The 'average' excel user

[boris_excel]

Hello,

This is my first post on mrexcel.com after lurking for months. This site has provided great information!

I am a recruiting manager for an electronics company and I am often asked by my managers to hire someone with at least an 'average' knowledge of excel. I have often debated the definition of 'average' with my managers and I was curious what people on this board think. Does the average user know pivot tables? or vlookup? how about recording a macro?

I know the average changes among job functions. Finance and accounting tend to have heavier excel users but most people use excel in one way or another.


thanks,

B

 

[Cbrine]

Boris,
My view on the 'Average User' would most likely be someone who can do a vlookup, at least knows what a pivot table is, but would most likely only be aware of macro's as a recorded key stoke maker, versus actual VBA programming. Someone with this level of knowledge is going to be middle of the road when it comes to excel.

HTH
Cal

PS- Welcome to the board!!!

 

[Mark O'Brien]

In my opinion, the average user can open Excel and type data into a cells. They may be aware of some functions like SUM and DATE. That's about it.

My view is based up on the fact that millions of people "use" Excel, but not many people really know how to use it effectively.

You probably want someone that has above average knowledge of Excel. (or if they need to know how to use Pivottables or any of that other junk, tell them what you need)

 

[Andrew Fergus]

I had an interview with a recruitment manager last week and his definition of a 'power' user was someone who could do a vlookup and a pivot table in Excel. Now I can do that but I don't consider myself to be a power user of Excel. In reply to your question I consider those skills to be 'average'. But I also agree with Mark that the average user might not know how to do those things given we (i.e. the general populace, not the Excel gurus you see on this forum) only use 10% or less of the available functionality within Excel (and 10% our brains, but that's just my opinion!)
Andrew

 

[RichardS]

Mark,

Pivottables are junk. That's an interesting observation.

Richard

 

[Norie]

In the last job I had working directly with Excel they thought that the person
who recorded a macro, pasted the generated code to a worksheet,
distributed that worksheet,
with instructions of how to paste it back into the VBA editor, was an expert.

And no it wasn't me.

Also in that job I encountered a creature called a 'Business Analyst'.

He liked his coffee that guy, and I found out why.

After he left (or was sacked-never found out), I was handed some of his work to take a look at.

7 A4 pages of code to do what could be accomplished with a few simple COUNTIFs,
and that code took >3 hours to run, hence the time for coffee.

I imported the data into Access, set up appropriate queries in about 5 minutes and after running the queries had the answers in seconds.

By the way I'm in no way boasting, this guy was getting paid about £500 a day,
I was on £7.50 an hour.

 

[Richard Schollar]

In my own experience, I would say that Pivot Tables were pretty much restricted to above average users, but this needs to be tempered by the situation at hand (like you have already mentioned): in my area of finance, pivot tables are common place and virtually everybody uses/has used them (not to their full utility i would hasten to add however). I think knowledge of SUMIF (in non-financial situations) marks somebody out as above average. Using VLOOKUP is the "average".

Before I joined the department where I now work, their idea of a serious power user was someone who could record a macro for refreshing query tables and printing off data sheets!

Richard

I was on £7.50 an hour

Norie, I'm sure you were worth every penny :wink:

 

[LySeRGinator]

I don't think the ability of an Excel user is strictly limited to within the application.

Along with the basic knowledge of the different functions etc. an effective user must also hold some knowledge of relational database theory and lateral thinking, in terms of what is possible and what is not possible given what you have to work with. Identifying limitations of data sources, as well as an understanding of what may be lacking and hence blocking the end deliverable, together with the knowledge to apply it all to Excel using functions, is in my view an effective user of Excel. ANd I'd also add that an average user of Excel should be an effective user of Excel.

 

[Cbrine]

LySeRginator,
Some good points. My knowledge touches on everything from Excel, to MSacces, to SQL Server, VB, VBA, AS400, to setting up software, etc.... If I didn't have most of my other knowledge, I wouldn't be anywhere near as effective. I know when to use Excel, or when to use Access or when to use SQL server.

Norie,
I'm a Business Analyst, so they are not all idiots, there is hope!(Are they paying you the £500 yet!!)

Pivot tables are great for people that don't know how to use sumproduct and array formula's!! I find them very constraining. You MUST do it this way, I like the flexibility of building my own summaries. Although, if it's a big summary, the pivot's are going to be pretty quick. I also like the drill down options in a pivot.

Cal

 

[Norie]

Cal

I've only met a couple of BA's.

One was this guy I mentioned - getting £500 a day to drink coffee.

The other was a friend of a friend who when asked what he actually did
acted as though he worked for the secret service and if he told you he would
have to kill you..

I'm sure they're not all bad.