A job that makes six figures with no college degree - it sounds like a pretty nice gig, but it comes with a big responsibility.
"We are the record," said Cindy Isaacsen, the Kansas Court Reporter Association president. "Everything we write is the record, whether it goes to Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court."
Court reporting not only exists, it's in high demand right now.
"We have 12 openings in Kansas right now," she explained.
And get this - in the next five years, more than 5,000 court reporters across the U.S. will retire. That's one reason Isaacsen is encouraging this occupation to high school graduates, college graduates or people just looking to start over.
"You have to get up to 225 words per minute," Isaacsen said of the machinery she uses. While it looks like a traditional typewriter, it's something else entirely. "You have your combination letters that make letters and then you start learning words."
Get a gig: Court reporter jobs in Kansas
Get a gig: Court reporter jobs in Missouri
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Alyson Bruner can be reached at alyson.bruner@kshb.com.
You can also follow her on Twitter.
