Working as a Medical Transcriptionist in Saudi Arabia is a Great Experience

Once I chanced upon a fellow medical transcriptionist in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia through Facebook. I encouraged her to share her story here in my blog so as to give some inspiration to other transcriptionists who are planning to work abroad. We would not want to be cause of our fellow Filipinos leaving our country, but since we have experienced working here in Saudi Arabia, we just want to share our experience.

Many of us hear sad stories of Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia. But the work condition is not the same for all of us OFWs. We were not very fortunate but still, we don’t consider ourselves being enslaved here since we have a decent work. As per my experience working as medical transcriptionist in a Saudi government hospital, I had a chance to compare this to the experience of the person I had talked on Facebook. She also worked in a government hospital in Riyadh, where she shared that working here in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a great experience. She also was thankful she became a medical transcriptionist.

Sharing her story of becoming as a medical transcriptionist, at first she didn’t like to work in this job way back in the Philippines. She said that her typing speed is not that good and she had some slight hearing problems. She was hesitant that she might not hear the words that the doctors will dictate on the recording.

These were the hesitations she uttered to her friends when asked her to come with them to look for a job as a medical transcriptionist in one of the pioneer medical transcription companies in the Philippines.

But later on, she realized that she never thought that her work as medical transcriptionist in the Philippines would be the way to work abroad. She worked for almost five years and then had a chance to work in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

She had mixed feelings, but happy that she started working abroad with double income because there is tax exemption as well. The same with other Filipinos working abroad, she felt sad leaving her family behind and started to leave alone. She felt the need to do this for the sake of her family’s interests.

During her work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia she eventually got over it and met various people of different nationalities. She gained friends whom she can lean on when have problems. She was able to try other cuisines as well; some are good and some not so good to eat.

This story was shared to me last July 2010, and it was her fifth year working in Riyadh. I’m not sure up to this time of March 2012, if she’s still working in the same hospital or had gone home. It was a  good story to hear that is why I shared this to our readers as well.

The best thing I heard from her is that “Working here is a great experience and more so, thanks I become a medical transcriptionist that I am given the chance to experience all these great things.”