I will be starting a consulting gig within 1 month and I need to master excel before going in. Are there any online courses that provide complete training with interactive worksheets and lots of data to actually practice?
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How do I master excel within a few weeks?
Overview of answers
Hi,
You need to learn the following:
Basics
- Fast excel - throw away your mouse and put some tape on your touchpad. Do everything with your keyboard!
- The main formulas (especially vlookup, column, etc)
- Pivot tables
- Nice formating
- Modeling - you need at least to know how to structure your sheets (Inputs, outputs, sources, versions, etc)
Advanced skills include:
- Financial modeling (making proforma statement)
- Valuation of projects / companies
The best offline courses are Training the street.
Best!
Wallstreet prep is probably the best. To "excel" however, you will need to work on a project and actually creat models: just going through a course will never replace hands on experience.
Is one month enough time? Absolutely! Good luck, happy learning
Dear A,
Congratulations to your offer!
It would be helpful for you to learn the business-focused Excel features.
In business, about 80% of your work will come from 20% of the functionality of the Microsoft Excel.
The core skills of a competent business Excel user are something like:
- Formatting & basic formulas
- Mouse-free Excel navigation
- Vlookups & conditional statements
- Data analysis - filtering, sorting, and analyzing data
- Data visualization - tables, charts, and dual axis charts
- What-if-analysis
- Pivot tables
If you can do these things, you’ll outperform 95% of people in the workplace.
To learn these concepts, you could:
- Learn the concepts online for free
- Take an online course
If you’re looking for something free, I’d recommend Googling & Youtube-ing those topics on my list. Tons of free material online. On Udemy you can also find some courses.
If you’re short on time, take a short business-focused online course.
I’d recommend the following business-focused course focused on mastering the 20% of functions that make up 80% of Excel work.
Best,
André
Hi!
Super recommended that you do a refreshment on the basics, any in the internet will do.
Cheers!