Why I Love My Job

This is National Court Reporting and Captioning Week.  I thought in honor of this week I would write about why I became a court reporter, and why I love being a court reporter.  I hope someone who reads this may be motivated to becoming a court reporter too.

I was always a good typist.  I also physically enjoyed sitting at a desk typing, but I didn't know of any specific career as a "typist".  I was vaguely familar with the profession of court reporting, mostly by seeing it depicted in TV or movies.  I always assumed what they were typing onto those thin strips of paper were symbols of some type, similar to Gregg shorthand.

I had worked in radio for a while, but left that field because I wanted more stability both professionally and personally.  A lot of the radio people I knew, while interesting personalities, tended to be kind of crazy.  I wanted a family and home so I got out of radio.  Next I worked by the NFTA, the transit authority in Western New York.  That job gave me the stability I was looking for, but as I moved up the ladder I became a supervisor.  I found out that not only am I lousy at supervising people, but I hated doing it.  I just really didn't want to be that involved in other people's lives and problems.

I was expressing my job dissatisfaction to my husband's family, when my sister-in-law, who was a court reporter and owned her own freelance firm, suggested I go to court reporting school.  You know how it is when everything just kind of clicks in place easily and you take that as a sign that something was meant to be?  That's how it was with court reporting.  I called the school; someone answered the phone right away.  I asked for more information about the program; there was an open house the next week.  The school was two nights a week so I could continue to work.  Tuition was reasonable and on a "pay-as-you-go" schedule.  Everything was just easy.  Oh, and by the way, once I was done with school there was a job waiting for me at my sister-in-law's firm.

I finished school in two and a half years, but began working five months before I actually graduated.  For me, working helped me get out of school.  Due to high demand for freelance court reporters at the time, I was thrown right into the fire from the frying pan, so to speak.  I was forced to do all day, fast paced depositions within my first month.  Doing that prolonged speed writing helped me pass the final tests to get out of school.  Eleven years and four months later, I'm an official reporter for the New York State Unified Court System. 

So why do I love being a court reporter?  The first thing that comes to mind is that I'm an observer.  If I go to a crowded mall or event, I people watch.  My seat as a court reporter is great for people watching.  I always look at people's shoes.  I also look at tattoos, hair styles, they way they interact with their lawyer, their facial expressions, if they look at their ex or not, if they look at the judge, and if they look at me.  I get to sit at my little machine all day, not have to say a word, not have to make a decision about people's lives, but I do get to absorb all this interesting information about them.

Another reason I love being a court reporter is because I love language.  It's great to listen to people speak, and often misspeak.  People make me laugh inside when they use words like "conversate" or "scare tastics". 
I also notice how some people will talk so slow as to put you to sleep, while others speak so fast that I swear there's flames coming out of my fingers by the time they're done.  Some people, mostly lawyers, will repeat their thought, often in the same sentence.  Do they think by saying it twice they judge will believe them more?

Court reporting also allows me to work in an environment with mostly smart people.  The judge, lawyers and court staff are educated, intelligent people.  They have informed viewpoints about a number of subjects, not all of them work-related.  In downtimes we can talk about current events, entertainment, books and politics.  While we may not always agree, at least we can have the conversation.  In my previous professions, I haven't found that to be true. 

My physical surroundings are pleasant.  Courthouses are generally nice environments.  You're in a secure place.  There are court officers to protect you. My chair is comfortable.  I have all my stuff around me.  I don't think I could work outside without my Keurig coffeemaker and pictures of my kids.  I have access to phones and the internet.  I have a reserved parking space about 25 yards from the building.  We have parties for birthdays and holidays.  A bathroom is nearby.  While this stuff might sound trite, try being a bus driver or a mailman.  They have none of these things that we take for granted at their disposal while working.

Court reporting is a respected profession.  When I tell people what I do they usually say things like "I always wondered what it would be like to be a court reporter."  People are slightly in awe of how fast we can write what others are saying.  There's not a lot of us either, so we're a little special.  That feels nice.  I must say that being a court reporter for a judge feels like a more respected job that a freelance court reporter.  I think lawyers assume that you're buddy-buddy with the judge so they're a little nicer to you.  In my case I am buddy-buddy with the judge so you better treat me right!  Just kidding.

The final reason I love of court reporting is the money I can make.  I have a very nice salary, plus transcript income.  I also have a pension and benefits.  It's allowed my husband and I to save a lot of money for our sons' college so that they won't have any student debt.  It's allowed us to live in a nice home.  It's allowed us to go on a couple of nice vacations.  Those things are important.

But I consciously put money last in my list because it truly is the least important of the reasons I love my job.  Whenever I read an article about why someone became a court reporter and the first thing they mention is the money, I kind of cringe.  It's been my experience that court reporters have a reputation as being money-grubbing.  I try to downplay that aspect of why I love the job.  If I didn't like the job, I don't care how much I could make doing it, I wouldn't do it.  It's the other things that I've mentioned that keep me in the profession.

But while we're on the subject of money, I want to address why court reporters make such a good salary.  It's not because we work hard.  Believe me, there are plenty of people that work hard that don't make the money we make.  It's not because we've gone to school and gotten advanced degrees.  Most court reporters I know don't have a college degree.  The reason we make the money we do is because there are only a limited number of people that can physically do this job.  There is talent involved.  All of us court reporters have a talent for it, the same way a quarterback has a talent for throwing a football fifty yards down the field while avoiding a sack, or a pitcher can throw a curve ball.  No matter how much practicing you do, some people, actually the majority of people, just can't do it.  Court reporting is a performance job.
When explaining this concept to people I tell them that if I went to a school that specifically taught someone how to run a mile in less than 7 minutes, I would never graduatet from that school.  I don't care how much I practiced and ran and cross-trained, I just will never be able to run that fast.  That's unfortunately the way it is in court reporting.  Only a few people can do it.  In my class of about 35 people, only two of us graduated.   I'm glad I was one of them.

So if you're a court reporter reading this, be thankful that you possess this talent.  It's given you a nice career.  And if you're thinking about becoming a court reporter, the only way you'll find out if you can do it, is by trying.  Who knows, you may have the knack for it.