If you are already one of many certified court reporters, you already know the value of your job. Thousands of people work as court reporters in a court of law every single day and make a good living from it. As the career is expected to grow, you may find yourself wondering, could this field be right for you?
It could be that you and court reporting are a great fit and you just don’t know it! With so many fields of work shrinking or losing growth, it’s wise to consider investing in a field that isn’t going anywhere. Maybe you love watching court shows or enjoy being in official places. Maybe you would like the idea of feeling important and necessary. Whatever your reasons may end up being, there are plenty of reasons to go check out this career field.
Read on to find out more and see if you might be interested!
When it comes to court reporting, it serves a huge need in the community. Court reporters are a necessity in the courtroom as they provide an official record of what is said and what goes on in a courtroom for a specific case, trial, or hearing. If you think that you might enjoy sitting in a courtroom and taking down notes and have always been attentive and quick at typing, this actually might be a career field that you want to consider.
As an official career field, there are many benefits to being a court reporter. You get a steady income that is going to be able to pay for your costs of living and help you work towards savings. Your schedule for working will essentially be very constant as it is never really going to exceed the hours of eight in the morning to four at night by much if ever. You will show up at the same place (usually) with the same requirements and tools that were required of you the previous time.
Court reporting is now experiencing a lot of field openings. Jobs in this field are also projected to officially go up in the future, so it may be worth considering if you have not chosen a career or are thinking about switching. Part of the availability in this field is not even due to the constant demand for reporters (courts are open every day so they need reporters and it’s not like they are shutting down) alone– it’s the combination of that and the many people in this field that have, are, or will retire.
This means that in the course of three years there may be at least 5,000 open positions of court reporters, and that is just in the United States. Not only are these jobs going to open up, but much more are expected to either become open or be created as the years continue.
Why is this a good career choice? Well, you only need two years of school and certification in order to work as one. The starting salary on average for a salaried reporter is around $40,000. So in one year alone you could pay off the majority of your school costs and recoup that money– difficult to do in other fields.
Is court reporting for you? Are you reliable, detail-oriented, and skilled at typing? Then this career might be right for you. With so much growth expected, this might be a field you are really glad you got into.