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Original poster

How many MNers can type?

77 replies

marthamoo · 26/05/2005 13:44

Properly, I mean?

I can't. I did do Mavis Beacon for a while but I got bored. I'm pretty fast but it's not "proper" typing. Wish I'd learned it at school - it would have been a damn sight more useful than algorithms and Norwegian fjords - but...how can I put this nicely?...top set-ers weren't encouraged to do typing!

OP posts:
dinosaur · 26/05/2005 14:07

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

PrettyCandles · 26/05/2005 14:10

I did a secretarial course after school. It was very useful, I've always been able to get a job as a result, even if the job itself was deaaaaaadly boring. But I wonder whether it was counterproductive - had I not been able to type, I wouldn't have settled for those jobs, and maybe would have ended up in more interesting roles.

binkie · 26/05/2005 14:16

I put myself through a correspondence course while at college - really really basic - you got lent a special typewriter with colours instead of letters so that you got the hang of Always Use The Forefinger If The Key Is Blue.

I wasn't allowed to do it at school either - and worse, when I started (10 years ago) where I am now, I was formally told that being able to & doing my own typing would hold up my career!!!

rickman · 26/05/2005 14:17

Message withdrawn

QueenEagle · 26/05/2005 14:18

Can't touch type but can type pretty fast and accurately. Also learnt on a manual typewriter and got distinctions in RSAI, RSAII and RSAIII. Does anyone remember using a 'golf ball' style typewriter???

Got a grade 3 at CSE which counts as an 'O' level 'cept I don't tell anyone it was for typewriting so it makes me sound more cleverererer than I really am.

oliveoil · 26/05/2005 14:18

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

rickman · 26/05/2005 14:19

Message withdrawn

oliveoil · 26/05/2005 14:20

Yawn.

It is ok as I can still pretend to be working whilst penning hilarious posts on here. You couldn't do that if you were a brain surgeon.

binkie · 26/05/2005 14:21

I've quite liked my secretarial jobs. They were all tempy though.

QueenEagle · 26/05/2005 14:22

Well, I enjoyed being a secretary, though I 'spose some secretarial jobs can be pretty boring. Used to like audio typing the best. Most interesting places to work were probably medical and legal places as some of the stuff made for very interesting reading at times!

WigWamBam · 26/05/2005 14:22

I enjoyed my secretarial job too, until they gave all of my engineers PCs of their own to do their own typing, and I was left with the really boring stuff to do.

rickman · 26/05/2005 14:23

Message withdrawn

northerner · 26/05/2005 14:23

Oliveoil your posts do make me laugh. You should write for a living. Seriously.

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 14:24

I sometimes wonder the same Pretty Candles. My school didn't do typing at all and I was really frowned upon when I said I wanted to do a secretarial course, even one that did 3 A'levels as part of the course!

QueenEagle · 26/05/2005 14:24

rickman - secretaries are vastly underrated imo. What would all those MD's be without their PA's eh????

Pruni · 26/05/2005 14:25

Message withdrawn

Surfermum · 26/05/2005 14:31

Actually can I revise that (having just re-read PC's post)? I just wonder if I'd have ended up doing something else with more of a career path, rather than something more interesting. I've always been a medical secretary and I think the reason I have done it for over 20 years is because it is SO interesting and I have worked with such lovely people. Briefly before having dd, I was a business manager and didn't enjoy my work half as much.

hana · 26/05/2005 14:34

I took typing in highschool against my wishes - mum said you'll thank me later and of course she was right. Have thanked her a million times since - esp during university with all those papers eeeeee
would love to do some typing from home as am quite fast but where is the time?

PrettyCandles · 26/05/2005 14:36

Being a secretary was boring for me. I remember a secretary/PA at one of my jobs whom I admired hugely. I had come in to help her predecessor, and when she left I was terrified that I'd be asked to fill in, or even to apply for the post, as the manager was a nightmare to work for (though a perfectly nice person). I thought it likely because I knew that the managers liked me and were impressed with my work. So when the new woman started I was overjoyed, and knew just what she was up against. And she was brilliant at her work. So no, not all secretarial work is boring - it just doesn't suit everybody.

hunkermunker · 26/05/2005 14:55

I don't touch-type, but I do type like a demon (80+ WPM copy typing, faster if it's just me thinking what to type) and don't need to look at the keyboard - in fact, I confuse myself if I do (not that that's hard...!).

charleepeters · 26/05/2005 14:55

i can but often make spellin mistakes

milge · 26/05/2005 14:56

I can - after A'levels i took a cookery course and a secretarial course - my father said i would never be unemployed if i could cook and type, so it meant he wouldn't have to pay for my upkeep in the future!

beansmum · 26/05/2005 14:57

Everyone did typing at my school, we didn't have a choice, so I can touch type pretty well. I'm getting much faster from all this MNing!

GeorginaA · 26/05/2005 22:38

I taught myself to keep up with IRC (real time chat) - its a skill that has got me quite a few jobs since though The downside is that I now can type far faster than I can actually think... a skill that has got me into trouble more times than one

jampots · 26/05/2005 22:57

legal secretary in previous life so I can type too!

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