How I Figured Out Voice Writing Was Right for Me—and How You Can Too
- Jan 29
- 5 min read
What's that you said?!? You got a taste of working from home in 2021 and now you're back in the office -- under fluorescent lights and dodging the smell of coworkers' homemade lunches. And now you're wondering how to get back to working in your cozy pants. That was me too!
I didn't hate my job, I just couldn't stop thinking about how great it felt to work from home. When I'd get ready for work in the morning (especially if it was cold outside, or if I was pms-ing) I'd think back to the days when I could skip the hair and make-up routine. My deadlines were met without anxiety, I got a ton of time back, and I had more control over my day.
So I started asking dangerous questions. You know, the kind you’re not really supposed to ask when you have a “stable” job.
What if I changed careers in my 40's? And what if working from home wasn't a temporary perk -- but the actual goal?
9-to-5 Jess:
Let’s slow down. Just because working from home felt nice doesn’t mean it’s realistic. People don’t just decide to work from home forever.Me (thinking):
That's what I thought to... until I learned that there are whole careers built around doing exactly that!9-to-5 Jess:
Well, what about your big girl bills? You cannot take time off work to learn new skills... otherwise you won't have a home to work from.Me (thinking):
Especially in this economy! I hear you. No time off work to learn new skills. But I can learn online after work and on the weekends.And that’s when I stopped looking for a dramatic, quit-your-job, burn-it-all-down solution—and started looking for something quieter. Something I could learn without leaving my job.
Something I could study after work and on weekends. Something that didn’t require me to go back to school full-time or start over at the bottom.
I wasn’t looking for an escape.
I was looking for an option.
So I did what most of us do when we’re not ready to say anything out loud yet…
I started Googling.
9-to-5 Jess:
Googling is fine. Googling is safe. Just don’t get carried away.Me (thinking):
No promises.To be honest, I didn’t know what I was looking for at first. My Google searches were all over the place.
In the beginning, the industry itself didn’t even matter. I was looking at healthcare, finance, marketing, legal tech—if it promised a new skill set and a possible career shift, I clicked.
Can we talk about… the certifications and bootcamps for a minute?
Some were so cheap it made me question the quality. Others were so expensive I literally laughed at my computer screen. In this economy??
There were to many options, and that’s when I realized I needed to stop browsing and start filtering.
So I came up with a short list of non-negotiables. If a career path didn’t meet these, it was an automatic no. Feel free to steal these criteria.
Certification within 6 months to 1 year of starting the program
$4K - $5K with payment plan options
A job market with more demand than certified people
A technical career (bonus points for AI, machine learning, or data science adjacency)
Most important of all: real, legitimate remote opportunities
Thanks to this criteria I filtered out: medical coding/billing, mortgage underwriting, digital marketing managers, and UI/UX roles.
That's when Voice Writing stopped being "just another tab" and really started to stand out.
The program I’m starting in July is about five months long and self-paced—which means it could take a little longer (or shorter) depending on how motivated I am.
Then came the numbers.
The equipment and software come in at around $3,500, and the course itself is $2,500.
9-to-5 Jess:
AH-HA! That's $1,000 more than your budget!! Nice try girl.Me (thinking):
Yessss… you’re right. However. The program I chose lets you put down a $1,000 deposit and pay the remaining tuition on a payment plan. No massive lump sum. No draining my savings overnight. Just something I could realistically plan for.9-to-5 Jess:
Payment plan or not... that's still a chunk of change are you sure you can get a return on your investment?Me (thinking):
Fair question. Paying around $6,000 to work from home in cozy pants with a lazy cat in my lap is a risk.So I checked the job market.
What I found surprised me. Voice writers—especially those working remotely—can earn anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000+, depending on experience, workload, and region. In higher-paying markets like California, rates can be even higher. But salary ranges vary widely depending on location, certification, and workload.
9-to-5 Jess:
CALIFORNIA?!?!Me (thinking):
Chill... That’s the beauty of remote work. I don’t have to relocate. I can work with clients or organizations based in those regions and earn their rates. The more skilled you are, the more in demand you become.Now that the numbers were out of the way, I had one last concern: job security.
This next thing shocked me about voice writing! Honestly I couldn't believe that the software for voice writing relies on speech recognition, language modeling, and continuous training—many of the same concepts used in machine learning and other AI-driven tools.
Training the software to recognize your voice, correct errors, and improve accuracy isn’t just clerical work—it’s hands-on experience with how language models learn and adapt.
That overlap mattered to me. A lot.
It made voice writing feel like more than just a job—it felt like a transferable technical skill. Something I could talk about beyond court reporting if I ever needed to pivot.
Honestly, this was a huge reason I didn’t pursue medical coding or UI/UX. Those paths felt increasingly vulnerable to automation, while voice writing taught me how AI systems are trained and refined—because I’d be working with them every day.
And if voice writing ever does change dramatically because of AI? I won’t be starting from zero. I’ll already understand the systems behind it. To me this was the ultimate return on my investment.
Looking back on my decision, I didn’t choose voice writing because it was trendy or easy. I chose it because it fit my life as it actually is.
I didn’t quit my job.
I didn’t have everything figured out. (and still don't)
And I definitely didn’t feel 100% confident when I started.
What I did have was a short list of non-negotiables—and voice writing kept meeting them, one by one.
If there’s one thing this process taught me, it’s that you don’t need a perfect plan to move forward. You just need enough clarity to take the next small step.
And if you’re still on the fence? That’s okay too.
9-to-5 Jess had a lot to say at the beginning of this journey—and honestly, she still pops in from time to time. The difference now is that I know how to answer her.
Curiosity doesn’t mean you’re reckless. Sometimes it just means you’re ready for something different.
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