Excel Jobs?

[joefrench]

As an accountant in a manufacturing company I use Excel for about 90% of my job. Being good at it can have it's down side though... everyone at my factory from HR, Quality, Sales, Purchasing & Engineering come to find me when they have a problem.

Not good when you have your own deadlines...

Isn't that the truth!! I have the same problem!

 

[MarkAndrews]

I’ve had various Job’s over the past 9 years<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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When I started working I was using a very basic knowledge of Excel & very basic functions, this later progressed as intrigue took hold & I started self teaching<o></o>
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Predominantly I use other programmes to mine the data, which then gets dumped into excel, this can be either a file, or a query which I then create excel based models from<o></o>
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The way I look at Excel is that it’s a common business application, every company uses it in some shape or form, so I opted to learn more<o></o>
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I was a late starter with VBA, but I am picking up more and more (from this board & friends I have made from here)<o></o>
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Mark<o></o>

 

[eblake]

I started out as an operations manager for a call center managing anywhere between 15-20 agents, I'd never really messed with the VBA part of excel but knew it was powerful. They started giving us spreadsheets that would take hours to complete, so in my spare time I started to automate them, found this board which was a GREAT help to me. Soon I was writing applications that would save the other managers 15-20 hours a week each. (Unfortunately upper management decided we needed more work at that point)

I have moved on and am back to doing web development, I don't get to play with excel as much as i'd like now, but I still come to the board and read everyday, try to help when I can.

As a side note I would like to thank all those great people that helped me , I've mentioned this board to some co-workers and they were worried about asking "dumb" questions, I told them not to be, Just explain what your trying to do, give some examples and above all, use search first. :D

 

[Fazza]

There are many jobs that extensively use Excel.

From my observation "99%" of the users have only very limited knowledge of using the software intelligently.

For those interested in learning how to use Excel at an advanced level there will be unlimited opportunities to apply their skills.

 

[Jon von der Heyden]

I always suggest that Excel is a tool used within a professional environment, not an occupation, unless you are an Excel trainer or Bill Jelen. I have worked alongside many proficient Excel users over the years and found that in order to deliver truly useful and effective products he/she MUST have the subject knowledge and experience, in my environment industry experience is a must.

So... I think it is especially necessary to focus on the commercial skills first and develop your Excel skills in parallel in order to deliver effective models. I may not be especially proficient in Excel, but I strongly believe that the models I construct are nicely tailored for the commercial requirement and such are often more effective than those sometimes developed by my 'guru' colleagues (who I find often over-complicate by constructing endless macro's or use hungry formula simply to consolidate what can be achieved using an ABC stepped approach). Funky, flashing bits and bobs often mask a useless model. Technical make-up is too often all that is required to impress and I have come across many who know that only too well...

I probably spend about 30% of my working day meeting with colleagues to assess their reporting requirements and understand their strategies and advising how to move forward. I then probably spend another 20% of my day isolating (and building) queries and reports from our business applications to determine which report(s) are better suited for the task. Much of this time is actually spent chasing people for content where the data is not available in the business applications. Another 30% dedicated to the development of the model (including testing, testing and more testing)..... and the last remaining time spent on presentations and reviews of my own business areas and projects.

I think this is a good mix, personally I don't think I could afford to spend anymore time on Excel. Being involved in the end-to-end process simply means that I cannot spend all my time working on Excel; and I don't think I could deliver effective models without being involved in the core operation.

 

[klb]

I use Excel extensively as a Risk Analyst in the Risk Management Department of a global manufacturing company. While my title may be Risk Analyst, it could more easily be Data Analyst. Many of my financial and loss summaries are enhanced using the VBA that I have learned on this Board. The requirement of having knowledge of Excel and Access along with a smattering of accounting and insurance is making it difficult for my boss to find a replacement for me when I retire at the end of June. (Not my choice to retire but our department is being moved to Neenah, WI from Minneapolis.) If interested, send me a pm and I will give you a link for more info.
Karen

 

[DauntingGecko]

I work as an Excel developer for specialist Fixed Income company. Its my job to create new tools and methods for traders to use in their every day calculations.

The only issue as with any job, you need to know the data your dealing with. Lots of people can make formulas, etc - but unless you know the definite answer to the problem in the first place you're going to get stuck.

Banks, Hedge Funds, etc heavily rely on spreadsheets as they are used by traders on a perminent basis.

I started off working in IT Support and dabbled around in Excel when I got bored. Then I became a reporting analyst for a bank using Excel 40% of my time. Now I use it 100% of my time. It isn't as great as you think - at times I want to scream if I have to think of another logical process or formula to get things done for what is often the case, people who can't be bothered to research it themselves.

 

[Lewiy]

I use Excel all day every day. My basic job is mainly just data entry into a spreadsheet for a bank, but as a side line (and what ends up taking up most of my day) is creating little applications for other people in the company. I’ve only been in this job since the new year, but it’s amazing how quickly your name will get around from just doing a couple of small things for your colleagues.
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I get people I’ve never met regularly turning up at my desk, saying “I’ve heard you’re good with Excel….can you do this?”.
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I think that, as long as you get in somewhere where there are enough people using Excel daily, you can very quickly develop yourself a role which centres itself around Excel. I’ve managed this very quickly in my last three jobs which were all initially nothing to do with Excel development. As long as you can do things that 90%+ of regular Excel users can do, you will soon become a commodity!!
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Good luck!!

 

[Fazza]

As long as you can do things that 90%+ of regular Excel users can do, you will soon become a commodity!!

For sure that was the brain jumping ahead of the fingers & should be ... that 90%+ of regular Excel users can't do.

 

[Lewiy]

For sure that was the brain jumping ahead of the fingers & should be ... that 90%+ of regular Excel users can't do.

Good call!!! Yes, that's exactly what I meant