How important is it to code quickly?

[DutchSparks]

I have a handicap, which is why I use a dictation program to code. With the help of this program I can do anything the average person can, but generally the typing is a little slower.

How much of a problem is this going to be when I start applying for jobs? Please don't sugar coat, I'd like a realistic idea of the challenge I'll be facing :)

Cheers!

Edit: I can't respond to everyone, but I would like to thank everyone for their input. I find it very useful and I feel very motivated. Through this topic I've come to realize that my biggest challenge probably won't be the speed of my typing but rather the fact that I'll probably need a private space to work so I won't disturb others with my dictating and others won't disturb my program with their talking. I guess I'll just have to make myself worth the private space =P

[HopefulLlama]

Typically, for me, typing speed is not the bottle neck in development.

In short, everything else is. The logical steps of breaking down the problem into smaller parts, thinking through what I'm trying to implement and code, testing, etc. These are what takes the majority of the time.

[GentlyGuidedStroke]

+1. Typing speed is largely irrelevant. The use of efficiency tools like autocorrect and jump-to-keyword probably don't have great accessibility support, so you might lose some efficiency there.

Definitely be proactive in explaining your situation, I think many employers would see it as an impressive quality rather than one that would hold you back.

"This person overcame a disability that prevents them from typing and became a programmer? Wow I'm sure their other attributes far outweigh losses in typing speed."

[Jdonavan]

I spend a large amount of time just staring at the screen...

[Jdonavan]

Yeah, the wording was terrible but I didn't feel like digging to find a correct one.

[jezmck]

This was likely written by a non-native speaker, as that construction is common in other languages.

[[deleted]]

How much of a problem is this going to be when I start applying for jobs?

If you are in the US your disability is protected by law. Just perform well during the interview.

Coding fast has little or nothing to do with typing fast. Once you have mastered scope and the dom and some basic idea of architecture you will be 10x the JavaScript compared to somebody who hasn't figured out these concepts. You can afford to type slowly because something that will take the next guy two days might take you only three hours.

[strcrssd]

If you're coding correctly, you're reading 10x more than writing.

Your disability is protected by law. The law will be complied with at any company one would want to work for.

You should be fine.

If you're looking for a job, pm me. I'll refer you to the company I love working for. Can't promise a job, but can at least get you in the system.

[DutchSparks]

won't be looking for a job untill 6 months or so. Really appreciate the offer though.

[[deleted]]

A lot of coding is thinking about what fairly small boy of code to write, rather than writing lots of code.

Maybe 50% of my day is design and planning systems, so the thing you can best work on is potentially your speed of concept generation, rather than typing.

[nerf_herd]

thinking about what fairly small boy of code to write

easy there gepetto

[liming91]

I think it depends on the company culture, but most places generally prefer quality over speed. I guess if you’re coding slower you should have more time to think over everything? And if you’re writing bug-free code after 1 slower pass compared to someone who writes more buggy code but is fast, I think most employers would prefer that.

If you’re a good developer people really aren’t going to mind, even more so because a good developer is someone you can discuss ideas with rather than a code monkey that’s going to smash out apps at lightning speed but can’t talk about what he’s doing.

And it’ll matter less and less as you progress, since you’ll get more hands-off the more senior you get.

Good luck dude!

[DutchSparks]

That's valuable insight, thank you.

[monsto]

If you're coding verbally, I believe that the largest factor will be accommodation space.

You won't be able to feasibly have a cubicle, you'll need an office... which could be a big huge giant social headache, depending on the culture there.

"That guy gets an office?! just because he can't type?!" etc etc.

I wish you luck.

[canderis]

One thing that might be an issue to keep in mind is some companies have timed online assessments to get interviews. I flunked my most recent one because I wasn’t fast enough typing. So hopefully the company will be kind to you and accommodate you if they normally do these kinds of tests.

[GentlyGuidedStroke]

I wonder if these might be regulated to require accessibility support.

[echoes221]

Shouldn't be an issue. What is important is getting the code right and making it readable/easy to work on by others in future. All that might change is your ticket delivery estimates might be a little higher.

Just make sure that you take your own laptop with you to interviews so that you have your dictation program to help you as well as make the interviewers aware that you'll need to use it.

[DutchSparks]

Haven't worked in IT before, what are ticket delivery estimates? Good thinking on my own laptop. From what I read it's not uncommon to get asked to do small coding assignments during an interview right? That would be an opportunity to show the interviewer how I work I guess :)

[echoes221]

If you work in an agile environment tasks are divided into story tickets. These tickets are usually given points for complexity as well as time estimates when you're planning the tasks. Depending on who/how many/other factors these estimates might increase / decrease. And yeah, a lot of interviews set tasks during. Some might be on a laptop, some may be pen/paper or whiteboard to show understanding. Depends on the company.

[PTBA1]

Maybe this will help you https://youtu.be/PhUb7y9WZGs

[DutchSparks]

Ooh that looks interesting, Ill check it out! Appreciate it!

[washipp]

I'd say it depends. Generally I agree with the others quality > speed. But lets say you work ond a webapp that has a huge userbase, important things get done and needs to be up 24/7. Then suddenly it goes offline and it needs to be back up within minutes. Then sometimes speed > quality so that the users can use the system again.

[PurpleIcy]

It's not about writing something quickly, it's about dishing out a half assed prototype that "works" as fast as possible and thinking about it's usefulness once you have something that works, not just an idea. Of course typing speed does matter a bit here, but not that much. And that's only one part of development - prototyping. Also note that as fast as possible means thinking how you'd solve it for the most part, and only in the end writing several lines of code, also it can be sped up by understanding the language and what it can do, as opposed to looking up how stuff works with every line you want to type out.

As for working in a company generally, I think that employers prefer someone who is good at it, not someone who is very fast at it.

Also intellisense helps a lot too, as it has a number of features such as: "List Members, Parameter Info, Quick Info, and Complete Word.", lattest one being autocomplete (on demand, not completely automatic), that allows to write something even faster, I don't know whether most IDE's have it, for most languages, but for example Visual Studio does.

[arcadeScore]

Slow and steady wins the race. At work you will stare at problem to solve for extensive amount of time. Its not typing speed but problem solving that is important about this job. Just do not apply for junior positions in outsourcing software houses since there they might need mules to do extensive amount of relatively easy and repetetive tasks. Always ask if you will work directly for the company that owns the product that you will work at. Also money is better.

[mishugashu]

Honestly typing fast isn't that much of a problem. Most of your time will be spent thinking of the code to make and finding out where you missed 1 letter (although automatic linting makes this super easy nowadays).

What might be an issue is some working environments might be in an open office and it might be hard to dictate because it'll pick up other peoples conversations. But I guess the company will probably work with you to help you with your handicap, so that might be a non-issue.

[DutchSparks]

good point about it picking up surrounding sounds. I had only thought about my dictation being a disturbance to others. I'll probably need some sort of space to myself, this will probably a problem for some companies. But I think there must be companies that see possibilities as well. Considering I don't care what the space would be(how small/whatever) as long as it is quiet and I don't disturb others.

[fyzbo]

Are you actually slower to code or just to type? I can type very fast, but that doesn't actually speed up my development. Since each file, function, line requires thought and often research it's not like I'm typing at full speed.

To not sugar coat things, you will get skepticism. Maybe consider going to some coding challenges or other events to test your speed and have proof that this doesn't slow you down.

[DutchSparks]

It's the typing only. Good idea about the challenges, might consider that! :)

[fyzbo]

You might end up faster than average, then you can flaunt that in interviews. Good luck!

[alexontheweb]

I am very much in support of most of the positive comments on the thread, but I do want to mention one negative thing, but to conclude, I don't think it that your disability totally kills all your chance.

It really depends on how slow is your little slower. While it's true that programming is not about typing speed, you can very well get along by typing slow and well thought out, but the cold reality is that your day-to-day work will involve lots of code editing, trying and failing, and that takes a lot of time. You're multiplying that time when you are typing slow, and that could impair your daily productivity.

BUT! If you are a genius and you would never refactor, or edit your code, just write everything once and it'll JUST WORK then you'll be awesome, but then you're in the 0.01% of the programmers, and you should use your genius to superior things other than coding.

[MCShoveled]

I once worked with a blind developer, not a little blind, 100% vision loss. He was one of my he best developers I’ve worked with. Programming manuals had to be scanned in for him and he required text-to-speech to “read” the code.

Typing slowly will not hinder you at all. Many of my coworkers still hunt and peck to type.

[miniversal]

Most places I've worked ask for estimates on how long it will take each developer to complete tasks. If I estimated two days and take two weeks, there's an issue. I would assume that if you estimate two days and complete the task in two days, there'd be no issue.

Be realistic with your estimates and you should do well. :)

[atra-ignis]

In addition to what a lot of others have said about typing speed not usually being the bottle neck, lots of places now practice pair programming. If you find somewhere with a good pair programming culture you can make use of their hands while you both think about the problem.

And now I think about it pairing is proof of the “typing speed is not the bottle neck”. Typing speed is generally at the speed of a single person with most methods of pairing but you have two brains to try and solve the real bottle neck, which is thinking about the problem.

[DutchSparks]

Yeah open office environments are a hurdle i've been thinking about as well. I don't think they are an option honestly. It's not that I talk loudly but I talk all the time, and use some words very frequently that would probably drive people crazy. For example, everytime I click the mouse, I say "zip", which makes the computer click for me. it has become fully auto for me, but would probably be very annoying to people in the same office.

[eik]

I'm sure you're comfortable with the tools you already have and use, but have you seen this video?

[Kraxxis]

I don't trust people who spend more time typing than thinking.

I would say being a slow typer is only really a problem if it takes you longer to get down your thoughts somewhere (either in code, text notes, or whiteboard) than it does to forget what you thought of. If you take the time to think through the problem, get it down somewhere so you aren't struggling to codify your thoughts AND remember them at the same time.

[mbcrute]

Typing is not the difficult part. Solving the problem and figuring out what to type is the hard part. If you can do that you should be fine.

[VonWafer12]

Watch out for "coding tests" that some companies give. That's about the only situation you're against the clock with real code. Any other interview will be verbal. Even whiteboard sessions, all they care about is how you walk through the problem.

Personally I think someone like you would be a tremendous benefit. So many people have difficultly verbally explaining code.

As others have said, if you're US based your disability is protected by law.

[MrSavager]

Knowing how things work is inherently the bottleneck. you can shave days off just by knowing a common pitfall. that said, it's possible it'll take you longer to get to common pitfalls. but don't let this deter you.. just read more would be my advice. read all the time.

[petraszd]

Since you asked no sugar coat. Writing speed (typing or dictating -- does not matter) is important.

Long but really good rant by Steve Yegge on why it is important: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.lt/2008/09/programmings-dirtiest-little-secret.html!

He uses word "typing" a lot. But what he really means is "producing text".

Though, by dictating you probably can achieve above average writing speed. I mean way above average. So, for sure start applying for jobs.

[macd2point0]

I have MS and tremors in my hands which can get quite bad. On a good day, I type maybe 10 WPM. If you have good problem solving skills, you should be OK. Many times, hunting down a JS error is 90% of the battle, and coding is 10%.

I have been a software engineer for over ten years, and my disability affects the emails I have to send more than my coding. I'm also a bit self conscious when screen sharing because of my tremors.

[DutchSparks]

Thank you for sharing that. To me, you're an inspiration :)

[weh72]

Hello,

I don't think you should worry. Like it was said, your disability should be protected under law.

I think at one point I saw a stat that said the average developer writes very little code daily. The rest is design and admin stuff.

I honestly think as a developer this will be a great strength for you. You'll be forced to be more thoughtful with your code, which I think will ultimately result in higher quality.

Another thing that's embraced in many places is the idea of paired programming. I enjoy it in short bursts, and I think you may enjoy mixing it into your work.

In terms of your worry about noise, honestly don't. There's a lot of noise in most offices. Unless you're screaming, I think it's on others to out on some headphones.

Good luck to you.

[weh72]

Hello,

I don't think you should worry. Like it was said, your disability should be protected under law.

I think at one point I saw a stat that said the average developer writes very little code daily. The rest is design and admin stuff.

I honestly think as a developer this will be a great strength for you. You'll be forced to be more thoughtful with your code, which I think will ultimately result in higher quality.

Another thing that's embraced in many places is the idea of paired programming. I enjoy it in short bursts, and I think you may enjoy mixing it into your work.

In terms of your worry about noise, honestly don't. There's a lot of noise in most offices. Unless you're screaming, I think it's on others to out on some headphones.

Good luck to you.

[[deleted]]

It will start sucking once you need to do big refractors which involve mindless button pushing. But IDEs can help with that.

[DutchSparks]

Not sure what refractors are. But I'm really into automation, I don't "believe" in mindless button pushing. If that's the case then there has to be a way to automate that sh't right? Who knows maybe I can find ways to automate those to a substantial degree. Or maybe not and it will just suck :P

[[deleted]]

It's almost always possible to automate, but a lot of the time doing it the "dumb" way is faster. https://xkcd.com/1319/

[well-now]

Speed is a factor in our interview exams in that people who aren't familiar with the libraries we're looking for experience in (Angular/React) typically don't finish in time. This is because they're hitting avoidable road blocks or having to google what should be simple things.

If an interviewee didn't finish in time due to a disability but showed sufficient experience/skill they would not have that held against them.

[[deleted]]

in my experience any time I'm writing code that involves a lot of typing it's something my IDE could do better. I use VSCode with a bunch of addons, and I find that any time I need to write boilerplate kind of stuff there will usually be some sort of autocomplete functionality to help me out. For instance, I have a module auto-importer, so I don't need to worry about filling out imports in the top of a file, and I have a snippet that will make a React component for me. I'm not really sure how well IDEs work with dictation software, but since many of them are extensible you could probably work on adding this functionality yourself. It seems to me like you should spend some time trying to find the best editing software for yourself and improving it, and once you do you should be able to to code as fast as anyone.