Medical transcription employment should not be a one-shot attempt by filling out and submitting application after application.  Instead, to maximize your efforts,  it should consist of establishing contact with the decision-makers at several companies and maintaining contact with those persons.  Typically, Office Managers in small companies makes the decision of whom to hire.  For larger companies, there may be a Medical Transcription Supervisor who makes such decisions.  

Find out the names of these decision-makers and start corresponding every few months.  After awhile, you may be able to talk to the person over the phone and even meet face-to-face in the office.  Pursuing it this way allows the contact person to know you well enough that when a medical transcription position becomes available, you will be on the short list of candidates.

Another method to gain medical transcription employment is by asking for an information interview.  The main focus of employing this tactic is to brand oneself as a dedicated professional in the MT field.  Ask for an interview with a seasoned medical transcriptionist and ask how she got started, and what you need to know and do in order to be hired at the company.  Have a series of questions laid out in advance to show interest and insight into the field.  People love to talk about themselves, how they got their start.  They love to know that someone cares to listen to their story.  Do not ask for a job; listen, get good info, thank the person, and then stay in touch.  Describe what you are doing to implement your contact's good advice and report on how much it has helped you stay on course.   

A final method this author has successfully employed is to take a fellow medical transcriptionist out to lunch and ask for her guidance and advice about getting into the medical transcription field.   This is a great way to expand your level of influence because if any new openings arise or if your contact's professional friends are looking for help, your name will certainly come up.

Medical transcription employment may be challenging, but landing that MT job--whether it is your first or tenth--is not that difficult if you have a plan, implement it, and work at it on a regular basis.