How did you know about reporting as a career?

High school counselors don't offer it...so how did you hear about it?

Mine was a complete fluke! My brother's baseball coach's wife was a court reporter. I heard the name and instantly knew...That's what I want to be. You master your own skill, make your own hours, don't have a boss. Oh, I'm soooo there!

So how about you?

When in high school, I saw an ad in a mail flyer to buy a steno machine and take the course via mail. At that time, I figured courses by mail were a scam so I disregarded it. that was in 1971.

in 1988 I took a course in college on finding your career based on personal interests, and I thought about court reporting and checked into it and signed up for school. What a ride it's been since then!! I'm now in Superior Court!

kathy

I found CR through the Occupational Outlook Handbook that I checked out at the library. I was fed up with the career I originally chose, wasted a year of my life hoping the career of my dreams would smack me in the face or present itself in a silver platter (which it didn't) so one day I decided to do something about it and went to the library and checked out a bunch of books about careers. When I found CR I couldn't believe such a career existed. I've been in love ever since :)

Started working in a CR firm as a receptionist and typist.  Back in the day when typists had to use electric typewriters, carbon sets, typewriter erasers (the white ones...anybody else remember those?) from dictation.

Started seeing the reporter's checks come in and thought, dang, I can do this.  I had a great mentor who took me under her wing.

That was 30 some odd years ago and  I am still at it. 

I live in the Detroit area and have been laid-off from office jobs twice in the past 5 years. For months, I couldn't even get an interview. I was on vacation in Orlando when a news story came on about the local court reporting school. They said how much money could be made and that there was a shortage of good reporters. They also mentioned that only a small percentage of people graduate. For some reason, this clicked with me instead of scaring me away!

I had so much competition when applying for office jobs. I wanted something that I could control myself by mastering a skill instead of being dependent on the whims of a hiring manager.

Most people I know have no opinion about court reporting or think it's a bad idea. I'm glad because it forced me to research on my own and do everything with very little support from others. Now I KNOW this is what I want to do because I don't believe I would have worked this hard for anything else.

I didn't know what I wanted to be, so one day I was on my way to an appointment to sign the financial aid papers to be a medical assistant.  I really wasn't sure if I wanted to do it, and then I realized I was waiting for the wrong bus.  So, being I was waiting for the wrong bus, I took that as a sign that I didn't want to be a medical assistant.

Then I said, "I think I'll be a court reporter today."

So, I called 4-1-1 and said "Court reporting school."

They gave me the number to Orleans Technical Institute, which is where I went to school.

Now I'm a court reporter and I don't have any regrets.

That's proof that your life can change in a second.