What employment opportunities are available with this degree?
- Official Court Reporting - A graduate may be employed by the US Court System, and assigned to a specific court room and judge.
- Free-lance Reporting - This aspect of Court Reporting is ideal for flexibility; a graduate may work for a firm as an independent contractor, or be self-employed. The majority of the work is spent reporting depositions, which are pre-trial question-and-answer sessions, usually done in a lawyers office.
- Closed-Captionist - A rapidly-growing field; closed captionists translate television shows, and provide on-screen captions for the hearing impaired.
- CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) - A specific service offered by some captioning agencies; churches, schools, and universities utilize graduates to provide hearing-impaired students with onscreen translation of a course lecture as it occurs, as well as a written transcript for the student.
- Medical Transcriptionist - Prepare medical records for hospitals and physicians faster and more efficiently through the use of machine shorthand.
What is the employment outlook with this degree?
Due to a high demand of qualified court reporters throughout the nation, the employment outlook is promising. New federal guidelines require all television broadcasts be captioned for the hearing impaired, which works out well for graduates in this field.
What kind of salary can a graduate expect?
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean annual salary for a Court Reporter is $48,000.00 (USD), not including benefits.