Scheduling success

How should you plan for success as a new CSR?

As a new CSR, how do you develop a plan that will help you grow, achieve your goals, and keep your life balanced?  It may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.  Within this guide, we’ll share our tips for starting your career off on the right foot.  Don’t feel like you need to follow this schedule exactly, after all, you know your abilities and goals far better than we do.  We’re just hoping this will give you a great start!

For students in exit speeds, interning, or testing:

First of all, congratulations on nearing the end of your journey as a student!  This is an exciting time for every student, where your goal of becoming a CSR feels closer than ever!  This is also the perfect time to start making career decisions.  If you’re not sure whether you want to be an official, a freelancer, or CART/Captioning provider, check out our article on the different career paths.  When you’re choosing a path, start developing relationships with court reporters in that field.  They’ll be able to provide you with valuable insights into what you should expect, how you can prepare yourself for entering the job market, and introducing you to job opportunities.

Use internships to your advantage by working with as many court reporters, firms, and judges as possible.  You’ll be able to learn more about how they do business and get a better feeling for what working there would be like.  Check out our article on internships if you would like to read more.

After you’ve developed relationships and completed your internship, you should have a few job offers to choose from.  Spend time researching the companies, talking to other reporters who work there, and asking the firm or judge questions.  If you’ve got the option to choose between being classified as an employee or contractor, check out this article.  

Once you’re a CSR:

As a new CSR, it’s important to give yourself time and opportunities to grow.  Following an onboarding plan will give you these opportunities.  

Start off slow, only accept 1 job/week for your first 2-4 weeks.  During this time, journal how many hours you edit in relation to the hours it took for the job.  This will give you a good number to guide your future decisions.  Once you’re comfortable, accept 1 additional job/week and give yourself 2-4 weeks to adjust and journal.

For your first 3-10 jobs, ask for a senior CSR to sit with you for the first few minutes of your job.  This will ease your nerves and, in the event something unexpected happens, give you instant access to someone who’s probably dealt with that situation before.  Sometimes, a senior CSR is also willing to sit with you for the entirety of your first job.  If you’re afforded this opportunity, definitely take them up on their generous offer.

It’s also a great idea to ask that your first 3-10 jobs be oral/video jobs.  This is beneficial because the videographer can announce on and off the record for you, talk to attorneys so you aren’t in the spotlight during breaks, and is recording crystal clear audio that they can share with you after the job.

Communicate with the firm and/or Reporters who you’ve established relationships with during this time.  Tell them about what happened during your jobs and ask what they would do in a similar situation.  Ask them to guide you through procedures that may be unfamiliar to you.  Ask them for help with terms you didn’t recognize, spellings you don’t know, and what briefs they use for different phrases.

Developing your skills:

It’s important to continue learning as a Court Reporter.  Once you’re out of school, commit to scoping your own work for 3-12 months.  This will give you the opportunity to see any mistakes you made during the job and let you know what you should be practicing.  It’s also a great idea to utilize an experienced proofreader for the first 1-3 months.  They will help you catch mistakes you didn’t notice and ensure your transcripts are correctly formatted.  Journal what you learn so that you have a place to go back to for information and a place to remember how far you’ve come.

Developing your schedule:

The most successful Court Reporters have a set schedule that they follow.  This helps keep your backlog at bay, ensures you aren’t distracted by work during personal time or personal time during work, and helps you avoid burnout and mental stress.

To develop your schedule, use your journal to determine how many editing hours you should budget for each job/week you accept.  Take special note of the way your editing hours changed when you began accepting each additional job/week.  Also, decide how many jobs/week you are able to use a scopist and/or proofreader for.  Your last step is to determine how many hours/week you’re willing to work.

Let’s just say that you need an average of 2 hours for every hour you’re in a job to complete your work.  Let’s also assume that you’re willing to work 35 hours/week.  Divide the number of hours you’re willing to work by the number of hours you’ll spend in the job and editing the job.  In our example, you would be able to work about 11-12 hours/week in jobs.  Now you can go back to your journal to find out how many hours your typical job lasts, which for this example, we’ll say each job averages 3 hours.  For this example, here’s what your schedule would look like:

Accept up to 4 jobs/week and set your personal working hours as 8 am to 5 pm with 1 hour for lunch.  This is technically 40 hours/week, but it’s always smart to plan extra time since life is never 100% efficient.  If you get out of a job early, go edit until 5 pm.  If you have an afternoon job, edit from 8 am until you need to leave.  After you’ve used your schedule for 2-3 weeks, adjust your hours up or down to fit.

So many people become Court Reporters because they don’t like the traditional 8 am - 5 pm schedule, but they end up sacrificing their weekends or evenings when jobs are due that they haven’t started on yet.  Following a schedule will prevent your backlog from slipping behind, give you structure to make plans, and your mental health will be spared from undue stress.  One of the best aspects of this career is that you have the ability to craft a schedule that fits you.  Shift these hours into the evening if you’re a night owl, shift them into the morning if you’re an early bird, scale how many jobs you accept to adjust your working hours, or use scopists and proofreaders on more jobs to reduce your editing hours.

If you’d like help crafting a schedule that fits your needs or would like to know more information about how much earnings potential you would have based on your schedule, give us a call!