What do you do for a living?

[Got.Twelve]

I'm thinking about a career change. Since I enjoy Excel so much, I am wondering what careers are out there where I could use Excel primarily. I've been made fun of for creating a spreadsheet "for everything!" So I figure I may as well make money doing something that I think is interesting. I know there are some pretty hardcore Excel gurus on here, so any ideas you can give me on possible jobs would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Chitosunday]

Accounting is the closest since it is a spreadsheet but you need to graduate first as Accountant. For IT, you need to specialize on other applications as the possibility of hiring you as excel guru is remote unless you have special skills in other application like Visual basic, power builders, SAPP oracles ,etc. Excel is usuallly just an add-in skills for IT because is hardly being used as large database which access will definitely be more promising than excel.

 

[Got.Twelve]

Chitosunday, thanks for the input. I've already been considering going back to graduate school, so thanks for giving me some things to think about.

 

[Cbrine]

Got.Twelve,
The position I currently am residing in, is as an HRIS Systems Analyst. I do a lot of Access releated work, as well as using excel as a reporting tool. The more advanced functionality of Excel, I use mostly for automation of large tasks, like our merit process, bonus payouts. The position involves a lot more then just Microsoft products though, so an overall comfort level with using new software is required. Payroll Systems, SQL, VB, HRIS, project management, etc..

Good luck.

 

[The Tamer]

Got.Twelve,

Being an international man of mystery, I can't really tell you what I do otherwise the mystery element wouldn’t be there.

You can use Excel for lots of things. You may think only for number stuff - but no... Sonny Bop created a macro that actually helps answer the more difficult questions in life such as:

Why are we here?
Where are we going?
Why do you get full on starters when you just paid a whole load of money for three courses?

So, I reckon if you could run a macro that will bring about world peace, you’d be on to a winner.

Or you get ideas by typing '"Microsoft excel" vacancies' in google and see what comes up. I just checked, and as long as you include speech marks in your search criteria, you'll get a fair bit of info.

 

[dboman]

i'm a research analyst

excel is just a tool, like a hammer. you need to be good at it to do your job well, but just knowing how to use it well dosn't make you good at your job.

 

[Juan Pablo González]

excel is just a tool, like a hammer. you need to be good at it to do your job well, but just knowing how to use it well dosn't make you good at your job.

It does for me...

 

[terracotta]

I'm an accountant and into quality management and IT as well. Life's great if hours of work are cut down to seconds by using VBA. I haven't explored the idea of doing say, Excel related consultancy full time but I may think of doing just that when I want a change of career.

 

[AndrewAK]

Got Twelve:

I work Shipping & Receiving for a national Auto-Parts supplier. I constantly am faced with part numbers, reference numbers, project numbers and work-order numbers. I'm currently working on an Excel spreadsheet that collects information from a user and places that information into a named sheet. I've been able to tap the recourses of the web and found a way to print the sheets. I hope to make the record keeping of some of the things I do more organize, legible and accurate. This is the first time that I've been able to perform a real-time test of my Excel VBA application. Good Luck!!

 

[santeria]

I finally got back to doing IT support work.
Of course, I landed a slack as hell Govt job. It's great when people call in and you can both access the server, as well as work through specific issues... i.e. its not what you know, its what resources you have at your command that help a lot.
We work over 20-30 states in the US, and the local staff who look after servers are as logical as a slug. On the principle that a server, or server array is as logical as the administrator, you might conclude that the system/network is a mess.
Anyway, people call in for help on thin and thick client setups, and the biggest skill is being systematic about the problem. The biggest problem is how hamstrung you can get by lack of access to basic systems. You get the most advanced geniuses who can get the application to do almost anything, but because they can't think simply, they can't see the wood for the trees.
Most of the best users are all professional number crunchers... the tool is the application. They can get to the end result with a pencil and pad the same way they can with Excel, Access, or something else ( SAP, in the case of auditors ), and so when RFID technology comes through to provide data sources of all kinds, its the people who can think, rather than the people who can ONLY use their skill in an application that will survive.

The number of overqualified idiots, who can get the certifications(memory), but who can't think, and, possibly even worse, have no ethics whatsoever, are the ones who have the top positions, and are currently causing massive problems in the businesses, and the positions that look after the data sources.

Anyways, I enjoy tech support, but support per se, with a basic hand holding function, goes only so far ... the scarey part is seeing what passes for the invisible people behind the economic disaster, and how the people who think they know IT and other technology issues are triumphing over the people who do know.
The best job seems to be a lobbyist. Low overheads ... lots of underhand payments ( or is that under the counter ?? )