# What constitutes an “Excel Power User”?



## Lewiy

So, let’s say I’m going for a new job.  I need to update my CV/Resume, I need to explain to my prospective employer just how much I know about Excel.

Now, everyone puts down “yeah, I’m a high-level user of all Microsoft products, etc, etc...” even if they’re not, so that’s not good enough.  But would I be justified in using the term “power user”?

Is there actually an official definition for this term or is it just a phrase that’s cropped up in the Excel community to make us all feel superior??!!!


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## QuietRiot

well, the job I applied for and got they were looking for excel "superstars"

and I had no idea what they wanted. During the phone part of the interview they asked me if I've ever used the following: Vlookup, named ranges, ABS, charts/tables.. lol.. i was like wtf. Anyway I ended up getting a physical interview and they stopped with the excel questions. That turned into a 2nd interview and eventually me getting the job. During the interview I had some sample projects with screen shots of all the VBA work I did at my last job. Turns out the job doesn't even use VBA that much if at all. A lot of SQL and embedding though.

Honestly I think poweruser will draw some nice attention. I wouldn't/couldn't use it but you could pull it off. It would also force the interviewer to question it which can lead to a more in depth discussion of it.

For the most part companies are probably looking for Proficient in Excel.. or intermediate to advanced. Advanced Excel Skills. etc.


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## lenze

Aaron Blood has a nice "User Scale" here
http://www.xl-logic.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1

lenze


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## MorganO

Aaron comment on an Excel Expert:



> Most likely, a disturbed individual who spends too much time thinking about spreadsheets.



made me laugh out loud and woke up my cubicle mate!

I don't think I am yet in that illustrious category, but I have been know to dream about cells...!


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## alphadown

Hm, mostly intermediate for me, though I do use Offset a bit, and use some obscure formulas in creative (IMO) ways, but I've never written or recorded macros.

What about people who have dreams which include excel?
 :/


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## hatman

> Aaron Blood has a nice "User Scale" here
> http://www.xl-logic.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=1
> 
> lenze



Thanx for referencing that Lenze.  I would have pointed it out out if you hadn't.  Aaron pretty much nails it, though to be honest Lewiy, the people reading your resume would not have clue what the breakdown is.  The trick is to impress the HR people enough to get to a Techie... someone in IT *might* have a clue.  Though, to be honest, if a company has a person that understands the nuances of Excel expertise, they don't need a second.  The trick is to impress the people who do NOT have a clue.  And I've seen enough of your posts around that you can justify the term "Power User" or "Excel Expert", and either are impressive enough to get noticed.  Here is the excerpt from my last Resume:



> COMPUTER EXPERIENCE:
> 
> Visual Manufacturing
> Algor R12+
> AutoCad 2002
> Ideas Master Series
> Pro-Engineer
> ANSI-C
> Visual Studio 6.0
> Maple V
> MS Office Suite (Excel Expert)
> VBA for MS Office
> MS Access



It got noticed... several of the engineering managers who interviewed me simply said "It would be nice to have someone who REALLY knows how to do stuff with Excel".  They didn't know what questions to ask, but they recognized that I might be an asset...


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## PaddyD

Point them to your contributions here - one of the top excel forums on the planet - and to this thread where people who should know have confirmed that you are indeed a 'power user' / at least 'advanced' on Aaron's scale.


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## ExcelChampion

Personally, some simple language will say it all:

"I can perform sinlge and multi conditional counting and summing; advanced lookups using VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, as well as the more dynamic INDEX/MATCH combination; I know how to create dynamic ranges that adjust automatically for growing/shrinking data sets...etc..."

As well, be sure to mention that you know how to create and manipulate dynamic pivot tables (dynamic in the sense of a 'dynamic range'.


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## Lewiy

Thanks guys, it’s nice to get some re-assurance!!  That’s a really interesting user scale.  Although it’s fairly basic in it’s explanations, I’ve never seen user ability broken down like that for Excel before so one becomes blissfully unaware just how far up the scale one might be.

Before joining the board back in January this year, I was certainly in the low end of the “Intermediate” category so all credit goes to the community for my continuing development!!

Thanks again


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## hatman

> Aaron comment on an Excel Expert:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Most likely, a disturbed individual who spends too much time thinking about spreadsheets.
Click to expand...


I read this to my wife last night, after I posted, and she looked long and hard at me, and said "I don't know *anyone* who fits that category."  I mean, really, is it abnormal when your wife asks you to build an Excel Spreadsheet to lay out Quilting Designs?


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## MarkAndrews

Most of the people in my office can perform the basic functions, a few can use Vlookup (Only because they have been shown) if I throw anything else into the mix they are puzzled, eg Hlookup, Sumif, Offset, Indirect, Sumproduct, match,  If incorporating ISERROR, ISBLANK etc

I find it amusing as some of them are quite bigheaded with the vlookup thing, especially on the phone to colleagues and other companies

I like to think that I know my stuff, but the fact is that I am forever evolving with my excel skills, more so now with the more VBA work I’m doing


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## TinaP

I checked out Aaron's user scale and, frankly, I think there are too few classifications.

Sub-Novice:  Thinks they know Excel.  Cannot write a formula to save their life.  When given a list of numbers, will add them on the adding machine and enter the sum at the bottom of the list of numbers.  (I've seen this happen.)

Advanced Intermediate:  Knows array formulas exist, but needs the Conditional Sum addin to create one.  Knows one website to visit for help.  Knows what they don't know but wants to learn.

Sub-Expert:  Knows several websites to visit for help as well as who the regulars are and those who are experts in different fields.  Builds simple addins.  Can look at a worksheet or macro, figure out what the original designer's intent was, and fix it since others have overwritten the formulas.  Knows how to protect the worksheet so formulas won't get overwritten again, yet the worksheet remains usable.  Every business needs a sub-expert, but few truly have them.


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## ExcelChampion

I guess what I was driving at was don't use labels like "Expert" or "power user", but instead, tell them, in plain English, what you can do with Excel.  That way, it is clearly defined and not up for interpretation.


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## hatman

> I guess what I was driving at was don't use labels like "Expert" or "power user", but instead, tell them, in plain English, what you can do with Excel.  That way, it is clearly defined and not up for interpretation.



Though that is often not vey easily or well done on a Resume.  Perhaps in a cover letter, or a Curriculum Vitae... but typically Resumes are better received when brief.


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## Lewiy

> I find it amusing as some of them are quite bigheaded with the vlookup thing, especially on the phone to colleagues and other companies



It’s incredible how dangerous a little VLOOKUP knowledge can be to the uninitiated!!  Granted, it was the first step I took towards realising the real power of Excel, however, it does seem to make people suddenly think that they are experts!!

I had a temp come in at work the other week to help me out with some backlog stuff.  I gave her a spreadsheet to do a bit of analysis on and before I’d even explained fully what I wanted her to do, I was hit with “Could we do a VLOOKUP here?”.  The tone of her voice was definitely one of “I’m trying to impress you here and I’m hoping that by using the word VLOOKUP I might confuse you”.  As if!!  I proceeded to create a simple Pivot Table and that wiped the smile off her face.  I’m not normally one for shunning anyone who shows a genuine interest in learning Excel and I’m more than willing to help.  But when people start to get arrogant about it, I think they do have to be put in their place.


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## ExcelChampion

> I guess what I was driving at was don't use labels like "Expert" or "power user", but instead, tell them, in plain English, what you can do with Excel.  That way, it is clearly defined and not up for interpretation.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Though that is often not vey easily or well done on a Resume.  Perhaps in a cover letter, or a Curriculum Vitae... but typically Resumes are better received when brief.
Click to expand...


But I would think defining your skills in the resume (which is what a resume is for) is better than saying you're an "Expert" and then directing the reader to a website to read up on what constitutes an "Expert".  That's all I'm saying.

My opinion, clearly define your skills...that is what will make you stand out.  If it takes a little extra room or an extra page, then so be it.  A potential employer, though busy, I'm sure, is wiling to read your entire resume if he/she finds it intriguing from the start.


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## Greg Truby

> ...when people start to get arrogant about it, I think they do have to be put in their place...
> ~Lewiy


Just an observation from an ol' timer... generally speakin' it's better to be real nice 'bout that sorta thing.  Make sure you don't forget to keep _your_ ego in check.  I am *by far* our most skilled Exceler.  And yet, Excel is such a large, complex and robust product that I certainly do not know every nook and cranny.  There have been two occasions where coworkers who don't know 5% of what I know about Excel, have shown me something I'd not seen before.  And there have been many times that someone here that has maybe a hundred - or maybe just a dozen - posts to his (or her) credit, mentions something that I've not seen before (not frequently, but often enough to keep me humble).

And yeah, I agree w/ Todd.  Try to give a specific or two about your level of Excel ability.  Remember, the resumé's job is *not* to get you the job.  The resumé's mission is to get (a) demonstrate that you meet enough of the qualifications to get past HR and into the hands of the person hiring and (b) prompt the person hiring to call you so you can take it from there.


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## hatman

> And yeah, I agree w/ Todd.  Try to give a specific or two about your level of Excel ability.  Remember, the resumé's job is *not* to get you the job.  The resumé's mission is to get (a) demonstrate that you meet enough of the qualifications to get past HR and into the hands of the person hiring and (b) prompt the person hiring to call you so you can take it from there.



True, and yet it's a fine line to walk.  Too verbose, and the person reading it might be inclined to file in the Trash Folder... too little, and you have undersold yourself, or failed to communicate your level of expertise.  I suppose it also depends upon what your selling point is, and I failed to make that distinction in my earlier post.

If you are looking to fill a position where Excel usage is the main crux of the job function, then by all means, MOST of your resume should be focussed on your abilities there.  The flip side is someone who has Excel skills in his back pocket, but is applying for a completely different job.  Take my Resume, for example: as a degreed MEchanical Engineer, my resume focusses on those skills, however, I also happen to (believe that I) have sufficient Excel Skills to mention them on my resume... but to focus on them too heavily detracts from my main skill focus.  That's why I choose a breif mention, which may or may not get noticed.  When I get in-house, that's when I blow my boss's hat off whith the tools I can build for the department/company... usually in my copious amounts of free time when I am not performing my primary job function.


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## TinaP

> Just an observation from an ol' timer... generally speakin' it's better to be real nice 'bout that sorta thing.  Make sure you don't forget to keep _your_ ego in check.  I am *by far* our most skilled Exceler.  And yet, Excel is such a large, complex and robust product that I certainly do not know every nook and cranny.  There have been two occasions where coworkers who don't know 5% of what I know about Excel, have shown me something I'd not seen before.  And there have been many times that someone here that has maybe a hundred - or maybe just a dozen - posts to his (or her) credit, mentions something that I've not seen before (not frequently, but often enough to keep me humble).



Amen to that!  I visit the forums and learn more every day.


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## Lewiy

> Just an observation from an ol' timer... generally speakin' it's better to be real nice 'bout that sorta thing. Make sure you don't forget to keep your ego in check.



Don’t get me wrong, I’m not _that_ kinda guy.  Like I said, I’m more than willing to help people out and increase their knowledge of Excel (I wish I’d had someone on hand when I was learning – other than the board of course!).  Obviously I don’t want to be _too_ good a teacher or else I might have some competition 

It’s just that some people are far too big for their boots.  I have no problem if someone of lesser ability wants to learn more, but if they think they already know it all (and I don’t think there’s many people around that even come close) then sometimes it can take a reality check to get them thinking.  If this subsequently sparks a desire for knowledge, then we are all winners.  I’ve been there, I thought I was pretty much on top of most things that Excel could do until I started to find problems which I thought must have a simple solution but I couldn’t solve them.  And I hate it when I can’t do something, it’s very frustrating.  I was at this stage I knew I needed more help and that’s where MrExcel came in......


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## MarkAndrews

> I find it amusing as some of them are quite bigheaded with the vlookup thing, especially on the phone to colleagues and other companies
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It’s incredible how dangerous a little VLOOKUP knowledge can be to the uninitiated!!  Granted, it was the first step I took towards realising the real power of Excel, however, it does seem to make people suddenly think that they are experts!!
> 
> I had a temp come in at work the other week to help me out with some backlog stuff.  I gave her a spreadsheet to do a bit of analysis on and before I’d even explained fully what I wanted her to do, I was hit with “Could we do a VLOOKUP here?”.  The tone of her voice was definitely one of “I’m trying to impress you here and I’m hoping that by using the word VLOOKUP I might confuse you”.  As if!!  I proceeded to create a simple Pivot Table and that wiped the smile off her face.  I’m not normally one for shunning anyone who shows a genuine interest in learning Excel and I’m more than willing to help.  But when people start to get arrogant about it, I think they do have to be put in their place.
Click to expand...


When I read this I laughed till it hurt!

It is so true Lewiy!!

Like you I am more than willing to teach anyone anything about Excel, but it does make me laugh when people try and impress people with certain functions, especially as I tend to find that most of them know about the formula but cant actually do the syntax themselves


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## Boller

A useful question to ascertain a person's "familiarity" with Excel is : "what do you do if there is something you want to do in Excel but don't know how to do it?"

If the answer is that the situation never arises, the person obviously knows nothing about Excel and is doing nothing to change his/her lack of knowledge.

I would give considerable weight to a prospective employee who would do this ad seriatim :-

1. Look in the help file
2. Do a search of MSKB
3. Search the WWB


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## KevH

> I would give considerable weight to a prospective employee who would do this ad seriatim :-
> 
> 1. Look in the help file
> 2. Do a search of MSKB
> 3. Search the WWB



Semi-related to the topic...

Out of curiosity... How would you respond if the prospective employee told you the following?

Google reports MSKB as "MS KnowledgeBase" which caused me to go "duh". Google then reported WWB as "Women's World Banking" which caused me to retry with "WWB excel" and search on MrExcel. I'm punting back to you after seeing "Warehouse Workbench" and nothing respectively. 

:P

Even more semi-related to the topic, thanks to everyone here fo letting me mostly lurk and become less of Novice and more of an Intermediate.


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## NateO

> Now, everyone puts down “yeah, I’m a high-level user of all Microsoft products, etc, etc...” even if they’re not, so that’s not good enough.  But would I be justified in using the term “power user”?


I just put down "I got illz skillz, dawg."  

Actually, looking at my resume, it appears that I have the following:



> Computer skills include familiarity with all Office Applications including expertise with Microsoft Access and advanced expertise with Microsoft Excel


And I attach an Appendix of historical, advanced Excel projects at the end, e.g., interfacing Excel with Lotus Notes, Advanced Web Queries, Forecasting Models, etc... Kind of at a high level, i.e., what was the concept of the project and what was the outcome.

Hmmm, it appears that my Appendix doesn't include any specific mention to "V-Lookups" or "Macros". It looks like I might be selling myself short here...


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## Boller

> Out of curiosity... How would you respond if the prospective employee told you the following?
> 
> Google reports MSKB as "MS KnowledgeBase" which caused me to go "duh". Google then reported WWB as "Women's World Banking" which caused me to retry with "WWB excel" and search on MrExcel. I'm punting back to you after seeing "Warehouse Workbench" and nothing respectively.



Immediate termination of interview. No sense in employing a smart-***.


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## NateO

It's probably better to employ a smart-**** then a dumb-****.   :wink:


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## Boller

> It's probably better to employ a smart-**** then a dumb-****.   :wink:



But much better to employ neither.


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## KevH

> Immediate termination of interview. No sense in employing a smart-****.



Yowza! 

Fair enough, I guess. 

On my way out can you tell me a bit more about "WWB"? All kiding aside I'm really not sure what that is.


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## Greg Truby

I took Boller's reference to simply be a typo, i.e. shoulda been _WWW_ = the _World Wide Web._  Perhaps I misinterpreted and there really is a WWB?  I rather doubt it; but I have been wrong before...


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## barry houdini

> I took Boller's reference to simply be a typo, i.e. shoulda been _WWW_ = the _World Wide Web._  Perhaps I misinterpreted and there really is a WWB?  I rather doubt it; but I have been wrong before...



Isn't it some sort of wrestling organisation.....?


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## Boller

> Isn't it some sort of wrestling organisation.....?



That's ridiculous.

There was a typo. It should have read BWB.

It stand for Birkenpoop's Weekly Bulletin.
I'm surprised nobody's heard of it.


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## Lewiy

BWB.......Blended Wing Body?  Not sure how that would help?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body


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## Patience

> Did you mean: Berkenpas Weekly Bulletin
> 
> 
> 
> 
> No standard web pages containing all your search terms were found.
> 
> Your search - Birkenpoop's Weekly Bulletin - did not match any documents.
> 
> Suggestions:
> Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
> Try different keywords.
> Try more general keywords.
> Try fewer keywords.



Google haven't heard of it either!


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## Boller

> Make sure all words are spelled correctly



Try it without following this instruction.


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## KevH

This post is now the top entry in Google’s return set for either spelling. Since I’m _still_ not sure which spelling or URL is correct can you post a link to the BWB? 

This way we can all be sure we’re reaching the correct reference.

Thanks.


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## Lewiy

Woo Hoo!!  We're top of the Google list.  Now we're just one step away from global domination.........


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