped without really looking or thinking, that is. Not that I have any regrets for jumping – I relish the adrenaline rush of the thrilling escapade yet I will be a hypocrite if I feign success over what I did.
Nope. I was not successful. I fell, dear reader. I did. And the bruises hurt.
I love the job I have right now. There is nothing compared to the joy of figuring out the words being dictated – medical words that are really hard to understand coming from a non-native English speaker. The joy that rushes through my veins whenever I understand that the doctor was saying Coreg when all I can hear was courage is uncomparable.
Yet for all my praises for this job, equally are my disgrunts on how the company works. I know there are no perfect companies out there but this company exceeds the limit. For one there is the constant dispute over our very minimal salary. I learned today that PGS stands for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Scholars. We are called PGS trainees at work. I learned that PGS were given something like 10k, half of which goes to the company and half to the trainee or training costs I figure. This would include our allowance. What I do not understand then is how come, with such a fair amount of budget, are we entitled to get only a hefty 50php allowance per day? And to think we are already learning account specifics. Shouldn’t it be that when one trangresses to learning about account specifics they earn higher, possibly not a trainee’s allowance but an employee’s wage? Sad to say that it not my case.
And yesterday, when my mom learned that we were the ones who would still have to laminate our IDs and pay for our ID cords, she was astounded – urging me not to report to work any longer and to quit from the training. She goes further to state that by what she observes of my current health status, the allowance won’t even cover for my medical bills.
Furthermore, she states that I do not need to really work – a daughter’s dream, I must say. How many kids now a days can hear their parents tell them that they must not work yet? That the parents would still be willing to shoulder their kids’ expenses? In reality, my mom just wanted me to stop tiring myself out in a work that promises no higher compensation for the amount of work I put in.
She further urged that I could always do freelancing especially now that I can see the potential I have in that field. Working at home does seem like a very appealing idea especially when your alarm rings at 5 am on a very rainy morning.
Yet I procastinate. I must give my intent to leave now – if they will let me go, I really do not think so – not after the performance I’ve set in in the past weeks (Trainee of the Week for 2 weeks.. hmm..). But I want to leave. I do want to rest for a while. Not be employed but rather stay at home doing odd jobs or freelance jobs. Not answering to any boss. Working at my own convenient time. Of course there are downsides to it but that is yet to be explored. 😀
I may get in trouble for this. I hope not though. In the end, I realized that although mental satisfaction can be provided by a job, compensation or salary is still an important consideration for work satisfaction. And if one or the other is not met, work quality suffers in the end.
I have had the privilege of being a finalist to the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards. Although it was true that I nominated myself to the Best Personal Blog category, still the judges were the ones who deemed my blog worthy of being part of the Top 20 to be considered for the final prize. Although I didn’t win the place, I am still proud for being considered alongside such great blogs as Jim Paredes’s blog, Writing on Air, which was also the winner of the said category. For me, this is a great honor since I‘ve never really written for anything save for myself. Writing blogs for me is my way of releasing stress and tension that would otherwise build up inside of me. Ninety percent of my posts are all about me and my world – selfish if you may call it. The only posts that I write that are, in my opinion, written for information’s sake are those posted under the CURRENT AFFAIRS category. Those are my opinions on what is happening in our society – be it national or international.
Yet most of what I write are actually rants about my hopelessly dry love life, my dissatisfying job and my seemingly dim perspective in life. Seldom do you find posts wherein I actually give an optimistic view about the world I move in. Something so unlike myself really considering the fact that I’ve always been an optimist. Yet reality sinks in and gets the better of us and we learn to see the world without rose-tinted glasses.
Of course I hope to get out of this doldrums. A renewal of my First Love ought to do the trick. I have always been optimistic when I was with Him – seeing the world with all its imperfections yet believing the goodness in each and every situation, person and circumstance. I long to get back to that good old self or maybe I long to find and repair my rose-tinted glasses, wherever I may have placed them.
Reality, as I see it is harsh. Too harsh really.
Today, after dinner I cannot help but cry. In the course of my training as an MT, and even in the words of the HR manager to me, I am really a pretty much skilled person. Without so much except my Bio degree for a background in a job in the medical field, I am able to excel and surpass even those with backgrounds and educations on this field. Without even resorting to cheating, as most of them do, I am able to extract from stock knowledge and common sense forged years ago answers to daily exams so I could pass them – not really with passing colors but rather with acceptable marks. Slowly I can see that I am skilled. I am good, if not great and I say it not with pride or bragging but with honesty on my part.
I can see that I can really get any job my heart so desires. I even have the courage to pursue what I want and the skills and aptitude to learn how to acquire it. Yet the downside to all this seemingly idealistic qualities is that the truth of my compensation hurts even more. The pain forged in my heart runs deeper than for most. The cut is sharper. Everything is more painful. I get to see how much I could actually be worth – how much I should really be earning.
Being part of the workforce is selling yourself. You have your skills, experience and expertise as your commodity. You sell it to the highest bidder. Yet in a society wherein unemployment is the common trend after graduation (or becoming a call center agent), job seekers are left with no choice but to accept whatever a company dictates for their skills. It is no longer the applicant who dictates the amount he or she is worth but rather the employer who determines the salary to be paid based on the contingency measures of the company. As such we become slaves to this degrading society wherein to cope with the effects of regression, multinational companies must search for cheaper labor force but greater quality. And since we face the more garish alternative of becoming hungry due to unemployment, we sacrifice the salary we are supposed to get for whatever it is they are willing to offer. We are slaves in our own countries – skilled yet severely underpaid.
And I lament such depressing turn of events in my life. I am finally in a job I enjoy – I learn everyday and I revel in the knowledge I gain yet when I think of how much I’ll earn, I lose heart and can’t help but regret over the higher salary I was already earning in my otherwise brain demeaning job.
They say in life you cannot have it all, but I beg to disagree. Someday I will have both. For it is written, just as it was promised long ago that the plans He had for me were plans to prosper me and not to harm me; plans to give me hope and a future. And I cling to that.
Indeed when one opportunity presents itself and you weren’t able to take hold of it, another opportunity comes your way.
I have stated time and again that I really wanted to become a writer. I knew that there are a lot of freelancing opportunities out there and one or two have come my way yet I am not really confident nor knowledgeable on how the whole industry works. Last week I received an offer from a freelancing company for an opportunity to write for them. This was after I had wailed over the fact that I missed the opportunity to become a trainer in my previous company due to my early resignation.
It was like a dream come true. I’m currently in a job that I enjoy – knowledge-wise that is – and I have the opportunity to do some freelance writing on the side. This was what I had longed and hoped for.
Sad to say that would have to be put on hold for the meantime. Not unless we revert to the decision of 11 hours a day, 4 days a week workload and not to the current 8 hours a day, 6 days a week workload. And I so wanted to become a freelance writer. Yet my body won’t permit me to. Writing these blogs are already tasking as it is, what more if I were to write articles weekly. When would I have my rest day?
And so I guess opportunities presents themselves all the time, when you miss one seemingly good one, a much better one presents itself. Then again, though there are opportunities we must grab at once, there are also some we must postpone for another time.
All is not gloom and doom at work. There are admittedly glorious moments which makes me believe that I have made the right choice of leaving my otherwise brain draining work for a more challenging one.
In fact, because of the many medical jargons I encounter daily, and the medical knowledge that comes with learning what all those jargons mean, I feel I can improve on my other blog, Practical Biology, by posting quite a lot of articles about how biological issues, particularly medical related ones can be easily understood by the common individual and how it can be applied to daily living.
I do not propose to know extensively about the topics, but I do know enough knowledge to convey it. And the best way to ensure that knowledge does not atrophy in your brain is to use it. Perhaps I can even include in my blog some helpful tips for the amateur medical transcriptionist like myself.
How many times have I felt frustrated searching for medical terms I heard sounded like this and that but actually were spelled this and that? And wouldn’t I be immensely greatful if I find out that this term is associated with this term so that the next time I encounter the words, or their sound-alikes, I would know what they mean? I don’t know if you can relate really but just to give you an example, today, I found out that a usual dictation for the results of a rectal exam is normal sphincter tone. Now I do not yet know what that means but the way I found out was by searching in Google for “rectal exam synchter tone”. I kept hearing something like synchter tone when in fact it was sphincter tone. Of course, a necessary skill in medical transcriptionist which is more important than listening skills are proof-reading skills which would involve a lot of common sense. If the word doesn’t exist – you can’t find it anywhere, not in the dictionary, whether medical or not, or Google – then most probably it doesn’t especially if the sentence doesn’t make sense.
Also, in the 2 to 3 weeks that I have been transcribing files, which we call dead files because they have been transcribed before, I have learned a lot about a wide range of diseases and the cures for them, even the drugs most commonly prescribed for their treatment. Example, a history of hypertension or some cardiovascular disease usually has Coumadin or Lasix as part of the prescribed medications. Also, do you know that there is such a procedure as urinary diversion? When a patient undergoes a radical cystectomy (removal of urinary bladder because perhaps it is infested with cancerous tumors), then of course, the urine produced by the kidneys would need some place where they can be stored until micturition (urination). Unless of course the patient sits in the toilet all day long or has some sort of external pouch to catch his frequent outflow of urine — eww! What a discomforting prospect! And so there is the process of urinary diversion which can be done in several ways. I won’t elaborate. This must already be too much epistaxis (nosebleed) for some.
But I must admit I am enjoying myself. I enjoy encountering these terms again and using them in sentences and even in daily expressions. I guess I live for the knowledge of it all. Isn’t it evident by my blog title, Cerebral Insights?
Because of this being a medical transcriptionist becomes really exciting and rewarding. I get to learn a lot about new things and even if now, I don’t exactly know where to apply them, I’m sure I’ll be able to use the knowledge in the future.
All is not gloom and doom at work. There are admittedly glorious moments which makes me believe that I have made the right choice of leaving my otherwise brain draining work for a more challenging one.
In fact, because of the many medical jargons I encounter daily, and the medical knowledge that comes with learning what all those jargons mean, I feel I can improve on my other blog, Practical Biology, by posting quite a lot of articles about how biological issues, particularly medical related ones can be easily understood by the common individual and how it can be applied to daily living.
I do not propose to know extensively about the topics, but I do know enough knowledge to convey it. And the best way to ensure that knowledge does not atrophy in your brain is to use it. Perhaps I can even include in my blog some helpful tips for the amateur medical transcriptionist like myself.
How many times have I felt frustrated searching for medical terms I heard sounded like this and that but actually were spelled this and that? And wouldn’t I be immensely greatful if I find out that this term is associated with this term so that the next time I encounter the words, or their sound-alikes, I would know what they mean? I don’t know if you can relate really but just to give you an example, today, I found out that a usual dictation for the results of a rectal exam is normal sphincter tone. Now I do not yet know what that means but the way I found out was by searching in Google for “rectal exam synchter tone”. I kept hearing something like synchter tone when in fact it was sphincter tone. Of course, a necessary skill in medical transcriptionist which is more important than listening skills are proof-reading skills which would involve a lot of common sense. If the word doesn’t exist – you can’t find it anywhere, not in the dictionary, whether medical or not, or Google – then most probably it doesn’t especially if the sentence doesn’t make sense.
Also, in the 2 to 3 weeks that I have been transcribing files, which we call dead files because they have been transcribed before, I have learned a lot about a wide range of diseases and the cures for them, even the drugs most commonly prescribed for their treatment. Example, a history of hypertension or some cardiovascular disease usually has Coumadin or Lasix as part of the prescribed medications. Also, do you know that there is such a procedure as urinary diversion? When a patient undergoes a radical cystectomy (removal of urinary bladder because perhaps it is infested with cancerous tumors), then of course, the urine produced by the kidneys would need some place where they can be stored until micturition (urination). Unless of course the patient sits in the toilet all day long or has some sort of external pouch to catch his frequent outflow of urine — eww! What a discomforting prospect! And so there is the process of urinary diversion which can be done in several ways. I won’t elaborate. This must already be too much epistaxis (nosebleed) for some.
But I must admit I am enjoying myself. I enjoy encountering these terms again and using them in sentences and even in daily expressions. I guess I live for the knowledge of it all. Isn’t it evident by my blog title, Cerebral Insights?
Because of this being a medical transcriptionist becomes really exciting and rewarding. I get to learn a lot about new things and even if now, I don’t exactly know where to apply them, I’m sure I’ll be able to use the knowledge in the future.
Thirty more minutes to go until work is officially over for the day. As always, I find ways to blog while at work. Yipee! I still cannot comprehend entirely how I became a blogger by nature – by passion – when years ago I detest personal bloggers and their apparent livid disclosure of themselves. Now, I am on the forefront of personal blogging – shamelessly mixing personal experiences with social concerns and as such expressing my views.
If days ago I had been ranting about how regretful I was of transferring companies way too soon, after hours of listening to medical dictations and learning about urinary diversion, cholecystostomy, erectile dysfunction, deep epigastric veins and corpora cavernosa, among others, I am enjoying the job more and more. Indeed, I am here for the learning, not for the monetary compensation.
Then again, if I was not an activist or a rebel back in college, despite the nature of my surroundings, I find that I am becoming one at work. I seem to be on the brink of not only inciting the company HR or administration, but also my co-workers, to care more about our rights and working conditions. Take for example my utter stupidity at signing a contract stating a bond of 2 years but withholding information about the exact monetary compensation. I believe, albeit too late, that when we sign contracts, the interests of both parties must be clearlystated. Unfortunately, it seems the contract I had signed stated only one party’s intentions clearly and blinded by desperation for a new job, I signed all too eagerly. What happens afterwards, I can only shudder in fright and pray that no anomalies arise.
Then again the corporate environment is really one heck of a maze that still presents a lot of labyrinths left to be explored. I have still a lot to learn about how this world works and how I can use things to my advantage. Also, I discover that indeed I am too idealistic when it comes to what I want to do or what I want to happen in life. A friend asked me what kind of job I wanted and I replied “a job that would give me fulfillment, constant learning and high compensation”.
