Interview with stenographer Jennifer Murphy
by Cheri Marks
(this interview has been edited and condensed for clarity)
CM: If you could start with just telling me where you live, how old you are and maybe how long you’ve been doing stenography work? And how did you get into the field?
JM: I’m from Temple, Texas. I grew up here. I’m 45, and I was actually a teacher and a school librarian before this, for about 19 years. And then I decided that I needed a change. And so I contacted a friend of mine who was a court reporter. She’d been a court reporter for about 15 years. And she had posted on Facebook, “Looking for a really great job? Consider court reporting!” So I talked to her about it, and then I enrolled in school, and that was in 2019. I finished school and certified in 2021, and started working in early September of 2021 as a court reporter. So I totally switched careers.
CM: I love that! So the school was two years total?
JM: So, I started out on the machine in 2019, and in January of 2021, I switched over to voice, to be a certified voice stenographer.
CM: I didn’t even know that was a thing.
JM: Yes. So basically, we do everything that machine writers can do. We use the same software to provide real time and do our transcripts. Just our input is our voice instead of our fingers.
CM: How does that work in the space of the courtroom?
JM: We use what we call a stenomask, we speak into that so people can’t hear us. It silences our speech.
CM: Wow.
JM: Yeah. So we’re just right there, I sit right in front of my judge [and work].
CM: And so you’re speaking the shorthand.
JM: Yes.
CM: Wow. Is that like speaking another language?
JM: It is. It’s mostly English. And that’s why voice writing does not take as long in school, because we’re using a lot of English. We do use a verbal shorthand.
But we don’t have to learn a whole nother language like machine writers. Right. And our speed building starts at higher speeds because they start at like 40 words a minute, and we start at 120.
CM: Oh, wow.
JM: Yeah. Because if we started at 40 words a minute, it just wouldn’t work.
CM: So when your friend proposed the work, was she being specific about being voice stenography?
JM: No, she’s a machine writer. I took the A to Z program and I got through machine theory. And then in October of 2020, I was just ready to move out of education. And that was the way I could do it quickly. And I haven’t looked back. I love it. I’m certified just like a machine writer, same certification, it’s just a different method. Different input.
CM: Did you find it difficult to find a job once you were certified?
JM: Well, the school I went to, Arlington Career Institute, which I highly recommend, they do have a career services department where they will help you find job placement and give you help you find leads. It depends on your program.
I’m an official in McLennan County, and so I work for one judge. I found my job by searching the job openings in the counties around me [in TX] on their websites. All the counties list their openings. And they had a new county court at law opening up, and they needed a reporter. And so I applied and I got the job!
CM: Fabulous!
JM: Yeah. So that was in November of 2021 when I started.
And then this past December, my judge got appointed to a district court bench because there was a judge that retired. So he got appointed by Governor Abbott to take that bench. And we [the staff] moved up with him. So now I’m in a district court, and we do mostly family and civil law.
CM: Did you have to study much law?
JM: We did have classes on legal terminology. Again it depends on your program, but any good program will have academics like legal terminology, medical terminology, introduction to criminal law, introduction to business law. You know, things like that: court reporting procedures, how to do a transcript…
CM: I was interested in you being a teacher before this, too, as an inordinate amount of teachers are women, as compared to other professions, which is similar to stenography. Have you experienced any kind of gender based discrimination in your work?
JM: Well, I have noticed that by far it is a female-heavy field.
I’ve been in three years– and I’ve had the same judge the whole time. And he is just wonderful, great to work for. I went with him when he got his bench, and, you know, I didn’t have to, I could have, you know, stayed down in county court, but I wanted to work for him. I’ve been treated very well.
CM: I assume you read the Stenonymous blog? I’m curious as to your position on the potential for AI taking over the jobs of stenographers.
JM: Well, I will tell you.
You know, [with regards to] machine or voice stenographers being replaced– you’re always going to have a need for a live human brain. Smart as I think it [AI] is, it only knows what we give it. There’s just no substitute. It can do some cool stuff, but ultimately you’ve got to have a real live human in that seat.
I think that people see how the products [of AI] really can’t measure up to a real person who’s paying attention, who cares about the work, and who takes ownership and pride in their work. Once they see the difference, there’s no contest.
CM: Could you give me an example of an instance where you really had to employ this sort of human nuance to the work, and where a computer AI would have just fallen flat.
JM: Yeah. I think it was a divorce, a temporary hearing or a final hearing, but both parties needed an interpreter.
And so the interpreter sat in the middle between the two parties. And the attorneys were giving their arguments and the interpreter was talking the whole time. He’s in between the two people, and he’s talking low. I could still hear him, but I –as a person– was able to tune him out and listen to the attorneys. Who knows what AI would have captured.
CM: Absolutely.
JM: Yeah. Like almost a simple decision for a person to make, but something a computer couldn’t begin to discern.
CM: Has your stenography work influenced any other parts of your life?
JM: You know how we’ll do speech-to-text on our phones? So, I’ll find myself sometimes, speaking a text in the way I would dictate, because it’s not like I’m talking right now.. So right now, you know, like I could say, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you’ve heard all the evidence: [speaking in voice stenography]. That’s what you would hear, what I would say would be layers.
Here’s an example of what voice stenography sounds like:
CM: Wow.
JM: It’s different, you know? It’s a different cadence. Different tone.
CM: Is this something you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life?
JM: Oh yeah. I’m 45. You know, I’m thinking maybe 15, 20 more years and then I might travel and sub in different courts around. It depends. I’m vested with my county, so right now it’s just saving up the money to be able to retire.
CM: Do you find it to be low stress work?
JM: It depends on where you are. I would say for me, most days, yes. Say if I’m in a trial or I have several transcript orders that I’ve got to work on, those times are a little bit more stressful. But overall, if I don’t have any pages to do or if it’s just a regular docket week or the judge is on vacation, it’s slow in court. It’s funny that my stress level is actually a lot lower than it was when I was a teacher. You’re only responsible maybe for one project at a time instead of all the kids. I love it.
CM: What’s the greatest challenge you’ve faced since entering this career?
JM: I guess, confronting imposter syndrome.
CM: Relatable.
JM: Just because– I took my test, I’m certified in the state of Texas, it says I can do this job, but there are days, you know, all of us have to hang on for dear life to get what they’re saying. And we have to have the courage to say, “okay, I’m sorry. I need you to speak up or slow down”.
CM: Absolutely. It seems like this has been such a positive experience for you, is stenography something you’d recommend as a field for people to get into?
JM: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It’s not easy. It is a hard job and it’s not for everybody. But if somebody thinks that it might be for them, then I encourage them to find out more about it, decide: do they want to go with the machine? Do they want to go with voice? You know, what’s the best fit for them.
CM: Right. Well, this has been really informative and it’s been lovely getting to know more of the nuances of this field, and your particular experience within it.
JM: Thank you for featuring me!
CM: Thank you!