How can I improve my excel modeling skills as a consultant?

Hi there,

You have a few options here:

1. Learn on the job
2. Ask your colleagues
3. Do the online/internal trainings
4. Find online tutorials/trainings (there are a million)
5. “Create” you own training by playing around with a big dataset or modelling our your own scenario

Are you a current or aspiring consultant? Once you join any firm, they will generally provide you with plenty of training (most of it on the job but also good formal training for Excel or other modeling software, depending on firm).

Really not sure at all what you're after because there's no such thing as an M&A model and a profitability model is literally 3 cells if you want to keep it simple.

If what you're saying is that you have no clue how to use excel in the first place, then I can point you in the direction of some resources. However, that would seem a little odd considering your career choice.

You will have trainings available at your consulting firm. You should do them, and when building a model, ask for the help of a more senior colleague.

If you are thinking about practicing this before hand, don't do it. You will be waisting your time because you will learn better and faster when in consulting (and whatever you learn now won't really make the difference).

Hi there,

you will learn it as you go, but some practical tips:

1. Ensure you know excel well (functions beyond sum.if and pivot tables, formatting, etc.)

2. Your excel must be clean and clear, with instructions, proper structure, unified color coding and formatting, assumptions well defined and stated, each column having a proper description, etc. → if you leave the case now and you have to handover your model, it must be ready to use by someone else immediately

3. Practice

4. Observe

Lucie

Was this answer helpful?

Do your company's excel trainings.

Reach out to more senior consultant in your firm/office to show you some of their favorite models, shortcuts, etc.

Search the web for model examples.

For me it's mostly about layout, design, structure (at least on the front end) than sophisticated formulars (depending on the case).

Best

Stephan

Hi,

Speaking from experience, the most practical way is to actually get yourself staffed on cases that require you to do excel.

Beyond knowing the standard functions, the nuances of each case cannot be predicted and you will always be faced with new situations/problems in excel. 

If you are already on the job, there is no way that you will have time to take a training on excel that will allow you to spend as much time and effort on it versus an actual project. 

Last but not least, I would get hold of your firm's internal guidelines for excel formatting and keep that handy.

All the best!

Hello!

Once you have started, there are a million of great and expensive internal resources you can leverage if you have time, I would 100% recommend that

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara