At the interview for my first NYC job, I was asked if I could use an IBM Selectric. To borrow a phrase from the modern novel, “Yes,” I lied.
I headed straight for the local vocational school and my first question was “What’s an IBM Selectric?”
I spent the next week and a half learning how to backspace only once for the i and five spaces for the m and w-—or whatever it was. I think the model had a built-in eraser ribbon.
There was a way to switch font balls but I never got to that at my new job. Didn’t matter at that point.
IBM Selectric - the greatest typewriter ever devised! Especially when it came with a little hood that muffled the noise.