Typing

Sorry, my friend, but I find your point somewhat patronising, to say the least. I use a computer all day every day, have done for a decade or more. I'm a lousy typist but I'm a bloody good technician, and a bloody good auditor. I'm also a tolerably good finger style guitarist so my hands are quit ewell connected to my brain. I'm also a baby-boomer, so I'm amongst the world's ruling class.

My wife is an awesome typist. Precise, really fast, still does Pitman shorthand too. She's so efficient with the keyboard and wordsmithing it's breathtaking. And just why is that? She learned transcription skills at secretarial college as a teenager and has practiced them ever since. She learned without spell checkers, and in an environment where making mistakes wasn't allowed because of the time it took to do the rework.

You see the first problem for those of us who've come to the keyboard significantly later than our formative years is that the damn keys are in the wrong place! Who was the clown that put the e under the third finger of your left hand, and the a under your left pinky?

As I understand it the answer is Remington's of gunsmith fame who made the first mechanical typewriters in the mid 1800s. With commendable attention to the KISS principle, they put the keys in alphabetical order. Soon they had the machines lock up because "typists" could easily beat the mechanical linkages and there were complaints. So with ergonomics firmly in mind,in the purest sense, of course, they scrambled the keys....and came up with the QWERTY keyboard as a solution taht slowed the typists not the machine. In solving a symptom they caused a headache for those like me ever since....

For teh second problem you need to go back teh teh secretarial profession that grew from Remington's QWERTY keyboard and the fact come the computer revolution most professional typists were females. It's certainly true in the UK and NZ that the fairer sex have smaller hands than us blokes. It follows therefore that the average keyboard is too small for those of us with decent sized hands.

All it needs to improve transcription speeds is for the IT industry to come with a man-sized alternative to a cowboy's gunsmith's joke. That means either a big keyboard with keys in the right order, or an effective voice or hand writing recognition interface.

I could touch-type fluently by my early teens on an old manual
typewriter. In my twenties I had a job that involved typing
invoices in multiple copies with carbon-paper and the only way
to make the last copy legible was to hit at the keys with one
finger. Soon after that I had a secretary and so didn't type at all
much until I bought a Microwriter with six keys in 1980, which
used finger combinations analogous to a flute or guitar. It had a
virtually useless display (20 characters not back-lit) so the best
way to edit was to download to a PC or an Apple and do it
afterwards. Because the combinations of fingers were more
intuitive than key positions on a Qwerty keyboard I could do 50
words a minute standing up in the dark in a swaying commuter
train. From that I learned the importance of getting down exactly
the word that described what you wanted to say, rather than
concentrating on how it was spelt. Spelling you can do
afterwards, the exact word disappears with the moment. Having
used computers since the early 80s I have occasionally
experimented with touchtyping again but find that looking at the
screen distracts my train of thought. A misspelt word jars the
stream of consciousness. When you are pecking at the keyboard
you are aware from motor feedback of having mistyped but the
brain somehow holds it in backing store until you reach the end
of a line of argument. Perhaps the visual input from the screen
is somehow dealt with the brain more urgently and disrupts this.

So if you see me pecking, don't get irritated - I have given it a
lot of deep thought.

Stress Junkie's a bit harsh saying people are idiots.
People are people. There's a bit of bad in the best of us and a bit of good in the worst. It just depends where you look as to what you'll see.

There, that was typed mistake free - only took 13 minutes.

Way back in ancient times when I attended high school (late thirties), all students at my high school who were on the college prep track were required to take typing. I would not have taken it otherwise: at other schools, typing was considered suitable only for girls training for secretarial work.

I have been forever grateful, and urged my sons (all on a college prep track) to take typing as an elective since it was not required at their school. Two of them did, and use it daily to speed their work; the third wishes he had.

Totally agreed. I am a network support engineer, and I work with all the IT equipment all the time. However it does not mean that I need to be good at typing. There is a lot of clicking, and some entries here and there, but I don't think there is any different between using all of my 10 fingers or just 1 on both hands.

Antonio
CEng, MIEE
MCSE, CCNA, CCSA, CNA, CISSP, CEH, SCSA

My query may not be directly connected with the discussion theme. Bear with me.
The standard keyboard, as we all know, is designed for ten-finger typing. Its dachshund shape comes from conceiving it in two halves for the two hands. Typing on it takes only minimum movement of the hands from wrist downwards, making typing fast and less strenuous.

But quite some people type with only one finger, which demands movement of the whole hand from shoulder downwards. To them, the keyboard is always either far too left or far too right, depending upon the hand of their typing finger. Consequently, typing becomes slow and strenuous.

Hand movement is easier up and down than left and right. If the keyboard is square or crescent shaped, one finger typing also can become faster and less strenuous. Are such keyboards already available?

It's good to have a company that all staffs can type fast. But in real world, there is none because everyone of us are train to specialize in one skills.

So far, there is NO policies stated that required every staffs to be fast in typing. It's only stated in certain job requirements e.g secretary, personal assistant etc.

If you can't stand people slow in typing, then enroll them for typing lesson. End of story...

I have been readily criticized by the speedier bunch for my slow typing speed (including my wife. She types 100-120 wpm error free). However, in college I took a typing class where a good number of the clerical "experts" came in to class with well practiced speed typing skills already intact. However, they had a hard time typing the class exercises because they were so computer illiterate that they couldn't get the course software open to complete the class exercises.

"Each according to his own gifts" (Capt. Spock)

. . . the negative responses! I agree! But I'll go even farther. I think **every** person should be taught touch-typing in middle school, and continue in high school. Too many people are impaired in productivity by their inability to type accurately and rapidly.

When I taught at a well-known university, I was criticized for requiring all papers and homework to be typed - and submitted on a floppy. The complaint was that, "Some of the students don't type / have a computer." To which I replied, "They can learn, and there is the computer lab."

Now, most colleges and universities require a computer on entrance. That being the case, everyone should learn rapid, accurate typing in middle and high school.

There is no hope for the current non-typists who think they are productive programming with one finger. Only if the other 9 have been amputated would I accept that.

Elizabeth

HAL, I agree that different jobs require different skills, but don't you think there are some skills that all successful employees should have in common?

The abilities to work with others, manage your time, work without constant supervision, and communicate clearly are required regardless of your position if you want to be productive. The ability to effectively use a computer is rapidly becoming an additional required business skill.

Any tool is more effective when you learn how to use it properly, like a manual transmission or a soldering iron. I'm not saying touch typing should be a job requirement if you work with a computer, but you will be able to use it more efficiently.

The main problem with "hunt and peck" isyou are looking at the keyboard instead of the screen, so you don't see what you're typing. I frequently see hunt-and-peckers looking for the keys they want, not realizing they are keying their password into the username prompt. They hit the Enter key, then wonder why they get a login failure message. I've seen others who don't know how the Shift key works, and think the only way to get a single capital letter is to hit Caps Lock, type the single capital, then turn Caps Lock back off. When that salesman sends out his e-mail full of typographical errors, what impression does that give the customer?

Companies spend hundreds of dollars per employee annually on training to improve efficiency. I'm always surprised when typing isn't one of them, since it can be taught relatively cheaply and gives such a bang for the buck in terms of improving productivity. More efficient use of the keyboard means a salesperson could spend less time at the keyboard and more time contacting existingw customers, acquiring new ones, or just squeezing in an earlier tee time.

to exclude someone on the basis of the speed or accuracy of their typing when that is not the major roll within their lob is, to put it mildly, discriminatory. As in all things in life not everyone has an apptitude for typing (myself included, although as a developer, writing good code is more important than writing it as quickly as possible). Maybe the real issue is, why the hell are we still using a keyboard layout designed to slow people down (the original qwert layout was defined to stop people from typing too fast on mechanical typewriters), rather than should we be forcing people to type faster on a bad layout (lets face it, there have been several attempts to move away from the qwerty layout that have been reasonably simple to use and learn, that give very high typing speeds (and only require one handed operation), but have just not been accepted because they are not qwert (or because someone realised you just might get work done far too quickly))

But very funny.

Well, All I can say is I hope you get happy in the pants you get upset in.. Some poeple have the ablitiy to type without looking at the keyboard. I do not, but I can put a computer together with my eyes shut. Some people can drive a car and play with the radio with ease,and some can not. I guess what I am saying is , you don't judge the person buy what you can do. If it upsets you that much, go and find out why this person is , (as you say)"one figering the key board and not looking at the screen" maybe you will find that he has a problem that can not be corrected.

I do know that the more I use the computer, typing does come a little easier.
And one more thing, Is he causing you not to do your job? slowing you down? Then if he is say something. But if he is not slowing your job down, Get over it.
Is he causing work not to get done at his job, that's up to your boss to find out!
I bet you are one that finds any weakness in someone and makes it a big deal.

Have a good day

Joey Cummings

That was a little harsh (bite me) but I agree with you 100%. Creating a policy forcing people to know how to type is a little petty. Usage, monitoring, and internet usage policies are important. Complying with Sarbanes Oxley etc etc. Spend less time worrying about people's typing skills. Let supervisors deal with productivity

I would say that basically is would seem quite obvious who has to be able to type fast and without many mistakes.

It is my understanding that a quilified programmer shoud typr fast enough.

But I agree with those who say that it is not a point to make you feel irritated if there is someone who cannot do it.

If they are capable of producing something that does not involve much typing but is useful, and they do it well, than they are an asset.

There are many users out there who can type pretty fast, and accurately, using only two fingers (one on left hand, one on right hand). After reading your original post I noticed that you appear to be using one finger to type. When you type with one finger only you cannot hit the shift key in conjunction with another key. I would suggest that you use the accessibility options in Windows and turn on the sticky keys feature. It will help with your typing by allowing you to capitilize the first letter of the first word in a sentence and by allowing you to capitalize the word 'I'. If I were your boss I would have reprimanded you regarding your typing errors.

Abe

You are right you are being petty. I am one of those individuals who uses 1 finger. And because I have poor coordination, I still hit the wrong key too many times (30%). So while I argue with myself that I should learn typing (only 1 in office who 1 finger pecks) and I pick up typing software last year, I have other things to do than bsides learning to type and I am unwilling to give up "home time" to time do it. I am old fashion....typing was a requisite for a secretary. So keep it that way. In 10 years, typing will probably be antiquated as voice recogination SW finally becomes affordable and perfective.

You'll get a major ditto from me on that one. I can't type all that well but then again, I'm not paid to type. I work in for a large medical practice and we have our own in-house transcription department. THEY (the ones that work in that department) need to type really fast and accurately. My job is to keep their PCs running--- For the rest of us, there's spell check!!!!

There are many skills and attributes that are more important than typing speed. I have been managing and hiring technical staff for many years and have never considered administering a typing test. Typing does get better with experience and I have never met a tech who could not type at all. I will focus on technical knowledge, people skills and problem solving.

Way to go Oz and well put.

I've been typing with two fingers and a thumb with my tongue sticking partly out for twenty years and have done pretty good. If I really wan't something typed quickly I'll get the secretary to type it.

In my line of work I saw many engineers fast typing but at the same time making fast mistakes configuring servers, routers or other devices. They trust in there fast typing and don?t put attention on the small typing errors.
I personally type with 2 fingers and after 20 years on this industry I?m happy with my typing speed and my record of happy customers

So if I understand this correctly only people who can type should be allowed to use a computer. I have been using computers for over 20 years and no I cannot type unless I look at the keyboard. So because I cannot "officially" type I should not be allowed to use a computer at work or at home. Gee, lets see if I cannot use it at work I would have to resort to columnar style ledger paper and a Bic pen to create the myriad number of reports that I create to track and analyze my department?s metrics. Which would take considerable more time than my using a computer. BTW I type at about 40 wpm while looking at the keyboard. Good enough to get me through the day and even more important that my manager considers me as a valuable team member and recognizes that with respectable salary increases and merit awards.
Your question / observation is petty and pompous. I think you either don't have a worthwhile job or are in a position where you don't have enough to fill your day. Get a life!

Well said JasonCe. I think I tried to make this point also. It very much depends on the job role/function. There are times when typing skills are important and times when it is not.

I took one semester of typing in High School 25 years ago and it has been one of the most useful things I learned. Since almost everyone will be required to use a computer in their lives it should be required to take typing in High School. It is relatively painless and pays off in the future.

If they are productive at their typing speed, let it go. If they are not productive at their typing speed, then make recommendation or require training.

But before any actions are taken, make certain your analysis of their productivity/non-productivity is actually a result of their typing speed and not your personal pet peeve.

I'm afraid that you posted that question in the wrong disscusion
That would be the thread where the guy was wondering how to deliver his resignation letter.

;P

I could care less how fast a person types. What bothers me are the folks that have no knowledge of grammar. Sure they can type fast, but their emails are usually full of run-on sentences, commas, and lack any white space at all. Does anyone know how to use a semi-colon, or how to break a run-on sentence into a few short sentences? Does anyone care?

Whatever happened to folks thinking that someone has to read what they write? There is more time wasted by folks having to read a poorly written message, than by the writer taking time to get it right the first pass.

Dalin - Perhaps it'll be wise for you to slow your typing down, stop worrying about what others do, and take a grammar class.

Sorry dude,
Your pet peave isn't and shouldn't be a policy anywhere. I agree that typing is a key skill to using a computer, but if they can do the work, who cares how they manage it. Yes, it is hard to watch, but the issue has to be addressed at the middle school level, not in the job market. Everyone in my school district was required to take a touch typing class in seventh grade.

It would be unfair to ensure tech staff can type fast without looking at the keyboard. I am an IT Technician and I work with manys different computers with many different keyboard layouts. Things simple as the space bar positioning or size are different on laptops, computers, different model/make laptops or desktop keyboards. I'd rather look at the keyboard and be an accurate typist than be a touch typist making many mistakes due to the different layouts of keyboards.

So I strongly disagree. Also people get used to the their home keyboards then work has a completely different one. People may move around work stations. Something as simple as the texture of a key surface hinders typing performance. And lets face it some laptop layouts are stupid! I've seen laptops with a single windows xp key anchored to the top right of the screen where the scroll lock should be! narrow enter keys (as if it were a shift key on its side) do my head in too!

I definitely do not type using the "correct method" as taught in many typing classes. BUT I can type well enough to bring in close to 100K every year, working 3 days a week.

I guess if YOU were my boss, I would be unemployed.

But then again, YOU would be taking the heat for discriminating against MY DISABILITY. My right hand index finger was smashed in a car door many years ago and prevents me from typing the "Normal/Correct" way.

Your assumptions are flawed. Not everyone who never learned to "type" uses just one finger. (I use four! - Five if ya wanna count thumbs:-)
"Typing" is for Administrative Assistants, Secretaries, and Receptionists. The majority of computer users do not need to acquire that level of skill in order to use their machines efficiently and productively.
Aren't there enough real problems we can discuss?

I can not believe I wasted 10 minutes reading this thread. Who cares if an IT person can type without looking at the keyboard? I would rather have somebody think about what they are typing, especially code, than typing like they speak, often long winded babble. I look at the keyboard and am occasionally amazed at how fast I can make those little digits find those little squares. Grammar and spelling that is another matter. The ability to communicate effectively is important, quality over quantity.

Have a nice day.

If you're a prgrammer you should be fast and accurate. If you're a techie it doesn't matter. What I'm more concerned about is the speed at which you use the computer and navigate the OS. I'm as fast as humanly possible at moving around Windows. Yeah, I can type fast, but when a user calls me for help, the last thing I do is type a paper for them.

Typing speed for techies doesn't matter at all. Just how fast they can navigate.

OK dalin, while you may type quickly your mastery of the rules of capitalization is a little lacking. You couldn't get a job here at the TV station, as we have a policy requiring people to type correctly AND quickly.

How much do you weigh? I bet I can run faster and further than you. I am probably in beter shape than you (and better looking too :-))... But, really... What diference does that make? Just my point... Get a life!!!

Before we teach them to type, how about if everyone learns how to spell. Not to mention grammar! If you don't know the difference between "there" and "their" you have no business being in the vicinity of a keyboard.

I do nothing all day but build out new PC's as replacements in between my job of keeping up with patch management on 160 PC's. I type with two fingers and still get my job done on time and accurate. I remember at my last job which was nothing more than data entry. There was a woman there that could probably type 150wpm. At the end of the day I had just as much done as she did because for one thing I didn't have to go back and correct mistakes. When inputting data in to a PC it is more important to be accurate than fast.

Dang keyboard--those "r" and "p" keys are so close together!

Hats off to ya. That's really funny...For Dalin@...maybe should sign us techs to the tech-o-type course. "Since takking the tek typng coorse my typin has improved mmeasurabaaeliy." Don't we have enough problems with equipment, users management...

I agree wth you Jason on all your points as I am not a *sleeper* accnt but I do read the threads daily since I joined and simply don't post for the sake of it. I also took *keyboarding* in high school (back in '86) and left there typing upwards in the 60-70 wpm range and it was very helpful for a while, but as my jobs did not require constant nor daily typing, and my computer use was DOS and modem strings, touch typing waned. I no longer use the home row even when I am typing a report due to being out of practice - but when I attempted i in a speed typing program, I began to develop hand cramps LOL so I now use a combination - I use more than my the *2 finger mode* and my speed is nominal. Spell check is my friend.

I took typing my junior year of high school. Me and 3 other guys (one of them gay) and about 35 girls in the class--that's not cool? I must have gone out with a dozen of them in the course of the year. I can't remember how many times I used "hunt and pecker" in a pickup line in that class!

of almost all the posters points of view. We all keep trying to explain that typing is not the most essential skill for technical professionals. It may be needed in other job functions, but not as much in ours.

As a programmer typing fast and well is only about 10% of what I need to succeed at my job. I have also worked in IT management, Consulting, and many other roles throughout my career and job history. I learned to type well, but I find that it doesn't help me program well. I am sure the same could be said for other areas like Networking, Help Desk, etc.

At the risk of giving away my age, only girls took typing class when I went to school; that was back when computers were the size of small warehouses and we walked to school barefooted in the snow. I hate that it was that way, because now I'm forever a three-fingered 35WPM Network Administrator.

Hi! First of all, the replies to this question are down right hillarious!
Well, if you want to eliminate the non-typers, do an elimination process or a typing test. That is how the Personnel department starts weeding out candidates.
I think it would be a real shame if you were to put your typing requirement at 40 wpm or higher, and then someone that is a real techie and could make your head spin gets eliminated because he can only type 39...dont you?
And, even though I have taught typing AND computer courses, I still LOOK at the keyboard for numbers and symbols...or use the numberpad for doing calculations...it is a common thing to do when you just dont TRUST your memory on where they are located! When teaching typing to men who never saw a keyboard before, they would do rather nicely at 30 wpm...one finger at a time!

I am a tech and an assistant network administrator. I don't type and I can do my job without much typing, I type with three fingers and have decent speed. It should not be a requirement because there much more to learn than typing and I never stop learning.

dalin, if it ain't broke don't try to fix it. Everyone, yourself included, can only type as fast as the words they want to use come to mind. If someone is comfortable typing one finger at a time, and they do their work accurately and well, then who (besides yourself) cares whether or not they type 20 or 40 or 60 or 296 words per minute without looking at the keyboard. I have hit typing speeds over 60 wpm on occasion, when the words just come. More normally, a type at about 35 - 40 wpm and make corrections on the fly so that have no corrections to make afterwards, usually a sinbgle proofread and a couple of minor editing additions or deletions. My eyes are pretty much always glued to the keyboard rather than to the screen, because I know what I type on the keyboard will be on the screen when I look at it. I don't feel that I (or anyone else) needs to watch each letter magically appear on the screen when I'm typing on the keyboard. I mean, the technology has been designed and constructed to work that way dependably, and in any situation would very quickly be replaced if a particular machine did not behave that way. Watching the screen is a holdover from the days of the mechanical typewriter, when the typical secretary HAD to watch the paper to catch every mistake almost before it could happen so the paper communications were clean and looked professional.
The short answer is that no-one actually needs to type on the keyboard without looking at it, so why even consider requiring it? Get over it.

Does anyone else find it ironic that somebody who is whining about people who cannot touch type fails to use proper capitalization? When I took typing, use of the shift key was one of the proficiency requirements.

I am not a typist, nor do I wish to be one. I enjoy the fact that I can type about 25 - 30 words per minute while using half of my fingers and not looking at the screen. I don't believe that a passing grade in typing class should determine whether someone is a good tech. There skillset should be what matters. I work with professional typists (as I call them), and I work with terrible spellers. The poor spelling seems to cause more problems than slower typing. You see, in my MIS department, each tech has a different specialty. The Webmaster/sys admin is an excellent typist and speller. The phone specialist/sys admin: an excellent typist and speller. The other sys admin: an excellent typist and speller. Myself: good typist and excellent speller. Our boss: good typist and excellent speller. Our network administrator who is no longer with us: good typist, bad speller. Ideally you want someone who can type the way that it is taught in school. However, if they don't, and that is there only downfall, I don't feel that they should be penalized. You can have a great typing, poor spelling technician whose skills and logical thinking are not as good as the person who is not so good at typing. Which individual is more of an asset? A good tech is hard to come by. I'll wait the extra five minutes it takes for that person to type up whatever it is they are typing, if I know that the technical portion is completed and golden. But then again, I'm biased because I am not a typist, but I am a darn good tech!

I am a sysadmin who uses a computer all day long, considered one of the best in our company and a poor typist and it makes very little difference. This reply is probably the longest thing I'll type all day. Why? GUI interfaces and problem solving. Most functions are done with a mouse but the majority of my time is spent solving problems and analyzing business needs, not typing. On the other hand, if my main function was data entry typing speed could well be vital to my productivity.

I am a fairly fast typist and accurate, but the head of our computer dept. types with 2 fingers nearly as fast as anyone in the office...not worth worrying about, I guess.

Who cares how fast they can crank code? What is more important is that the code be quality stuff! I want a code monkey who will methodically take his time with a project and get it done right, the first time. I don't care if you give me 300 lines of code or 150 in a given amount of time. Chances are, the guy giving me less lines has tighter code. I have seen it for years and years! Monkeys that will type real fast and give me junk code. Their brains are outpacing their fingers.

some people really DON'T use that key! It hurts my brain to watch someone fill in a field, move from keyboard to mouse to click OK, move back to keyboard to fill in another field, move back to mouse to click OK ... etc. (Same for TAB key)

If you have to say "no offense" or "I know this is petty" before speaking. Just stop there and save everyone somef aggravation.

If people were hired as clericals, than they should be tested for their typing skills. However, someone who has been hired as a Market Analyst, will spend most of their time in Excel and other analytical tools. In this case, their accuracy is more important than their speed.

I believe that the school systems are remiss in not requiring typing classes. Especially in the current environment, where the use of PCs is the norm and not the exception. When I went to school, it was an option, and was dominated by those thinking of clerical aspirations.

I have been a software developer for nearly 20 years. I can type ok, but that is definately NOT what makes me a good software developer. If I had not learned to read and write on paper, then there would be a problem. The best ideas are always scribled out on paper first, then erased and scribled out again. Skipping that evolution and going straight to the keyboard, removes an opportunity to review (and improve) the ideas/content being generated.

Couldn't agree more ! I took over a project that was started by a person whose typing made the keyboard humm. WOW, was I impressed. The app always crashed but it was fixed by someone who can't type very fast at all, ME. I helped save the client his investmnet of over $ 200,000.

If you have to worry about typing skills, man you must not be doing your IT job. As a disabled Vet and limitations to what I can do. I know my limits, adapt, and overcome. I might peck one finger at a time while looking at the keyboard, But I do it well.'Nuff Said. Lets get back to the real issues that really makes Tech life interesting.
SgtRock USArmy

I agree with woodworker. I learned to type in junior high and I feel that it's the most useful course that I ever took. People that don't know how to type don't realize the difference it makes. Maybe it shouldn't be a requirement but it should be encouraged. And if people go back to typing with two fingers instead of nine (eight fingers + a thumb) after taking a typing course then that's their perogative.

Judging by your question, I'd say your co-workers have more than a few "skills" they'd like to require that you change... to make a better work place, of course.

Well this reply is being brought to you from a hunt and peck typer, a lead software engineer who has written costless number of lines of code in many different SW languages for 20+ years. The only company that I know that had such a policy is Alcon that is located in Fort Worth Texas and the policy may have been more of the department manager rather than the company. This manager would use a stop watch and time how fast a programmer was typing and from what I understand it really caused a morale problem, big surprise, and he is no longer manager there.

If one is using Micrsoft's Visual Studio with intellsense which helps complete the methods, function and subroutine defintions, etc., being fast at typing could be a problem. For my department and my policy, design, unit testing, self documenting, well structure coding practices are the things to focus on and not typing speed.

I agree with OZ, what he said is one of the wisest responses I have seen recently. It doesn't matter if you can type 500 wpm as a programmer if you cannot get programs to work. Sometimes it is about quality of work and not quantity. I have seen guys that use one finger to type code all day and their programs ran the company. I have also seen people that type 120 but takes them longer to type code because they are going back and correcting mistakes or that they don't take the time to think about the statements they are typing.

Okay, so not all of us can type 120 words a minute. So? That's no excuse for technical professionals to not be able to use a keyboard efficiently. We get paid to produce! Whatever it is that he does, if it involves having to use a keyboard, this clod is producing at lesser speed than his contemporaries and probably being paid the same.

Of course, my boss is a mantis typist too - and he makes us all sit and suffer through watching him type lengthy emails in his presence...so maybe I'm a little too close to this subject.

...that is petty.

I was hired to keep the systems up and running which I do very well, I was not hired to type 75 wpm.
My management couldn't care a a whit if I type fast, just that I type accurate.

Speed is only important if you don't have to think or accuracy is less important. I am an IT Development Manager, I would not bother how people are typing as long as they are developing error free programs within a reasonable time.

For those of us who convince the typing-boxes to keep working, traditional typing skills are less than relevant. We use 3-4 different shift-keys, multi-key combinations, and our most important keyboard function is observing the hands of others when they have Mystery Problems. If we actually touch the QWERTY part of the keyboard it's usually to relay a complex idea using only simple words.

You touched on some good points but (WOW!) relax Dude! Don't have a cow man!

There are a number of reasons why IT guys should have some bare minimun typing skills.

Confidence: some command over the keyboard helps the users to have confidence in the tech; if he is hunting for keys this would not reflect real well on the IT Dept.

Security: if the tech types slowly with one or digits, it would be very easy for an unauthorized person to glean admin passwords.

Efficiency: IT techs have a need for reasonably speedy typing. It doesn't have to be blazing fast but they should be able to document their work, communicate via email and enter commands fairly quickly. This is necessary precisely because they are not directly responsible for any $400,000 deals.

:) Just shows I need that spell check here at TR too. I usually check my spelling or put (sp?) after it if I am not sure. Guess I didn't catch this one. :(

Excluding data-entry people and secretaries/clerk typists, I do not see the need to require typing for computer work. For me, I have the fastest two fingers in the West. Yes, I look at the keyboard at times. Yes, sometimes I use a third finger. But, in general, I only use two fingers, I have no concept of touch-typing, and I have to correct myself a lot; however, I'm probably a faster "typist" than more programmers I know. Doesn't make me a better programmer, nor does the ability to touch-type.

I too have found it difficult to understand why so many people in high-paying IT jobs who NEED to be able to input accurately and quickly cannot type. Companies are paying big $$ for these people to do thier jobs, and it would be frustrating to watch these employees sit there pecking out their stuff at the keyboard ever so slowly.
On the other hand I work mostly one-on-one with my customers (I run my own business) and they are forever telling me to slow down so I can see what I am doing! I taught myself to four-finger type, but I can do so with minimal errors and at a reasonable speed - but I still gotta watch the keyboard OFTEN - and I've been doing this for 15 years! I did my formal training in the DOD - and it was NOT a requirement to be able to type beforehand - and they are smart cookies. If it is good enough for the DOD, well........

Maybe we need to have people take a personality test as well. If you are intellegent, know your stuff, and are good with people, what does it matter if you have to look at the keyboard?

I think this is very petty. Unless you are standing over their shoulder waiting on them to type something for you, why should you care about their typing speed? I've never heard of anyone outside of an admin assistant requiring certain typing speeds.
Sure it would be easier and faster to type as you would like, but who cares as long as the job is done in a reasonable time. No one else cares and neither should you.

ROFL @ neilb! Thanks for a great belly laugh! I have noticed this over the years but thought it was some kind of quirk. Before I ever thought about web dev, I worked in an office and HAD to type letters, memos, etc.

When my kids were heavy into chatting, I urged them to put that otherwise useless time into a productive effort by learning to type by touch. My logic was "You can chat MUCH faster that way!" Hey, it worked :)

I might not be able to type at fast rate. But then there are ones who can type fast but cannot fix a downed server or troubleshoot a network problem. It is not my job to type long lengthy letters. My typing speed should not be a factor.

I had an employee that couldn't touch type and handled her tasks pecking away with one finger on each hand. I, too, was concerned when I first saw her working this way. However, this employee became my star employee. She had a "can do" personality and managed her time to get more done in a day than any of my other employees. She worked smart and was a great team player. She taught me that it wasn't how she typed that was important but how she handled herself that was the most important quality. Require a policy requiring typing skills? No, it's not an issue I would attach a formal policy to.

Most medical offices don't rely on sales people to run the office. People get hurt all by themselves and that keeps us in business.
Also, the original posting stated having a decent speed not to be an expert typist.

Why would anyone need a policy for to require that a person can type? I know of a few people who can type, at slow but reasonable speed, who make more mistakes and take longer to complete a same task than another programmer who uses the hunt and peck method of typing. Its not how you type but rather can you do the job, and is your performance satisfactory for those that hired you.

A lot of frustrating and amusing things happen just because of fate. A good many of the women of the Boomer Generation deliberately refused to learn to type because they swore they would never take stifling jobs as secretaries like their mothers had. Who could have predicted that the darling jobs of their future would require spending much of their lives huddled over a keyboard?

Many men of my generation (War Babies) refused to learn to type as a macho thing. It didn't occur to them that most of them were destined for college and that in college in the typewriter era, much more than in the real world, people with good typing skills got an hour more of sleep than the hunt-and-peckers.

I agree with everyone who said that people with poor typing skills learn to perform well anyway if they're motivated. It's not a deal breaker and I wouldn't make it a job requirement.

I do have a problem with people who wear two-inch fingernail extensions. They're just not serious about their work.

I would recommend that high schools put keyboard skills back in their curriculum. Perhaps even elementary schools. A lot of young kids learn simply dreadful keyboard habits starting in pre-school. There's no harm in offering them the chance to become better typists while they're still young enough to change easily. Most 35-year olds have a limited ability to learn kinesthetic skills like that.

I worked my way through college as a typist. My wife was one of the women who never wanted to be a secretary but she was also a practical realist who learned to type just in case. She let me type all of her papers in college (she got her degree long after I did) and it was great fun for me because I learned a lot from reading them. Now she does her business on the internet and she types blindlingly fast and accurately.

There is the fact that IT people, eventhough higher level staff and management have reports to write, there isn't the same requirement for speed that a person in HR or other area that writes reports every day and they have to be completed quickly and accurately.

That doesn't mean we IT people shouldn't worry about either, because we should. I think internal trainign could be suggested to those who "peck type". I can do a combination of multi-finger typing while looking at the keys and typing without looking and the reports I write have longer due dates so I don't need to worry about speed.

Actually, some machines actually couldn't handle those speeds. In college we had PDP-11/70's as our "mainframe" on an asynch network with dumb terminals running at 1200 baud, and one terminal had an 8" floppy drive (256K/disk!) running through a null modem apparatus on the network. A few of us had access to a program that would reset the floppy drive to 2400 baud so you could save your programs more quickly, but we'd get yelled at by the sysadmins because they said it would send interrupts at a rate the PDP's couldn't keep up with (questionable design, in my mind).

Also, when I was a radioteletype operator in the Army ('77-'80), the old Kleinschmidt teletypes we had (TT-98, TT-76, from the '40s perhaps) were not physically able to type faster than about 45 wpm or they would lock up on you. The TT-76 was a little faster, but usually only when using the paper punch tape reader to send a message you punched manually earlier.