Some of you may know this already, but I’ve recently decided to expand Midnight Medical Coding and help new coders get their first job in the healthcare industry. I haven’t really explained why I’m doing this though, so today is the day to talk about it 🙂
My main reason for starting this–I’ve seen over time how hard it is for medical coders to get any job in the industry at all. I’ve talked about this in other blog posts and videos–but it is totally misleading when a coding school or entity makes claims about how easy it is to get a job right away. It is not. Once upon a time, I was a new coder too. I know the difficulties they face and I know my own school implied it would be easy. So when I see new coders struggling to get a job–it really pulls at my heartstrings.
My next reason for going in this direction–I genuinely like to see others succeed. I like to see new coders get their first job. Granted–it might not be a coding job, but that is ok! There are so many jobs that coder can do in the industry, and many people don’t realize that. Why do they not realize that? I have my theories and I can talk about that in another post. It is no ones fault–I think many just never thought about it and assumed that their first job had to be coding or else they would never get to be a coder.
Also, looking back, I wish I had more help in the beginning. I wish that I would have had a mentor/coach/teacher to sort of guide me in the right direction. Yes there is the internet, which is awesome, but was there a specific person I knew at the time that could help me? A specific website even? Not really. It takes time to build connections with people and if you’re a new coder or new to the field in general–you may not have those connections yet. I want to be there for people just starting out.
Lastly, I just felt like this was the direction my career was going. Some of you may know this already, but in my old life, before I was a medical coder, I used to be a teacher. So my background is in education and it is something I’ve always enjoyed. So being a coder is awesome and I love it–but I still want to teach and help others. I’ve been doing that through this blog-but it’s also time to step it up a little bit 🙂
Thanks for reading-
Lindsay
This is fabulous, when I worked up north earlier in my life I started an non paid internship for coding students to learn. I am in the south now and hope to do the same.