Coder Voices: Public First-Job Stories (Not a Survey)

Key takeaway: First-job timing is all over the map in public coder forums: a few weeks for some people, many months for others. These are named, linked posts from r/MedicalCoding. They are not a BLS table and not the Medical Billing Path survey (that wave has not run yet).

Pay figures below are what the posters wrote. They are not occupation medians. BLS reported a median annual wage of $51,140 for medical records specialists in May 2025 (OEWS, SOC 29-2072). BLS reported a 10th-percentile annual wage of $37,000 for medical records specialists in May 2025 (OEWS, SOC 29-2072).

Offers in weeks

u/endisnearhere wrote in June 2025 that they received a job offer about a month after getting the CPC-A, a one-year W2 contract, and reported pay of $22/hour when asked in the thread (Got a job offer a month after getting my CPC-A).

u/Pcoach165 wrote in a 2021 thread that they “got an offer and took the job a week after I passed my certification” (How long did it take to find a job with a CPC-A?).

Months, not weeks

u/Bella9890 wrote they “got my CPC-A in June and got a job in September” and applied to hospitals that did not require a set amount of experience (same 2021 thread).

In September 2025, u/lotusliving024 wrote they finished in eight months, passed the exam first try, received the CPC-A, then “got a job 3 months later” (How long did it take you to find your first job?).

u/shibashibashibainu90 wrote they took the CPC exam in December 2022 and got a first coding job in November 2023 (same thread).

Still looking, or a long road

u/rhino_pickles wrote in September 2023 that they received the CPC-A in early July and had been applying every day since, including to firms other posters had named (CPC-A Woes).

u/starlightgirl493 replied in that thread: “It took me 6 months to find my first job.”

u/petetrouble wrote in 2021 they “was never able to get a job, spent 2 years applying to 150+ jobs in coding, HIM and medical records.”

How to read this

• Selection bias is the point of the survey methodology. Forum posters are not a random sample.
• $22/hour in one 2025 post sits near the BLS 10th-percentile hourly wage of $17.79 for the occupation in May 2025. That is one person, one contract, not a starter table.
• Remote-at-hire is not something we will claim from these threads. Several replies say the first seat may not be remote.

If you are a working coder and you want the next version of this page to be a table with an n, join the survey list from the questions to ask page.