Post: #1

Does anyone here know any kind of advanced excel training to move someone up to the next level? I have a pretty decent understanding of pivot tables, vlookups, etc. but I want to be an expert in Excel. I want to be able save a lot of time doing reports using tricks.

What kind of excel training would you suggest for anyone in an Analyst type of position that runs reports on Excel all day? What kind of positions can you leverage those Excel skills into that will make you a lot of money? I'm entry level currently, but I want to be able to make 6 figures doing Excel work in the future.

Post: #2

(05-19-2016 07:24 PM)Iso Wrote:  What kind of excel training would you suggest for anyone in an Analyst type of position that runs reports on Excel all day?

Start with Excel VBA to make your job easier. After that do as little in Excel as possible.

(05-19-2016 07:24 PM)Iso Wrote:  I'm entry level currently, but I want to be able to make 6 figures doing Excel work in the future.

Look for another tool if you want $100K. Like SAS or SAP.

The question you want to ask is how to move from the analyst desk to the front office.

Post: #3

I need some real basic training and it sounds like you are the guys to give it to me.

I am a self taught (I did take a class but that was around 1998) Excel expert.

Do you pronounce Vlookup just like its spelled or do you say VEE Lookup????

I've always wondered. Please help me.

Aloha!

Post: #4

(05-19-2016 08:11 PM)Kona Wrote:  I need some real basic training and it sounds like you are the guys to give it to me.

I am a self taught (I did take a class but that was around 1998) Excel expert.

Do you pronounce Vlookup just like its spelled or do you say VEE Lookup????

I've always wondered. Please help me.

Aloha!

I've always said VEE lookup. Same with "H" lookup.

Post: #5

Like said earlier, try learning Visual basic, functions, iterations. This will help you automate some stuff behind the scene and look like child play. Macros are good to know for automation but VB kinda makes it more solid and more in depth.

Otherwise, once you know excel being a data formatting application, you might want to learn more into data generation and handling like


SQL. SQL is where you build the data you want, if it's not built yet the way you want it. Then you can link that data into pivot tables and charts.

But like it's said before, you want to know excel in order to build something so that you don't need to build anything anymore. You want it fully automated from data generation to end result

Lastly, what makes you get a higher pay is what decision you make from the data, not the way it is generated.

Post: #6

I agree with everything above.

You want to learn VBA and aim for "click free programming". Excel, while a good program, can fuck you in the ass so quickly the only thing that will tell you it happened is a sore rectum and a pink slip. I've spent 10 years of my professional life (not by choice) wrestling that program to the ground. I still have to know when to give it a swift kick in the head to behave.

You need to learn the excel VBA/.NET object model in order to truly master it. If you have access to Visual Studio and your IT dept hasn't fucked it up (good luck w/that), learn VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) as well for Visual Basic.NET and C#.

The best place to start are with Walkenback's Excel VBA books and Mr. Excel's books (all of them - seriously).

As well, start now to branch away from Excel. While SAS (as mentioned above) is a good choice, it's fucking expensive - they own Cary, NC (C.A.R.Y. - Containment Area for Relocated Yankees) in the same way Robber Barons owned factory towns in the late 1800s. Learn R. It's FREE. 100% free unless your dealing with huge data sets. Plus, SQL Server 2016 is going to integrate R with R revolutions in it. If you make the effort to get an inside track on mastering it and prove your worth, 6 figures may not be unrealistic. However, learning SQL and how relational databases work will be a must.

"Lastly, what makes you get a higher pay is what decision you make from the data, not the way it is generated. " - Someone please etch this in stone into a mountainside. You need to know multi-variable calculus based probability theory. Check out NetMath for U of Ill. if you don't have that. They do an amazing job of getting you there.

Post: #7

If you want a good intermediate Excel course, check out WallStreetPrep or BreakignInto Wall Street.

Those guys are finance oriented, but there aren't many people better at building spreadsheet models than bankers.


By the way I also have to point out that "making six figures with excel" is a pipe dream. The people who make six figures with Excel are corporate finance experts(to include professional services firms and investment banks), investment analysis/research, Big 4 Accountants, data analysts, marketing consultants, etc. Typically you get to these jobs with a BBA or an MBA, although a lot of lateral hires happen. In absolutely none of those cases are you getting paid for your proficiency with Excel and it's quite common to be hired with no Excel skills and expected to pick it up more or less on the job. As an inexperienced hire (directly out of undergrad or lateraling in from an unrelated position pre-MBA) they're not glamorous jobs. You get paid well, but for the most part your job is to shut the fuck up and run the analysis that you're told to run. You do it for obnoxious bosses, for long hours, and you are expected to do it all with a shit eating grin.

What you are getting paid for is your ability to understand the businesses that you're working with and your sales skills. Where Excel comes in is as a tool to allow you to run more advanced analysis.

For example, let's say that you're a corporate credit analyst and you need to decide whether to issue commercial paper to a small, regional bank. Where Excel comes in is that you can use it to build an operating model for the bank, create several operating scenarios, and figure out whether they will be able to pay back the loan in five years given current operating trends and regulatory requirements. A well constructed model would then allow you to run multiple scenario analysis to determine what results would cause them to default, and run a monte-carlo simulation to figure out how likely a default is.

You're NOT getting paid for your "excel work", you're getting paid for analyzing their credit well. You could be the best Excel wizard in the world and still be a complete failure at that job because you can't be bothered to understand the bank's business strategy and position....leading you to make shitty assumptions that render the rest of your work meaningless.

Post: #8

I wrote previously on a related note.

I'd suggest you learn how to do index + match and learn shortcuts so you can do almost anything day-to-day in Excel with just your keyboard. If you have a slow day, put the mouse to the side and start hitting alt, then the key shortcuts for whatever you need. That's how you get fast.

Once you can do that stuff, you can start looking at VBA to speed up repetitive stuff, do scenario analysis en masse, etc...

The days of being able to make 6 figures as just an Excel monkey (without kill yourself hours in investment banking) are long in the past. It's commoditized. You can get a couple of one-off macros written by online freelancers for $XX.

Data sets are a magnitude bigger these days, and Excel can't handle hardcore modeling...it really is not a good tool for more than 10,000 data points, especially if lots of formulas are involved. That being said, there's still a lot you can do with it if you're doing day-to-day stuff.

I'll also echo what others said - you need to understand what the numbers mean and why they matter, and more importantly, explain them. With being a tech whiz comes the risk of being pigeonholed.

Your real career progression is 1) learn it in and out as a differentiator, 2) use those skills to get noticed and then promoted, 3) get fresh out-of-school monkeys to whom you'll throw the work 4) read the analysis that's given to you (and know when it's way off) 5) make money with it.

See my other post here, a selection is below. /thread-54303...pid1242918

Quote:Statistics and t-tests? Excel.
Pivot tables to break down and analyze complex data sets? Excel.
Scenario and sensitivity analysis? Excel.
Solver for best-fit formula? Excel.
Trace formulas through your entire model to understand assumptions? Excel.
Charts and graphs? Excel.
Automation of repetitive tasks you perform with your data? Excel (VBA).

What you can't do well in Excel is one-to-many lookups (example, types of plane tickets - economy, business, first class) and BIG data sets (it starts having issues over 100k rows). For that - look at MS Access and SQL. That gets you up to 3 million rows or so, and you can link it to an Excel pivot table for others to use.

Post: #9

There are numerous high quality free online tutorials, examples, source code snippets, demos and even videos to learn Excel (or any other language)

Just focus on a set of skills (automation, reporting etc) and jump in by building your own and looking up everything on the net.