I am starting my MBB internship early next year. Before I start, I want to practice Excel. I know the most used commands, but I would like to practice on “real” data, not just passively read/watch videos.
Are there any Excel tutorials where you get tasks in actual Excel files? Eg. you have a lot of data in one sheet, and you are to create one specific graph or extract some information from the graph.
Hi there,
Congrats on the offer and starting soon!
You might find the lessons here useful: https://www.guru99.com/excel-tutorials.html They're structured along the main sort of operations you'd need to use in consulting and they have sample databases that you can practice on. There is plenty of material there to keep you busy for a couple of weeks.
However, while it's important to practice and it will surely make your life easier once you get started, you will be provided will all the training you need. So it might be worth also to enjoy the time you have until then.
Best,
Cristian
Hi there,
NYC Open Data is an awesome resource with real data sets (used by all kinds of data analytics training programs): https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/
Also, a quick google search will pop up hundreds of practice datasets for you!
Kubicle is used by several consulting companies to train new joiners with “actual” excel files. It is a paid subscription service however for personal use. Hope it helps!
(edited)
You can find many open data sources (World Bank, American cities, etc) and you can implement there what you see in videos on YouTube.
Beyond learning functions, it is equally important to learn to structure your “model” and have a clear mind on what to do.
Learning functions and implementing them is really basic, a great consultant should focus on modeling. Connected to that, my suggestion is to learn to create three financial statements from scratch. It may be even more than what is required in 90% of the projects, but it is an invaluable source of learning.
