When control-v seems too obvious...
December 6, 2011 12:54 PM Subscribe
Excel skills required for a particular job… I'm not sure what they are asking for.
My Excel skills would probably be considered in the intermediate range. I can set up a spreadsheet, make it look pretty, use formulas at a very basic level, enter data, add comments, etc. A job I am planning to apply for lists this among its requirements:
"Skilled in use of Microsoft Excel, specifically, ability to understand algebraic formulas and paste links."
The position is an administrative position in equipment sales, presumably doing all the paperwork related to the sale. What might the above mean in light of this?
Obviously I know how to copy and paste like any normal person who has ever heard of a computer, so I assume “paste links” must mean something else?
Are there particular algebraic formulas used in Excel for sales-related stuff, or do I just need to know the stuff I learned in business math class?
Also, do you know of any good books or online resources where I could brush up on these skills very quickly? I’m not sure what exactly to Google for, and I have to pass an Excel test before I will even be granted an interview.
My Excel skills would probably be considered in the intermediate range. I can set up a spreadsheet, make it look pretty, use formulas at a very basic level, enter data, add comments, etc. A job I am planning to apply for lists this among its requirements:
"Skilled in use of Microsoft Excel, specifically, ability to understand algebraic formulas and paste links."
The position is an administrative position in equipment sales, presumably doing all the paperwork related to the sale. What might the above mean in light of this?
Obviously I know how to copy and paste like any normal person who has ever heard of a computer, so I assume “paste links” must mean something else?
Are there particular algebraic formulas used in Excel for sales-related stuff, or do I just need to know the stuff I learned in business math class?
Also, do you know of any good books or online resources where I could brush up on these skills very quickly? I’m not sure what exactly to Google for, and I have to pass an Excel test before I will even be granted an interview.
Google either of these terms you get loads of hits. Suggest you do some light reading to allow you to see where your actual gaps are - only then can you work out what you might need to brush up on.
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:10 PM on December 6, 2011
posted by koahiatamadl at 1:10 PM on December 6, 2011
Link cells from one spreadsheet or worksheet to another? That's very easy - you can look it up as "link cells excel". But I didn't know how to do it until I needed it.
posted by Frowner at 1:11 PM on December 6, 2011
posted by Frowner at 1:11 PM on December 6, 2011
Oh - and for brushing up - you could check out the Excel training on Microsoft's site (that's for the 2007 version). I would recommend practicing writing formulas, and one thing that's always good to know is the difference between absolute and relative cell references, esp. when it comes to copying and pasting formulas into other cells. Here's a YouTube tutorial.
posted by beyond_pink at 1:14 PM on December 6, 2011
posted by beyond_pink at 1:14 PM on December 6, 2011
Obviously I know how to copy and paste like any normal person who has ever heard of a computer,
Use (and abuse) of a spreadsheet is a couple of notches above normal person in the real world.
My guess is their workflow is based on an intricate arrangement of excel spreadsheets, and they want to make sure you will be able to handle it. For example, they may be using one spreadsheet to calculate sales totals, using formulas and links to get input data like prices out of some other huge-ass workbook of available items. Since a spreadsheet is pretty freeform (compared to, say, an actual database or dedicated application) getting someone on the team who can't figure their way around it can mess things up for everybody.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:28 PM on December 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Use (and abuse) of a spreadsheet is a couple of notches above normal person in the real world.
My guess is their workflow is based on an intricate arrangement of excel spreadsheets, and they want to make sure you will be able to handle it. For example, they may be using one spreadsheet to calculate sales totals, using formulas and links to get input data like prices out of some other huge-ass workbook of available items. Since a spreadsheet is pretty freeform (compared to, say, an actual database or dedicated application) getting someone on the team who can't figure their way around it can mess things up for everybody.
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:28 PM on December 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes, this sounds like they want you to be able to write and edit formulas which refer to other cells. Eg "=sum(A1:A500)/12", or "=AVERAGE(A1:A23)" or stuff. Nice thing is that Excel help generally shows you how to do formulas - that's how I learned averaging, medians, min and maxes - and even correlation.
As for the links, if they don't mean hyperlinks to webpages (which would be a silly thing to put in a spreadsheet), I assume they mean links to other sheets within a workbook. This is very easy to do - for just bringing the value one cell to another sheet, you type "=" and then click on the cell you want on the other sheet, and the sheetname and cellnumber will be inserted. Same goes for formulas - if you want Sheet1.A1-Sheet2.A1, you type "=" then click on Sheet1.A1, type "-" then click on Sheet2.A1, and you will get a formula that look like this "=Sheet1.A1-Sheet2.A1", without you having to type in the whole name of the sheet.
The next level after this is vertical lookups - where you can say, "look at the value in [a given cell], then look at this other list, find me that value and give me back the value two cells over." This is really useful when you have multiple tables that rely on each other's information, but you want to be free to resort the data (which would break a simple link).
I learned a lot about formulas by taking existing complex spreadsheets and reading the formulas - they work just like algebra (A1+(B6*B5)). Someone showed me how to do vertical lookups, but after the first few times it was pretty simple. The best thing is that when you start typing in a formula, the program itself prompts you as to what it wants with a little pop-up. I would never remember the exact formatting otherwise (where commas go, etc).
After vlookups, I suppose the next level is pivot tables - which are impressive, but I haven't found a use for yet. I'll learn them when I need to.
posted by jb at 1:45 PM on December 6, 2011
As for the links, if they don't mean hyperlinks to webpages (which would be a silly thing to put in a spreadsheet), I assume they mean links to other sheets within a workbook. This is very easy to do - for just bringing the value one cell to another sheet, you type "=" and then click on the cell you want on the other sheet, and the sheetname and cellnumber will be inserted. Same goes for formulas - if you want Sheet1.A1-Sheet2.A1, you type "=" then click on Sheet1.A1, type "-" then click on Sheet2.A1, and you will get a formula that look like this "=Sheet1.A1-Sheet2.A1", without you having to type in the whole name of the sheet.
The next level after this is vertical lookups - where you can say, "look at the value in [a given cell], then look at this other list, find me that value and give me back the value two cells over." This is really useful when you have multiple tables that rely on each other's information, but you want to be free to resort the data (which would break a simple link).
I learned a lot about formulas by taking existing complex spreadsheets and reading the formulas - they work just like algebra (A1+(B6*B5)). Someone showed me how to do vertical lookups, but after the first few times it was pretty simple. The best thing is that when you start typing in a formula, the program itself prompts you as to what it wants with a little pop-up. I would never remember the exact formatting otherwise (where commas go, etc).
After vlookups, I suppose the next level is pivot tables - which are impressive, but I haven't found a use for yet. I'll learn them when I need to.
posted by jb at 1:45 PM on December 6, 2011
Oh - you can also make links to cells in other workbooks, but I never do this (too paranoid the link will be broken).
posted by jb at 1:46 PM on December 6, 2011
posted by jb at 1:46 PM on December 6, 2011
I think you should buy (or check out from the library) a basic manual for Excel and spend a weekend or two going through it. None of it is rocket science, but Excel is definitely one of those things where 80% of what people use is something like 20% of its functionality, and it's *really* easy to overestimate how Excel-savvy you are. If I were judging you, this set of skills:
I can set up a spreadsheet, make it look pretty, use formulas at a very basic level, enter data, add comments, etc.
would not be considered intermediate, it's much closer to basic/beginner. Intermediate is knowing how to create complicated or nested formulas, do VLOOKUP or similar lookup functions to pull data from other sheets and workbooks, maybe familiarity with array formulas. Advanced is getting into things like PivotTables, PivotCharts, and writing your own macros in Visual Basic.
If you're comfortable with basic Excel then it won't be at all hard for you to figure out your skills gap and learn new stuff with a $25 manual (they're honestly more readable than you think). I think this is a lot better than online, because you can quickly scan through entire sections to double-check you know all the stuff in them but slow down and carefully read the sections that are new material--online materials in general are less well-organized, comprehensive, and easy to skim. I've read through The Missing Manual book and I thought it was at a good level, not as simple as you'd give someone that was totally clueless about computers but not as advanced as you'd give somebody who is already working as a programmer.
posted by iminurmefi at 2:44 PM on December 6, 2011
I can set up a spreadsheet, make it look pretty, use formulas at a very basic level, enter data, add comments, etc.
would not be considered intermediate, it's much closer to basic/beginner. Intermediate is knowing how to create complicated or nested formulas, do VLOOKUP or similar lookup functions to pull data from other sheets and workbooks, maybe familiarity with array formulas. Advanced is getting into things like PivotTables, PivotCharts, and writing your own macros in Visual Basic.
If you're comfortable with basic Excel then it won't be at all hard for you to figure out your skills gap and learn new stuff with a $25 manual (they're honestly more readable than you think). I think this is a lot better than online, because you can quickly scan through entire sections to double-check you know all the stuff in them but slow down and carefully read the sections that are new material--online materials in general are less well-organized, comprehensive, and easy to skim. I've read through The Missing Manual book and I thought it was at a good level, not as simple as you'd give someone that was totally clueless about computers but not as advanced as you'd give somebody who is already working as a programmer.
posted by iminurmefi at 2:44 PM on December 6, 2011
"Skilled in Excel" is usually code for "I am not afraid of computers, math and logic."
You really have to talk to them about what the job entails, it could be anything... they could require the Admin to do a full analytics role (since the Admin already has spreadsheets tracking actual sales, we might as well let them do forecasting too right?) which would require significant Excel knowledge, or it could be a straight out-and-out admin role in making sure customers know how to use the ordering forms which calculates, oh you bought 4 pieces of equipment at $50 each so that's $200 now add 10% sales tax and depending on your postcode I will calculate your freight at $30.
But yes, from your description of Excel skills I would rate you as a beginner.
Intermediate users would be versed in all standard Excel formulas and tricks, including Pivot-Tables and Chart creation, conditional formulas and logic, matrix formulas.
Advanced users would be doing stuff generally outside the scope of what Excel normally does - be happy writing code and macros in VBScript and hooking Excel into external data-sources and database queries to get additional processing power and storage.
posted by xdvesper at 5:35 PM on December 6, 2011
You really have to talk to them about what the job entails, it could be anything... they could require the Admin to do a full analytics role (since the Admin already has spreadsheets tracking actual sales, we might as well let them do forecasting too right?) which would require significant Excel knowledge, or it could be a straight out-and-out admin role in making sure customers know how to use the ordering forms which calculates, oh you bought 4 pieces of equipment at $50 each so that's $200 now add 10% sales tax and depending on your postcode I will calculate your freight at $30.
But yes, from your description of Excel skills I would rate you as a beginner.
Intermediate users would be versed in all standard Excel formulas and tricks, including Pivot-Tables and Chart creation, conditional formulas and logic, matrix formulas.
Advanced users would be doing stuff generally outside the scope of what Excel normally does - be happy writing code and macros in VBScript and hooking Excel into external data-sources and database queries to get additional processing power and storage.
posted by xdvesper at 5:35 PM on December 6, 2011
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posted by beyond_pink at 1:10 PM on December 6, 2011