Got a job interview!

buckle

I was emailing what I can for my CRB check for a job, and then another employer invites me for an interview! He said I'm guaranteed to get the job if I can prove to him I'm able to type 130wpm for a job asking minimum 90wpm typing speed with no mistakes. I did score 130wpm but I cheated in online tests. The test is done and you can leave, or you register/login to save the results. I only saved results over 100wpm. I usually got 70-90wpm and didn't save those results. I also selected the easy text passages with little to no numbers etc.

fairy_lights

Was the interview for a job in a 1950's typing pool? I can't imagine what jobs in this day and age require such fast typing skills, surely anything that needs recording can be taped on a Dictaphone and typed up later?

~Beanie~

buckle wrote: »

I cheated in online tests. The test is done and you can leave, or you register/login to save the results. I only saved results over 100wpm. I usually got 70-90wpm and didn't save those results. I also selected the easy text passages with little to no numbers etc.

Surely you will get found out the minute you are asked to do some typing and they discover that you really can't type 130wpm?

pmduk

Cheating like this only creates expectations that you can't fulfil.

[Deleted User]

The difference between typing at 70 WPM and 130 WPM is huge and although anyone can achieve 90 WPM with the right practice, it takes significant time, effort and ability to beat 120 WPM. I can type at 130 WPM at my absolute fastest and that is after ~8 years of typing every single day, I have typed well over 80,000,000 (tracked) keys and still find breaking 130 WPM a struggle (although I only type with 2 fingers, but the same is true for people that type properly).

If you are peaking at 90 WPM and averaging 70 - 80 you need to practice a lot more, you need to type a lot and unfortunately there's absolutely no way you're going to consistently achieve above 100 in the near future. If you do want to improve your typing skills, invest in a mechanical keyboard (blank key caps are a good idea too) and start typing a lot. Every day. Type. Type. Type.

I'm fairly certain the employer knows that you're lying and is just trying to catch you out, but has invited you for an interview just in case you're telling the truth. That said, as with others, I don't see why this would matter so much to an employer, unless the job is exclusively typing up hard copy documents but OCR exists for that, but now that you've dug yourself into that lie there's no way out so I don't think you should pursue this opportunity.

buckle

It's not like I never typed that fast before. I just can't consistently keep that speed up. :mad: If a text passage involves a lot of numbers, weird place names etc I can't type over 90wpm. I can only do that if it's casual sentences with almost no numbers. I developed my typing speed by just typing normally. I didn't go through that you must use a certain finger for which keys, which is probably why whenever I suddenly have to type a symbol or number I need to look at the keyboard to find where it is.

TELLIT01

citricsquid typing 650 characters per minute with 2 fingers! That's 10 key depressions per second. Yeah - right. A top quality touch typist would have trouble keeping that level up for extended periods. My wife has been a typist all her working life and can do about 110 per minute consistently.

[Deleted User]

keitht53 wrote: »

citricsquid typing 650 characters per minute with 2 fingers! That's 10 key depressions per second. Yeah - right. A top quality touch typist would have trouble keeping that level up for extended periods. My wife has been a typist all her working life and can do about 110 per minute consistently.

Why would someone lie about something so mundane? I can provide video proof if you care for it. I have been typing every single day, for at least 12 hours, for the last 8 years. I have typed an order of magnitude more words than I have spoken.

buckle

Interview went really badly..

Interviewer has a strong accent, I had to ask him three times to repeat certain lines he was saying, and I typed slower than usual because the previous night I spent too much time practicing and my fingers were numb during the interview. I also had to use a large keyboard. I'm used to typing fast on a keyboard for a 17.3inch wide laptop. Interviewer already implied to me he'll be interviewing other people and even if there are no suitable candidates he'll continue advertising rather than have me. I was even questioned if I'm IT literate when I was gazing at the screen when asked to start up MS Word. I was looking for the desktop shortcut and because there's a lot of MS Word documents on the desktop screen it took me some time to scan through them before realising there's no shortcut. I eventually used start menu to locate MS Word. Felt like an idiot.

gettingready

For your own sake - be glad you did not get THIS job.

YOu will find something better and more suited to your current skills/experience.

You said yourself that your fingers felt numb from typing the day before, imagine having to struggle every day for 8 hours per day.

As to looking for MS Word icon when there was none - you could have opened any MS Word document from the desktop and select "new" from menu there.- or you could head straight for the start menu.

Not sure if they wanted 130 copy or audio? You refer to choosing paragraphs for test which suggests copy. The at interview you say you did not understand the speaker so that suggests audio.

In any case - there are dicta-phones for recording and then typing audio from tapes - not from live speech. Someone is insane with those requirements so you better off without them xx

buckle

gettingready wrote: »

For your own sake - be glad you did not get THIS job.

YOu will find something better and more suited to your current skills/experience.

You said yourself that your fingers felt numb from typing the day before, imagine having to struggle every day for 8 hours per day.

As to looking for MS Word icon when there was none - you could have opened any MS Word document from the desktop and select "new" from menu there.- or you could head straight for the start menu.

Not sure if they wanted 130 copy or audio? You refer to choosing paragraphs for test which suggests copy. The at interview you say you did not understand the speaker so that suggests audio.

In any case - there are dicta-phones for recording and then typing audio from tapes - not from live speech. Someone is insane with those requirements so you better off without them xx

I was afraid if I opened a document I'd have seen confidential information and that won't go well. Should have went for start menu straight away.

I claimed to have 130wpm typing speed, and it's for copy typing, not audio. I had to type live as the interviewer talked. He wasn't talking fast but had a strong accent and I needed time to adjust to the larger keyboard than I'm used to. The pay was actually worse than my retail job by £400 a month. I would have needed to find another part-time job even if offered this job, and I only applied for it because of the experience, and because I thought part-time meant 20-30hrs a week... It was 10-15hrs a week.

Got another job interview today. Typing is a small section of the job and I think it went well. I sent my CV and was asked to complete an application pack. The interview was too close so I didn't have time to get hold of a printer. I explained this at the interview, and after the interview I got a phone call reminding me to send them the application pack. Think I got the job? Why would they make me print 20 pages and spend over an hour filling it in, including my bank details if I didn't get the job?