We all have come across that Excel icon staring back at us on our desktops (or docks if you’re a Mac user) and wondered whether we’d ever be able to put it to good use. As we advance further toward a new technological revolution, data becomes more important than ever before. Excel is the lens through which we analyze and use that data to the best of our abilities!
Today, Excel is far more than just a spreadsheet tool. It’s a friend you can lean back on whenever you feel the need to present reliable findings and analyze a bunch of data that would be meaningless in its raw form.
Excel’s handy shortcuts can quicken your pace and simplify how you study data. It can even open new doors for you in your career. Whether you’re a business analyst, an accountant, a marketer for one of the many brands out there, or an entrepreneur, working on those Excel skills can take you from “good enough” to exceptional.
Here’s how you can begin perfecting those skills;
How Excel Mastery Can Boost Your Career
Stand Out by Using Formulas, Functions, and Shortcuts
Formulas are what Excel users depend on to conduct much of their data analytics. They are also primarily used to save time instead of resorting to many hours spent on manual work. If you want to increase your productivity you can benefit from learning and mastering some key functions.
These include VLOOKUP, INDEX MATCH, SUMIF, and IFERROR. Functions like this allow you to automate your calculations, go through large datasets, analyze them, and make better decisions in less time. They also help you clean up that data and delete errors so you can study only the data that is meaningful to you.
Getting a hold of these formulas earlier on in your career can help you become the go-to person for data analytics in your organization. Be it the field of finance, marketing, or project and client management, the ability to analyze multifaceted data allows you to stand apart from others and highlights your problem-solving and critical thinking abilities.
Another skill that can help you stand out is learning data validation. Data validation is a skill that allows you to ensure the data you add to your spreadsheet meets certain criteria. This reduces the number of errors in your raw data. It is quite useful when you are working across teams and sharing a lot of data.
Polish Presentation Skills Through Visual Data
Raw data is helpful for sure, but it is much easier to show your boss how well your company is doing or whether your idea is taking off through visual data. Visual data is most commonly known as pie charts and bar graphs. Understanding how to choose the right chart for your data and bring together various kinds of data through pivot charts or Power BI is a great asset.
As you learn how to present data and make impactful statistics stand out in the form of charts, you start to stand out in meetings. You can even use these reports in your data analysis portfolio to present to potential employers in the future as you apply for better opportunities.
Excel’s What-If Analysis tools are also a great help. These include Goal Seek and Scenario Manager which allow you to create models based on different scenarios and predict outcomes of business decisions. If you are considering creating a predictive financial report for the higher-ups, this is a great skill to learn. It helps in planning budgets and forecasts before the idea launch.
Pro Tip: Before you begin presenting that data through charts you might want to learn more about data cleaning, sorting, and filtering which transforms raw data into one that can be easily analyzed!
Save Time by Using Macros for Automation
Macros in Excel can help you automate tasks that you would otherwise have to repeat each time you need to perform them. Within Excel, you can record a series of actions and play them back whenever necessary. This is an excellent way to simplify the creation of reports or data entry.
Automation doesn’t just save time for you. It gives you that much-needed edge in any work environment that demands competitive skills.
The age of technology hasn’t just changed the way people conduct their business and competition in the business environment. It has also revolutionized how people work. As people get more access to free courses and the wealth of knowledge Google gives access to, it is much easier for them to polish their skills to get a leg up!
By reducing the time you spend on your tasks you can also focus on such investments in your own skills to ensure you’re a much more valuable asset to the team.
Additionally, functions like VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and INDEX allow you to search for and retrieve data if you are working with larger datasets frequently. You can impress your potential employer by learning how to retrieve data much faster than if you were to do it manually. Be it a role in finance, supply chain, or customer service, this Excel skill is a great one to have.
It’s a Great Add-On to Your Resume
One of the reasons Excel skills are so much in demand is because they’re a great add-on to your resume. If you have certifications for Excel data analytics, it shows potential employers that if they rely on you to crunch numbers, they can’t go wrong!
It isn’t that difficult to get started with Excel. In fact, many online resources for Excel exist, completely free of cost, which you can use to add to your knowledge of Excel.
Once you are done acquiring Excel skills and gaining that much-needed prowess, you may wonder how you can come across jobs that are a great fit for your skills. Higher Hire is a great platform that you can use to look for jobs that are the perfect fit for you!
Final Thoughts
Excel is much more than just a tool people use to add data when they’re at work. It has multiple uses, both as a skill on your resume and when you’re already employed, hoping to gain a promotion.
Excel skills can give you the competitive edge you need to progress when it comes to your career. These skills help you work faster, adopt critical thinking abilities, and make better decisions! So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get started.
