The pay is real. So is the wall most people hit.
Court reporting is one of the last genuinely high-paying no-degree careers - a median around $67,000, six figures common for the fast and experienced, and a documented shortage as an aging workforce retires (over 70% of courts reported reporter shortages last year).
But here's the truth almost nobody tells you before you pay tuition: steno school has a brutal wash-out. Graduation rates run in the low double digits because building machine-shorthand speed is a wall most students never clear. Selling you the salary without the wall is how people lose two years and thousands of dollars.
This honest field guide is built around that wall: how steno actually works and whether it fits you, a realistic self-test before you enrol, how to survive the speed plateaus that break people, the school-choice and practice systems that raise your odds, licensing and certification, and how to land your first work - plus a clear-eyed look at digital/AI reporting and where the field is genuinely heading.
It's blunt about the odds and the risks - the shortage is replacement demand, not a booming field, and technology is shifting the entry path. Every figure carries its source. What you get is the decision made with your eyes open.
Don't gamble two years on a salary pitch. Walk in knowing exactly what it takes.
Part of The Field Guides from Empire Publishing: researched, honest, no-fabrication career guides with a concrete "Do This Now" action in every chapter.
