Has your Excel knowledge helped your career?

[Big Monkey]

I started out knowing zero about true Excel usage in early 2005. I mean like I was asking my boss how to use the find/replace feature.

After a while I put my mind to learning all about it and came to this board after watching an episode of G4TV from Mr. Excel plugging his site.

I have to say it's the best thing I've done career wise ....ever I think.

I'm now one of the most, if not the most, knowledgable Excel users in my department of about 100+ users and created various applications to help everyone.

I'm wondering just how far what I know can take me? Are there any real career paths that I can look for that focus heavy on Excel based application development.

Just to clarify, I am no where near where I want to be. I still use this board a lot to learn new ways of doing things, troubleshooting, and to find solutions.

Still though, I don't want to waste what I've learned in a position that really doesn't take advantage of my newly found skills. To that end, I don't know where to start looking.

Has Excel VBA been a stepping stone to other forms of programming for anyone?

Could anyone share their experiences and advice for a relative beginner in the field of Application Development?

I seriously enjoy making applications for users. I get a real thrill out of seeing my work being used.

I hope to see some good stories

 

[steve case]

Oh yes, making a new toy for someone to use is a great ego booster. I have to say that most if not all of the little files I've made for people have some feature that wouldn't work if I hadn't asked how here at Mr. Excel.

 

[ExcelChampion]

There are disciplines that rely heavily on Excel...Accounting and Data Analyst positions jump to my mind. As well, you could do Excel consulting full time or on the side. I work full time as a Marketing Analyst and have created a very sophisticated application for analyzing pricing structures. I have also created several applications for downloading info from competitor websites, item lookups, etc. As well, I have begun consulting and to my surprise it is very lucrative. However, given that health insurance is incredibly expensive, I don't plan to quit my day job any time soon.

One caveat...consulting on the side means working 12 to 16 hours/day (if you take the jobs that come to you). It is a lot of work when you already work full time. But as you said, it is very rewarding to help others succeed.

 

[Richard Schollar]

I have developed a few spreadsheets to assist with the reporting processes in my Financial Accounts team (I am from an accounting background). It has certainly helped in this respect. If anyone in my team has an Excel (and indeed Access - altho I'm not entirely sure why this would be the case!) related issue, I am usually the first port of call to find out what the problem is. However, in my particular field, I would say that my abilities within accounting itself are primary - the Excel is only really a useful add on. I don't do a great deal with Excel these days (only by way of answering posts on the board) as my job doesn't demand that of me at the moment. Which is a shame - because I really enjoy creating solutions in Excel.

 

[TinaP]

I work in a bank. I get called on daily as the Excel guru and my Excel knowledge doesn't come close to many of the posters here. I don't know how much I've furthered my career, but I have received raises based on the spreadsheets I've developed. In other words, my Excel knowledge benefits me now, but I'm not sure how marketable I'd be in another situation.

This forum is invaluable. Just this evening I created a worksheet in about an hour that would have taken weeks before I started hanging out here.

 

[SydneyGeek]

Definitely. It gave me a new career -- moved from working in science to working as an Excel consultant.

Common link? I love to solve problems. Both careers give me that, but the consulting pays better.

Denis

 

[MarkAndrews]

Absolutely! In many ways, from the simple things, right the way through to the very complex

This site is fantastic too! I am learning new things everytime i visit or post a problem

Mark

 

[litrelord]

I got the job I'm in now because the guy who did it before recommended me when he was leaving. He recommended me because I'd helped him out a few times with formulas etc so it helped me in that sense.

As a standalone skill it's not always worth that much but if you're interested in working with data in excel then you could build on that with access and SQL skills and move into a role that uses all of those.

Otherwise, as you say, use VBA as a stepping stone and start trying out some other languages and see how you get on. HTML is easy enough and if you then learn javascript that would be handy to move into web design. Javascript is apparently close in syntax to PHP as well so if you had HTML, Javascript, PHP and SQL experience/skills then it would be good.

Or move more towards C and C# and look to making real standalone applications. There's good money to be made as a contracted programmer even if the work isn't guaranteed it usually makes up for it and a lot of projects are reasonably long term anyway.

those are my thoughts anyway.

Nick

 

[Lewiy]

I've only been in my current job (accounting based) for about 6 months but have already established myself as the point of call for Excel related queries. I have developed a couple of applications for the office with more in the pipeline and have found it very rewarding.

With regard to VBA, one thing that most modern/high level programming languages have in common are the "concepts" of writing programs, e.g. Looping procedures, sorting methods, etc. so in that respect, VBA can definately be used as a stepping stone. I only had very basic experience in Pascal & Delphi from college, but the concepts I picked up from the theory side helped me slip into VBA reasonably easily.

 

[ExcelChampion]

As a standalone skill it's not always worth that much

If I had a glove, I'd slap you with it. Now, good day sir!