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Comment by pksadiq | Hacker News Reader

> These people are mainly relatively unskilled. These companies are notorious for hiring entire batches of graduating students.

I guess the best interview should also add a touch-type test and the candidate should require at least 30wpm or so (if typing is very much required for the work).

When I was at college I have only seen less than 5 such students from the 250 total.

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That's my secret tell to see if someone is a good, experienced developer or not.

I've never met a good, experienced developer who was a slow typist.

> I've never met a good, experienced developer who was a slow typist.

You will.

There is a reason "fast typist" was not a required skill in any software jobs I've ever applied for, and I doubt developer strength has any correlation with typing speed.

It's not that fast typist is an indicator of a good developer, but a slow typist is an indicator of someone who hasn't spent a whole lot of time in front of a keyboard.

Or they have some motor disabilities in their arm/hand, which you should check for before making a judgement. Some people have carpal tunnel, some people have tremors, some people might have other condition they might not have even know themselves or would like to talk about openly.

Or if they don't have any fingers.

Depends what you mean by fast. Anecdotally, I learned to use a computer well before anyone thought to teach me to type. I still type "incorrectly" (basically use only a few fingers, with my hands moving more than they should). So I am definitely slower than someone who is trained to type correctly.

But, I would like to think that I am both good and experienced. I picked up my bad typing habits while learning to program, after all.

I taught myself how to type too just by doing it as a kid. My home key position is much more natural (hands slanted) and that probably saved me from carpel tunnel all these years.

By fast, I mean not two finger typing and can probably touch type. You know a slow typist when you see it. It's like being behind a slow person on the highway, it's excruciating.

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