# Where should I target my Excel development?



## Richard Schollar (Jun 18, 2006)

I unfortunately find myself in the position of needing to find a new job (company has been taken over by a competitor who is unlikely to retain all staff, and certainly not in my current location).  Hence, I need to ensure my skills (Excel and otherwise) are honed.  So the question is: where do I target my development? I'm pretty comfortable with most of excel (charts apart - I have literally never used them before) and fairly comfortable with VBA.

I figure that in my position and likely roles as an accountant, becoming (even more) comfortable with ADO and connections to external databases would be a good move.  

Also, ADO connections to text data sources could be useful.

Maybe brushing up on my SQL?  Access programming?

It's an open field - what do you guys recommend?

Thanks

Richard


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## Andrew Fergus (Jun 18, 2006)

Hi Richard
You have MrExcel mail.
Andrew


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 19, 2006)

Cheers Andrew 

So do you!

Richard


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## absquatulation (Jun 19, 2006)

Oww, don't keep us in suspense, what's the suggestions so far? 

I also work for a company in which my future is not in anyway safe. I started out as a Production Engineer, and now I've been shoved sideways into what one could call a data analyst - anything to do with excel is given to me. 

I as well would like to expand my talents, but I'm a little stuck as to where to go. I don't want to stay in manufacturing, since this pool is getting smaller and smaller, so will someone point me in the right direction - any direction(?)


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## Andrew Fergus (Jun 19, 2006)

The basic thrust was to expand the skill set beyond Excel, given Richard would already be considered a 'beyond power user' by the average recruiter / prospect.  Such skills might include commonly used databases, thereby opening positions in project management, or systems support etc.  Whilst databases built in Access may not be the best solution, it is a very common solution that oftentimes requires plenty of support.  But knowledge and experience gained with one database is transferrable to a number of other database products (e.g. data structures, normalisation, GUI / form and report design etc).  I forgot to mention that gaining experience with a data warehouse product always looks good on the CV too.

Andrew


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 19, 2006)

I'll get around to posting the specific suggestions made by Andrew - they're all good!

Learning wise, if you've mastered the basics of excel and are comfortable with most of the formulas, then I think VBA is the next place to get comfortable with.  I would also make sure that you can use Excel to link to exernal data sources (ie use MSQuery and ADO to connect to databases such as Access and maybe SQL Server).  This then naturally leads on to developing SQL skills which are probably one of the most universal skills you can learn and have application virtually wherever you go.

Richard


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## MarkAndrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Richard, Suggestion if I may


At my old firm we used a team of consultants (who charged a small fortune!!) this could be one option?

The company in question was RCP (Reid xx & xx - dont remember the complete name)

Mark


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 19, 2006)

Mark, consultancy of some kind is certainly a possible future career option - a little way down the line though, I think.  I feel I could do with more hands on experience and deeper knowledge before I consider going that route.

That said, I do remember attending an introductory VBA course (1 day's worth) a while ago when I worked for a bank.  Introductory was right - the person giving the course was about as clueless as the rest of us were!  I would hope they had more experienced and knowledgeable instructors for the Intermediate/Advanced courses!


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## MarkAndrews (Jun 19, 2006)

Maybe you could become a trainer?


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 19, 2006)

For good or ill, I suspect I'm stuck with accountancy for the timebeing...


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 20, 2006)

Woohoo! Phase 1 completed! No longer THE anaemic white carrot


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## Greg Truby (Jun 20, 2006)

Richard,

I am far from a career counsellor.  But you might consider inverting the question.  Rather than asking "what skills am I lacking in Excel" and adding those and _then_ picking career options; perhaps you'd be better served by asking what direction you wanna head and then listing any skills you feel you need to acquire to get there.  

And FWIW, I'd agree with Andrew.  You are way beyond the skills of most Excel users, including all of the Finance people I know.  Indeed, you may find that your technical skills only need some minor tweaking (if any) and that you need to work on other "soft skills" like managing people in order to get to the career goal you envision.

Of course, I'm not saying that I alway practice what I just preached.  Unless one is being forced into a fork in the road the tendency is to just roll along down the highway and I'm as prone to that complacency as the next guy...

HTH


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 20, 2006)

Greg

I appreciate the thoughtful words - I think you make a very important point about the direction I wish to head in.  I think I probably shied away from looking at my situation from that perspective because it is inherently more difficult, and could no doubt point me towards some tough, unpalatable and downright uncomfortable decisions (there are good reasons why accountants are seen as boring people doing boring jobs). 

Richard


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## gingerafro (Jun 21, 2006)

Richard

Firstly either I'm ignorant or stupid (could be both), but where has parsnip gone?

Secondly, on your development front, I can only tell what I have done.  I quit my job as a salesman after 4 years because 1) I was rubbish at it and 2) I hated it.
So I was at a crossroads and thought 'I have about 40 years of work ahead of me, I may as well do something I like'.  I have a fairly good head for numbers, so literally thought 'I'll be an accountant'.

I signed up for CIMA, and set about getting a job at company who would fund me.  I ended up at one where my job was to produce weekly MI, all on Excel.

I improved the existing process by creating macros and then in the last 18 months have taght myself to use Access and now produce all MI from there.  Now my company wants to move to SQL server and I'm probably going to have to learn that as well.  I am now the only one in the company who knows how it all works and get rewarded for it.

So, for your situation, I would have to agree with others who say that you are certainly an excel power user.  You've helped me, and I've seen other posts of yours proving as much. If you have an understanding of SQL in whatever form; access, server, VI etc, then you will already have an impressive CV.

Trying to decide what software to learn will be almost impossible as there is so much out there, chances are you'll have to learn something new wherever you end up.  I guess you have a thirst for knowledge and 'knowing it all' would bore you anyway?

My advice would initially be to decide what you want to do.  Maybe a DB developer, consultant, accountant...
Once you are set down that path then you can look for a company to match - and hopefully become the big fish in the pond. Even if you aren't initially, you keep developing until you are...

i've kind of prattled on now, so good luck Richard.  Its not nice being made redundant, but does open up a whole world of new possibilities.


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## Richard Schollar (Jun 21, 2006)

Hi Gingerafro

You're not stupid, nor ignorant: I requested my handle be changed to my real name - I thought this might be useful in case I wanted my postings on this board to serve as a demonstration of my competence with Excel eg to a potential employer.

I think what you say is true, and I think there is definite great value in being an accountant who knows IT (or some of it, anyway) - especially since I've been in so many situations where the accountants/finance staff have been good, the IT people have been good, but the systems implemented by the IT people for the accountants are downright crappy, because there's been no-one who combined both sets of skills and could therefore appreciate the challenges and requirements faced by each side and thus suggest timely solutions over the development and implementation phase.  

I can recommend downloading SQL Server Express (it's free) from MS, if your company will be moving in that direction - it will give you a good heads up on how SQl Server works.

Richard


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## gingerafro (Jun 21, 2006)

Hi Richard

Its funny you should say about SQL Sever Express.  My boss doesn't want me to spend time creating the new DB, becasue he thinks its a job for IT.  But the IT people are crap and don''t know the first thing about DB.  So the solution is to hire a consultant at the princely sum of £400 per day for 10 days.  Hmmmm.

So I have downloaded SQL express with VBE at home, and am in the process of creating the DB.  Once done, I shall offer what I have done at a mutually beneficial price.  If they are not interested, at least I've learned something.

ps. I hope your PC is working OK now,  I followed your post and bought a Dell with a 920DC, 2GB DDR and its lovely for doing the above.  I was trying to do it on a P3 with 256RAM!!!


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 20, 2006)

Richard, 

This post may be a bit stale now but how'd you go? Like Greg said, the fork in the road can make for some interesting choices. I agree with the overall thrust of this thread: You've got no problems passing yourself off as an Excel guru in most company, and with some database skills combined with your accounting, that's a seriously useful package. 

Mark mentioned doing some training and it's not a bad idea. When I did my fork over 8 years back, I decided that I was more interested in analysing data and solving problems than working as a lab researcher so I started a training business with the medium term aim of becoming a consultant. I learned heaps doing the trainnig, got exposed to a whole bunch of questions and problems that I hadn't encountered before, and made some very useful contacts. On the back of those contacts I went into consultancy full time. Haven't stopped learning, and probably never will, but I am now being rewarded for taking the risk. 

Whichever path you choose (or chose), best of luck

Denis


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## Richard Schollar (Sep 21, 2006)

Thanks Denis

I currently expect to remain in my present job for probably another year (after which, following the takeover of my company, the job may well not exist).  I've been trying to determine what, in my current job, I enjoy and what I'm good at (sadly, not necessarily the same things!) and thus decide on what the most successful path for me to take could be.  I really enjoy the programming side of what I do with Excel (especially when you extend Excel's functionality by linking it up with external data sources) but because I'm purely self-taught, I thought it might be a good idea to attempt to get a more solid grounding in a 'real' programming language (I am not disparaging VBA in any way (or indeed VB) but I would like exposure to a lower level language) and so am doing some reading and practicing with C.  This may not lead anywhere, but I enjoy the time I put in.

On a more practical level, I have to ensure that whatever I do continues to pay the mortgage and keeps the kids fed&clothed (the little blighters keep growing after all!).  This is a problem (for everyone else as well, I am sure!) because I know what my earnings power is in my current career/roles, and would almost certainly find it difficult to replicate if I moved outside of my field.

I think a potential solution may be for me to try and enter more IT-related roles within the accountancy field as a first step, which would hopefully make any transition to a fully IT-centric role easier (and who knows, I may decide that I love my debits and credits so much that I don't want to leave 'em behind!).

Richard


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## SydneyGeek (Sep 21, 2006)

Hi Richard, 

Good to hear that you have a bit of breathing space before decision time -- at least that way they don't get made for you!

Once a bean counter, always a bean counter, but like you said there are a lot of combined finance / IT roles out there. Somebody else said, at least one specific and one generic skill keeps you employable. 

I'm also looking at expanding my skills a bit. Starting to look at VSTO, the new .NET way of writing for Office, but that's down the road a bit. At least one of the C variants (C#) works in with VSTO, so some understanding of the language structure would be useful for me too... Also some XML because that seems to be becoming a de facto data standard. 

Cheers
Denis


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## gwkenny (Oct 4, 2006)

> Mark, consultancy of some kind is certainly a possible future career option - a little way down the line though, I think.  I feel I could do with more hands on experience and deeper knowledge before I consider going that route.



Then in another post...



> but the systems implemented by the IT people for the accountants are downright crappy, because there's been no-one who combined both sets of skills



I hate to break it to you, but if I had to make a bet, I'd bet that you have what it takes to be a consultant (and I've seen so many poor consultants, you couldn't do any worse!!!!).

Question I think that is important and that has already been asked, what do YOU want to do?

Personally, I think you need to move out of the "accountancy" framework.  Leverage that for your next "career" move, but one doesn't generally make a good deal of money in "accountancy" (6 figures plus).  If you consult leveraging off your accountancy skills, then it's possible to make a nice bit of dough.  There are so many things you could do from IT/accounting integration/reporting....   Purchasing analysis, backoffice operations workflow...

The thing is, IT people in general are a dime a dozen.  People who know how to implement and use IT for productive purposes are few and far between.

In any event, you've got things well in hand.  You have a good expectation of your short term future and you are setting yourself up for a transition, I think whatever you do you'll be okay, just don't sell yourself short!!!


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## Richard Schollar (Oct 4, 2006)

Hi G 



> but one doesn't generally make a good deal of money in "accountancy" (6 figures plus)



What?! Hell, I already do!!! - It's just that it's in Turkish Lira 

I agree with you that being able to combine the accountancy with the IT skills is where I would best apply myself - and you're right, it's amazing how often you find great IT people/systems with potential and great accountants, but becuase the two don't come together, the full potential isn't realised.

I have a plan (kinda) now, and I'm happy to go with it.  

Thank you (and everyone else) for your thoughs/advice.  It's been very useful.

Richard


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