How To Transcribe An Interview Correctly

Transcribing an interview is something that most professional transcriptionists go through at least once in their career. This is one of the most common types of transcription since almost every company goes through this process. Since most companies usually go through tens to hundreds of interviews, it can be hard to review them all from memory, audio, or video. This is why there is a huge need for transcriptionists to transcribe an interview.

Of course, just like any transcription, there are a few things to watch out for in order to make the transcription effective. In order to properly transcribe an interview, there are two sides of the coin, both the planning and the actual transcribing itself.

What to avoid in transcribing an interview?

Aside from thinking of what to do, it is also very important to note what not to do when transcribing an interview. These DON’Ts not only save time but also help the transcriptionists come up with better quality transcription.

• DON’T forget the audio quality

When recording, it is important to make sure that the audio runs throughout the whole conversation and that the recording device is somewhere strategically located - where it can pick up everything clearly. This, of course, depends on whether the transcriptionists are going to record the audio for themselves or if the audio will be simply handed to them.

When told to transcribe an interview, it is important to request for a good quality recording. This can be done by making sure that the recording device is able to capture what is said by both the interviewer and the one being interviewed or that the recording device is basically a good quality recording device.

• DON’T forget to identify

Since this is an interview, it is very important to note which is the interviewer and which is the one getting interviewed. Although text alone might reveal some clues, most clients, when asking transcriptionists to transcribe an interview, naturally expect them to be identified.

Since the transcription follows a conversation process, it might be good to make an automatic switch between the interviewer and the one being interviewed before writing the text. This makes it easier for the transcriptionists to switch back and forth between the interviewer and the one being interviewed.

• DON’T start transcribing without knowing the desired outcome

It is important to ask the client what they want to achieve from the interview. There might be some points of the interview that the client would like to focus on more than the others. This means that focusing efforts on the right places could help make the quality of the transcription better. It is also very important to note which of the two categories the client would prefer, full verbatim and non-verbatim.

Full verbatim. This is when every recognizable sound is recorded from the stutters to stops and the repetitive words are all included in the transcription. While some clients might prefer this in order to get a specific feel of what the applicant is like, some clients simply do not have the time to read everything, especially the repetition.

Non-Verbatim. This means that only the essentials will be transcribed and that the outcome should be more readable in a slight way without completely altering what the audio contains. This can be useful for most clients since they would prefer a more readable material for them to browse instead of the whole transcription that might seem initially tough on the eyes.

• DON’T do ALL the manual work

It is important to have the right interview transcription software in order to keep from doing the whole manual work. Transcription tools allow the transcriptionists to focus on what is essential instead of having to go through the whole process. The particular transcription tool that is useful in these types of transcriptions and transcription in general is audio-to-text converters.

An audio-to-text converter is a type of interview transcription software or transcription software that can be used to roughly transcribe the entire audio file. The transcription can then be edited by the transcriptionists which means less work to be done.

A very reliable audio-to-text converter to transcribe an interview as of the moment would be the interview transcription software called Izitext.io. This particular transcription tool allows the transcriptionists to instantly come up with a close-to-accurate transcript that only needs to be edited in order to pass as the final product. Using www.izitext.io saves not only time but also money since the transcriptionists are able to do more in less time.

• DON’T compromise on tools

Although most beginners have to make do with what they have, using a good computer really speeds up the process especially if the transcriptionists are dealing with huge amounts of data at a time. Of course, a computer is not the only thing that must be taken into account.

Good headphones, earphones, or a good sound system is also necessary for transcriptionists to transcribe an interview and any other audio. Since transcription in general is the art of transforming audio into text, it does pay to have really good headphones.

Last but not the least is using a good interview transcription software. As mentioned earlier, www.izitext.io is one of the best audio-to-text converters to use in order to instantly get good results and a rough (but not too rough) copy of the transcription text. This way, transcriptionists won’t have to start all the way from the top.

In transcribing interviews or in doing transcription work in general, what separates professional transcriptionists from beginners is the use of the right transcription tools to make the whole transcription process much more efficient. Aside from the quality, transcriptionists make money by being able to efficiently do their work without having to spend too much time on the major workload. Izitext.io is the perfect tool to help speed up the progress by instantly providing the text from any audio input.

The difference between a professional and a beginner transcriptionist could be the use of a single software. The right tools make a difference and this could transform a beginner into a professional transcript. Follow our blog for more useful tips and guidelines to become a professional transcriptionist.