Stenographer
Be a Stenographer
A stenographer is a person that is responsible for recording the words that are spoken at a legal proceeding or at a meeting. It is not the job of the stenographer to record emotions or to express an opinion regarding the words that are said. Rather, the stenographer simply records the words so they may be read and reviewed at a later time.
Although a stenographer is automatically included at trails in order to record the information that has been spoken, an attorney may choose to hire a stenographer to record information at other times. For example, the lawyer may hire a stenographer to record what is said at a deposition or when taking statements from clients and witnesses.
In order to have a successful career as a stenographer, the job must be of interest to you. Many people do find stenography to be interesting because they get to record the statements of expert witnesses and learn information from a variety of different fields. Nonetheless, some may find the work to be tedious and, therefore,may not stay within the profession for very long.
The stenographer must also be able to follow the conversations that he or she is recording. If not, the stenographer can miss some of the subtle nuisances of the conversation and can result in using the wrong words for the context.
If you are interested in being a stenographer, you also need to be flexible. You may be called upon to work odd hours or you may need to put in several hours on some days. When things are busy, you might need to put in 14 hour days. On the other hand, when things slow down, you might actually get to take three or four days off. You might also receive rush jobs that require a 24 hour turnaround, which means you may have to put in long hours while juggling other jobs you might be working on already. If you are working as a freelance stenographer, however, you can charge extra for these jobs in order to make sure they are worthwhile.
