# CV/Resume advice



## Akashwani

Good day to you all.

I am in search of some advice. 
How do I describe (my very limited) Excel skills on a CV/Resume?  
I know I'm not at a beginner level, and I'm most definitely not advanced, so where on the Excel ladder of knowledge am I?
I'm leaning towards describing my Excel "skills" as.... A working knowledge of Excel. If there are any employers/managers amongst you and you had a vacancy for that required someone with Excel knowledge or proficient in Excel , what do you mean by that?

Any and all replies are welcome.

Thanks

Ak


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## Jon von der Heyden

When rating yourself in terms of your Excel skills for a CV, use a rating that represents your skills compared with the skills of those you will be surrounded by.  Don't rate yourself against the members of this forum; it is not fairly representative.

If Excel is an important skill for any job you are applying for do then elaborate.  I used to use keywords:


Microsoft Excel: Expert (array formula, pivot tables, charts, VBA)


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## Richard Schollar

Jon von der Heyden said:


> Microsoft Excel: Expert (array formula, pivot tables, charts, VBA)



Did anyone ever fall for it when you claimed to be an 'expert' Jon?


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## Jon von der Heyden

You did you dunce!


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## diddi

i think that if you are confident enough to contribute in a forum stacked with professionals that have tens of thousands of posts, then you are in the top (very small)% of people in the world that have any idea of excel, and quite probably, you know considerably more than those with whom you are seeking employment.

perhaps rather than rate yourself which is often a very difficult thing to do, you might give examples of some of the projects you have implemented:

"I have designed spreadsheets to manage budgets and banking"
"I have an interest in using excel vba to interact with the internet"
"I enjoy creating user interfaces in excel to simplify how customers enter data"
"I have been working on a long term project using excel to generate quizzes"
"I am an active member of a highly subscribed internet excel programming forum with nearly 200,000 members"
"I have a cartoon avatar "

etc...


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## taurean

I think this section of forum has quicker archival time than the rest.

There are some good inputs by some of the board experts:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=556801


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## diddi

yes i remember that thread...  quite constructive.  and yes i have noticed before that threads seem to slip under the cushions quickly here in the lounge.


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## Akashwani

Hi,
Well thanks for the comments so far, they have given me cause to rethink my Excel opinion of myself! 

I'm not applying for any jobs that require Excel skills, it's just that I think I should mention it on my CV/Resume, as most, if not all employers use Excel to some degree and who knows there may be an opportunity besides the one I apply for and they just didn't realise it 


The link provided by taurean was very helpful and it's a shame that threads in the lounge disappear.

Diddi the points you make have made me re evaluate how I should explain my "skills" in an interview situation, thanks. 

Based on my current employer, excluding someone in finance who can write VBA, I am probably the expert on site and I drive a forklift 

In brief these are formulas I am confident in using...
Vlookup, If, And, Or, Index/Match, Sumif(s), Countif(s), I also know how to combine multiple formulas and use &

I can use Sort, Filters, Data Validation, Conditional Formatting.

Limited with Charts, Tables, Pivot tables.

VBA, I understand what I need it to do, but not how to write it!!

I am competent in producing spreadsheets that people require 
By that, I mean, if someone says can you make it do xyz, then with the help of this forum and Mike at ExcelIsFun I have been able to achieve this.

Thanks and I look forward to further comments.

Ak


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## diddi

your list of areas of expertise is exactly oposite to mine.  i never even bother to look at questions about CountIf etc because i am completely inept in that area, but when it comes to userforms, vba and strange interfaces and high end mathematical modelling ill usually have a look.  so if i had a software company, you would be a useful addition because you compliment the skills of others. too bad, im just an interested party, with no software company.


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## Darren Bartrup

Akashwani said:


> Hi,
> In brief these are formulas I am confident in using...
> Vlookup, If, And, Or, Index/Match, Sumif(s), Countif(s), I also know how to combine multiple formulas and use &
> 
> I can use Sort, Filters, Data Validation, Conditional Formatting.



Well, that beats most people in an office environment.  

I have seen in offices people printing spreadsheets out so they can type the figures into the next spreadsheet, or getting calculators out so they can type the correct figure into Excel....


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## Expiry

I agree with the first post on this. It's all relative.

I remember someone asking a woman I worked with for advice on Powerpoint. He asked her if she was a Powerpoint expert, to which she claimed "yes". I know for a fact that I knew more about Powerpoint than she did, but I wouldn't have claimed to be an expert. Nevertheless, the question that was asked didn't need an expert to answer it, just a basic understanding. She solved his problem and he walked away happy and her 'Expert' status was reinforced.


Remember this:

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King".


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## diddi

yes i had an interesting laugh to self, when at one workplace at which i have an excel app with userforms installed, a new employee stated that

"if this was done in excel i could fix it for you"


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## taurean

diddi said:


> yes i had an interesting laugh to self, when at one workplace at which i have an excel app with userforms installed, a new employee stated that
> 
> "if this was done in excel i could fix it for you"


People with =REPT("Very ",100)&"Deep Understanding" of the subject can say that


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