What Is a 10-Key Experience?
Ten-key experience refers to the metric of how experienced someone is using the 10-key pad on a keyboard. This is used extensively in data entry jobs that may use numbers rather than letters on keyboards. Using the 10-key pad on the computer makes it easier to only focus on numbers instead of having to deal with all of the letters and the number line at the top of the keyboard.
Generally, 10-key experience is measured as “kpm,” or keystrokes per minute. This is similar to the “wpm,” or words per minute used as a typing metric. Ten-key experience is frequently necessary for several occupations, such as a work-at-home customer service agent, transcriptionist and medical coding and billing specialists.
To gain 10-key experience, one can take a course at a community college, use online tutorials, do training at a public library or get training at a temp agency. Temp agencies strive to employ individuals, so they often offer training in many other skills such as word processing, data entry and spreadsheets. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median national wage for data entry keyers as of May of 2012 is $13.47 an hour, with the top ten percent earning $20.00 an hour.
