Andrea Martin, an Elberton, Georgia native has been a scribe for Copytalk Business Services since February of 2016. Incredibly skilled and precise, Andrea is one of the finest scribes and quality assurance within the company. As an employee at the Athens, Georgia office for the company, she feels comfortable and right at home in the type of work environment that the company provides. It is a pleasure to introduce a cherished and hardworking member of the Copytalk community.
As stated previously, Andrea found herself working for Copytalk in February of 2016 in Athens, Georgia. Despite being an Elberton resident, Andrea explained that the commute to the office didn’t bother her, as it is typical for Elberton residents to commute to Athens for job opportunities, entertainment, and commerce. Hearing about the company through an advertisement, Andrea felt that this would be an ideal job for her as she was already proficient with a keyboard, and she would be in an office setting where she would be able to focus solely on her work with her own personalized schedule.
She did, however, have to learn how to better use macros, which many scribes have admitted took time to get used to. Macros are used throughout the company by scribes in order to help them transcribe faster. An average caller will naturally speak faster than an average person can type, so in order to keep pace with the caller, our transcriptionists utilize macros, which are abbreviations of words that automatically convert to fully written words after they had been typed. It’s very similar to “bc” being changed to “because”, or “omw” being changed to “on my way” when texting! If one isn’t used to using macros, it can be a learning curve when starting out in the company.
Andrea explained her personal experience with this, saying, “it took me a very long time to get used to the concept of macros because I’m like, ‘Well, that’s not how you’re supposed to do things. You’re supposed to type the entire word. If I’m not fast enough with the entire word, I must be a failure.’ And then I realized, ‘Wait a minute. Nobody died from using macros. I’m fine.’” She even admitted that she wouldn’t be able to live without macros. They’re part of the reason scribes are able to remain proficient, yet fast, while doing transcription jobs.
Over time, Andrea worked her way up to the role of a custom scribe; a scribe who specifically works on video transcriptions, such as television shows, university lectures, and company meetings. When asked about how she felt about the company, she stated, “Everybody is really nice, and you get a surprising amount of interesting stuff coming through on the files, especially now that I moved to video transcription… Video Formalizer [the program used to process video and media jobs] in general is fun to work with.” While the learning curve was rather large, Andrea was able to get accustomed to video transcriptions rather easily. She also confessed that her love for video transcription comes from the variety of jobs that are sent in for her to process, and that she doesn’t prefer one style of transcription over the other; she can easily get in the zone with regular, more day-to-day Formalizer jobs, but also enjoys the diversity that accompanies Video Formalizer.
As it relates to hobbies and pastimes, she’s a committed Dungeons & Dragons fan, a tabletop role-playing game enjoyed by many. She also typically spends her time reading and learning about history and science. She would also be more than interested in attending one of the social events held at the Athens, Georgia office if it were a game night, or a pet social.
When it comes to the company as a whole, she admitted that she feels as though the communication within the company and its employees is up to standards. Supervisors are sure to effectively communicate and listen to their scribes, and vice-versa. Because of this, Andrea is eager to broaden her experience with the company, and if given the opportunity, would be more than willing to try any new processing programs created by Copytalk. A diligent and fantastic worker, Andrea Martin is a perfect fit for the Copytalk family.
-Carmen Henderson
Bio: Andrea Martin has worked for Copytalk since February 2016. She has a wide range of hobbies and interests, including but not limited to gaming, cooking, history, and science, and loves to read.