How to become a pro in Excel ?

[jackdan]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this site...I need your kind advice....I have a little basic working experience in MS Excel like data sorting, Freeze windows, basic calculations,etc...

I want to become an expert in MS Excel...Can you please tell me is there a good career in MS Excel ? Is there any scope for growth as an MIS executive ? Is there any online course, book or CD which teaches Excel related MIS tasks ?

Currently I am not in a stable job..so was thinking about becoming expert in MS Excel to secure a long term career...

Guys please help a beginner in Excel like me ..

Thanks,
JD

 

[jackdan]

Not a single reply from anybody ??!?!?!?!!

 

[xenou]

Excel and Access are useful tools in many jobs but overall its often part of a wider span of competence - financial analysis, operations management, accounting, engineering or science, bookkeeping, and so on. My belief is that it's a big plus to be "intermediate to advanced" in Excel but it's not in itself a career (for most of us) - but if you can bring your talent plus your excel skill to the job interview you are of course in better shape (I see many job adverts that list knowledge of Office software and it's definitely something that is desireable). As far as where to learn - best is to take something you're doing at work or home already and try out new ideas for making it better. With real motivation and desire (e.g, entrepreneurial ability) I think you could aim for creating office solutions with Office programming or .NET tools.

Some tips on learning Excel recently posted:
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=543017

 

[Expiry]

I concur with xenou's post. to give it some context, I work for a Bank, in the Finance department. I'm not an accountant and never have been, I've never even worked in the finance industry or a finance department before this role and yet I'm the Excel expert for the company. Not because I'm so amazing, just that everyone else isn't.

Obviosuly these people have other skills that have got them to where they are.

So, if you decided that a career in Finance was for you and you had some sort of Finance expertise, like my colleagues AND you were an Excel 'expert' like me, then you'd be king of the world. Well, this small world that I'm in, anyway.

 

[jackdan]

Thanks guys for your helpful tips !!!
have done research on some good bboks on Excel (like to have a book by side while practising it on laptop )...
I have narrowed down to these 2 books :
1).Microsoft Excel 2007 Inside Out by Mark Dodge & Craig Stinson.
2).Formulas and Functions :- Microsoft Excel 2007 by Paul McFedries.

I have chosen the 2007 edition as I have 2007 Excel in my laptop & the market which I assumed is still using the 2007 Excel.

Again thanks for your tips.

Regards,
Jack Dan

 

[Derek Brown]

I would also recommend watching the MrExcel podcasts at:
http://learnmrexcel.wordpress.com/
or you can search YouTube.com for "MrExcel" to see the older podcasts.
There are also LiveLessons DVDs available at the MrExcel store or Amazon, but first check the content list to make sure it is what you want.

 

[Expiry]

I would also say that, in my experience, most of the market is still on 2003.

I suspect most of us will upgrade, at work, to 2007 around 2020.

 

[RoryA]

An increasing number of firms, from what I've been hearing, intend to skip 2007 and move to 2010 directly due to 2007's notoriety (comparable to Vista). The firm I work for are planning a switch to Win7/Off2010 this year, which surprised me when I first hear it as they are not usually cutting edge...

 

[condimentman]

Certainly this is the case with my firm - while the interface is noticeably different for Office 2010 it is apparently better for massive networks. The IT guys were not at all keen on 2007 or Vista as you mention.

 

[leigao84]

Being good at Excel is not a career! Rather you should have a career in things like analytics, finance, data mining, data processing, or report building with being good at Excel as one of the tools that helps you advance. Or you become an Office Programmer that programs in VB, .Net, and VBA.
Excel isn't intrisincly difficult (like SAS or even OLAP Cubes) and it takes me about three weeks to teach a new grad things like VLOOKUPS, INDEX, IFERROR, virtues of R1C1, OFFSET, basic pivotTable, data import, remove duplicates, etc.
The only difficult part is the VBA programming, either you can do loops and functions in your sleep or you can't, and VBA programming is so situational that by itself is not really a marketable skill. You're much better off learning specialized fields like networking or database to get in to IT.


PS after working with 2007 & 2010 I'll NEVER go back to 2003, EVER!