Overwhelmed with Transcription applicants

Find Transcription Work dot com issued a notice that I was looking for transcriptionists to help with overflow. What a response! I must have gotten over 500 applications! Just a little overwhelming. Unfortunately, a lot of them were from out of the country and my CPA says I need people with Social Security Numbers, so I had to immediately get rid of probably 150 or so. I still needed to weed some out, so I decided to discard all those who did not have a foot pedal. I mean, how serious can you be about running a transcription business if you don't even have a foot pedal?

That still left me with several hundred applicants. I'm sure there are some real gems in there, as well as some not so great transcriptionists. I'm going through the very tedious process of testing a few each week. I can't do too many ~ I just don't have the time. But there are times when I just need more help and I want to be able to call on good transcriptionists to help me out.

I've gotten so that I grade their tests. Kind of silly, but it's the only way to keep it all straight. So the "A" people are the first ones I will call on for overflow. They are the ones I want. They are also the ones that are harder to find. The "B" people will be good in a pinch to help with certain types of jobs that have a longer turnaround time and I can take more time to make the corrections needed to their work. The "C" people get a rejection e-mail. That is the hardest thing for me. I think the one I have written now is too abrupt and short. I don't want to be mean. But I don't want to give out false hope to people either. It's a fine line.