Six-Figure In-Demand Job You Didn’t Know About: Certified Court Reporter

Believe it or not, there are a lot of six-figure jobs that you might not know about. In fact, we were recently emailed by a reader in response to this post about six figure jobs that will be in high demand over the next decade.

The job we didn’t know about? A Certified Court Reporter.

What is so good about being a Certified Court Reporter? We asked our reader to spill the details so we could get a better understanding of the position, the salary, the benefits, etc. She also noted in her first email that she did not attend a four year university. This is worth mentioning to underscore that a four year degree is no longer what it used to be in terms of landing a six-figure income.

The rest of her responses are below.

Certified Court Reporter Salary

I work in court as an Official Court Reporter. There are two areas of law to work in, civil and criminal. Civil Court Reporters are freelance and report deposition proceedings for civil lawsuits. I worked freelance for seven years, then became an Official.

My salary is over six figures, paid vacation and sick time, full medical and dental, retirement pension, and 457 deferred compensation benefits. Monday to Friday, weekends off.

What Does A Court Reporter Do?

Although court reporters are invaluable in capturing the spoken word in court proceedings, we are not limited to court or the law. Closed captioning is performed by court reporters, whether for news broadcasts, sports, etc.

We no longer have steno machines (writers) that spit out paper with our notes on it. Today’s writers are fully computerized and allow a wireless link to our laptops. Our electronically-written shorthand steno notes are translated into English by specialized court reporting software and is presented in real-time.

The spoken word is written on the steno machine at the moment it’s said and readable onscreen within seconds.

 

How In-Demand Is This Position?

We are in dire need of new court reporters. It’s simply a career that is not thought of, completely under the radar. Court reporting schools are few and far between, so even before the pandemic, online learning was available.

The National Court Reporters Association recently began an online intro program called Discover Steno A to Z. It’s six sessions and it’s completely free to sign up. The course explains how the steno machine works, the theory of writing machine phonetic shorthand, and provides an overview and excellent introduction to hopefully lead people to choose court reporting as their career.

Need more convincing? How about this video!

There you have it! By all accounts, a court reporter is an in-demand job that pays six figures, with tremendous benefits and security.

Many thanks to our reader who was gracious enough to write in and answer our questions. If you had a six-figure job that you would like highlighted, email editor@wealthgang.com