Touch Typing is really necessary?

[smssilva]

My degree can be translated as Executive Secretary and its a Bachelor degree.
My position does not require for me to type as a normal duty. I work only with engineers and we handle most  documents throught intranet and e-mail.
Never took a typing test ...took several in English translation though.
Different experience from the majority here.
I must say I never expected my post to have so many replies.

[mrsbean]

You are right!

Do other secretaries have other keyboards?

[countrigal]

Realise that typing does not only refer to word and excel documents.  Most of my typing is in e-mails and via the intranet.  Still, it is more time consuming to type hunt-and-peck way than by touch-typing.  The exception?  Those who have been pecking for a while and have it down to a fast, learned action themselves.  Is it as fast as touch typing?  No, but it is quicker than one would think if the person has practiced and practiced it.  My husband is like that -- he doesn't use the conventional touch-typing, but has developed his own brand of it and it works well for him.  Me, anytime I try to type anything while holding my baby, and therefore am unable to touch-type, takes me 4 times as long, with more errors as I hit the wrong keys while trying to hurry it along.

In the US, there are no Bachelor Degrees given in 'Executive Secretary'.  You may have a bachelor degree in Business Administration, which gives a bit more weight to your admin/secretarial skills, but no degree in the secretarial field itself.  You can get a certificate in that though...  My degree is Resource Management, and is a bachelor's degree.  And I've found that touch-typing is essential to me in both my work and private life, especially while I was working and going to school.  I can only imagine how long it would have taken me to type my papers for school if I didn't have this skill.  And touch-typing seems to be a standard taught in most schools, normally in conjunction with a computer class.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[smssilva]

Yes, I have a keyboard adapted to portuguese symbols.

[mrsbean]

Where is the differenze in Portugal?

[smssilva]

As in Germany we have different symbols like Ç and ~and ^ for example. We have also `and ´ to help spelling thw words right and knowing which sylable to accentuate.

I saw a chinese man typing the other day in MSN. All his symbols were chinese ones...couldn't figure out which key was which.

[reddrogue]

That is interesting.  In the U.S. we have some of those symbols standard on our keyboard, but some that I think should be standard, and are not, like the C with the little squiggly line beneath it (which is a letter in Portugese, no?).  See, I don't even know what it is called, but with so many words in North American English originating from different languages we need to have those letters efficiently available, and they are not.  It can be a pain in the rear sometimes.  

Wow, a Bachelor's Degree in Executive Secretary.  That is cool.  Perhaps the profession receives more respect in your country than in the U.S.  I have discovered over the years that a secretary/admin assistant here has to make herself/himself indispensable to the company, otherwise, they tend to think that we are easily replaced.  It us up to us to show them that is not so.

rr

[smssilva]

In my country jobs are up to a point where they ask graduates for every position.
A private school (privatly owned not a state school) has a degree in Executive secretary for over 20 years and is still today very much in demand. I went to a public school (State school), because private fees are very high.

You are right that is up to us to prove that we are a key asset on an organisation. I've spent months just doing "normal tasks" like sorting mail, e-mails and phone calls and typing letters. Almost got bored to death. I've asked different tasks (in addition to the old ones) and now I feel that I really make a difference and feel satisfaction in my job. In the end it is was really matters, enjoying what we do...

[elkiedee]

First, to get office work in Britain I think increasing your speed from 30 wpm would be very useful.

Mavis Beacon is a computer software package to teach you to touch type, but there are also lots of short courses here if you were to move here first which would probably help you get into the right habits and if you found work where you were keyboarding the rest would follow.

Then, I would market yourself as an administrator/office manager, not as a secretary. There are some such who don't type fast. I have heard of PAs who don't come from a conventional secretarial background and who don't touch type.

I last tested around 70 wpm but I don't think that in my job there would be much difference between a 50 wpm and a 100 wpm typist - there are days when I have a lot of audio typing but much of the time I'm preparing leases from precedents, cutting and pasting and a few words here and there. IT skills are more relevant, and trying to be more organised than comes naturally to me. The important thing is I can type without thinking too much about it and that frees up attention to what I'm doing, and I think that usually follows from touch typing,

I'm afraid a secretarial degree here would cut less ice than other things. The main thing is to focus on your work experience, what can you do? Were your "management tasks" supervision or personnel administration? I'm sure there are jobs which could make good use of your skills, but they're unlikely to have the word "secretary" in the title. Hopefully, they'd be better paid!

Luci