Anyone work for Way With Words?

[zalloy]

Hey Everyone,
Does anyone here work for Way With Words? I was just wondering if they're reliable, and what their usual audio quality is like. I passed the first part of their test, and just completed the audio test file. The file they had me download for my test had a bunch of background music, and there were some words that were unintelligable. Also, it was british and scottish speakers, but I don't mind that. I can pick out what is being said. I hope I don't fail that part of the test because of their questionable audio. Any input?
Laurie

[Alba]

Originally Posted by zalloy

Hey Everyone,
Does anyone here work for Way With Words? I was just wondering if they're reliable, and what their usual audio quality is like. I passed the first part of their test, and just completed the audio test file. The file they had me download for my test had a bunch of background music, and there were some words that were unintelligable. Also, it was british and scottish speakers, but I don't mind that. I can pick out what is being said. I hope I don't fail that part of the test because of their questionable audio. Any input?
Laurie

There are quite a few threads on here about this company. Last I read, it seems its audio tends to be good, and the company is nice to work with.

I understand it is, like most companies, a stickler for spelling, capitalisation and the like.

Good luck!

[Rachiegoth]

Way With Words is a very reliable company. They always have work, and the audio quality ranges from the really good to the pretty bad. Having said that, they also have different tiers of transcriptionists, so the newer people don't usually get to work on the difficult stuff.

Hopefully you researched the company in advance and saw that they are based in South Africa. That means that the majority of the work they receive is from UK and European companies. They have a LOT of UK and European accented audio, although they do have some US clients, so if accents are difficult for you, it might not be a good match.

And if you know they're a SA company, hopefully you used a UK spellcheck for your audio test file, as they use British spellings on 90% of their work.

[cloakzore]

I worked briefly with this company. The audio they provided was of good quality, and the pay was adequate and on time. I can't really say much else about them, I only did a small amount of work for them.

[zalloy]

I don't have trouble with the accents. In fact, I only had one inaudible in the whole transcript, and I went back through at slow speed to verify everything. Everything was perfect, as spoken. My only trouble was they didn't really offer very much instruction as to how they wanted the transcript formatted. I got the denial letter this morning. Not quite sure why I was declined. Everything was correct. Oh well. I'll try somewhere else.

[Nonmom]

I'm sorry that things didn't work out, zalloy.

[Polarcat8]

I was just about to apply but when I read that you need to be able to finish an hour of audio in four hours. I'm not so sure I can do that, and does anybody have an idea about their TAT? Do they insist that you finish an hour audio in four hours?

Thanks!

[Rachiegoth]

When you first start out in training, you'll have several days to complete a file. Eventually you'll be doing files that require 24-48 hours to complete. The ones with the really short deadlines do get paid at a higher rate, though.

[Polarcat8]

Thanks, Rachiegoth! That's very useful information.

[spawonderful]

Originally Posted by Rachiegoth

When you first start out in training, you'll have several days to complete a file. Eventually you'll be doing files that require 24-48 hours to complete. The ones with the really short deadlines do get paid at a higher rate, though.

Thanks so much for your helpful information about this company. I also received an invite to test with them (the "Britney/Justin" audio), but since I've never transcribed a podcast I'm wondering where I can find sample formats. Any help would be appreciated.