Laureen: Okay, so number 16 & 17 kind of go together.
Q 16-17: Can I get a remote job without experience, and medical coding jobs from home are they
legit?
A: Yes you can, and more so with this arrangement with Aviacode and Practicode.
Aviacode is a remote coding company and there's many out there, but normally when you go to
apply for a job they want to see your resume, they want to see your experience, and you
normally have to take some sort of exam.
I did some work for a brief period with the coding network and I wanted to do for radiology,
so I had to take a radiology specific exam.
I passed it, and then they said, "OK.
You're going to get paid."
I think it was 40 cents a chart or something like that, and I got paid piecemeal.
So, they're out there but I had experience and I passed the test.
With Aviacode, they like experience too; but they really want to know that you are good
at coding.
So, they came up with Practicode which is a tool.
It's similar to the coding tool that their coders use to code the cases that they get
from clients, but it doesn't have all of the features because it's just used to practice
coding.
And the idea is you keep coding, it keeps track of your time and your accuracy.
It's just really for your eyes only.
You just keep going, going, going.
So, your proficiency -- let's just use a hundred-point scale -- your proficiency might be a 40 starting
out.
That's okay; everyone's got to start somewhere.
Just like with bowling, you may have a horrible score, but you keep getting better, you keep
practicing, and that proficiency will come up.
And once it gets in the 90s or even like 85 and up, then apply for a job with Aviacode
and they will hire you.
They have said, if you have a good proficiency, they will look at that more than experience,
and if they have an opening for that specialty that you're showing proficiency in, they will
hire you.
That's a great way to get a first job, it might be your forever job, or it could be
a jumping-off point for getting another job elsewhere to be able to finally put on your
resume experience.
OK?
I don't know about other jobs from home.
I know there's a lot of late-night TV ads about "Take coding and get a job from home."
Alicia: "And make $60,000 a year."
[Laughs]
Laureen: Yeah.
And those are the ones that are making a bad name in the industry.
And people take this course and they get upset and they get their little certificate but
the course never told them, "Hey!
You really should have taken this national coding exam to become certified," because
there's a difference between certification and a certificate of completion.
And that's just sad that they do that to the students.
And they get on Google and they're mad and they start searching and fortunately they
end up finding us.
Raise your hands or say something in the chat if that was you, how you came to find CCO.
Alicia: A lot of that.
Laureen: And they get the Blitz videos and they fill in the blanks on what they didn't
get in their course, and they go on and end up passing the certification exam.
So, all is not lost; but you do have to be careful.
Alicia: And I might add that five years ago that was really unheard of.
If you had said five years ago can I get a remote job without experience, I would have
said absolutely not.
No one will hire you.
And, are there coding jobs from home, are they legit?
Yeah, they're few and far between, but technology has advanced.
You've got things like Practicode out there now and they're actually hiring remote coders
with less and less experience.
So, again, it's quantity and quality out there.
So, take heart.
I think another five years that will be turned on his ear again with the technology that
they've got out there.