Sir, I need your advice (everybody is welcome) regarding expertise in excel

[ThrottleWorks]

Sir my work involves excel, about 99 % of work is in excel. I have brought lot of changes in the work. I did this with help of automations & formulas.


My problem is after the initial challenges were completed I am stuck. Now I do not have more assignments on which I can improvise & this is not helping me to improve my skill set.


What will you advice me to increase my knowledge base. I tried practicing on things which I do or I want to learn but without real challenges this becomes really difficult & it also does not give sense of achievement.


One more thing is the kind of problems or challenges I faced or will be facing are of same nature. This does not grow my horizon. Every problem is pretty much same.


Another thing is I am a commerce student & do not have theoretical knowledge of VB whatever little I know about VB is through your forum, with help from friends, & trial & error base. I can not understand the terms used by experts about VB.


What will be your advice to me on these points, sorry for the long post, anybody who can advice me thing or two is really welcome.


I am really hopeful (sure) that I will get definite direction on this forum only.

 

[Hui]

Sachinbizboy


Practical use of Excel is by far the best way to learn Excel


If work isn't providing the stimulus you could try asking staff in different departments what repetitive type problems they have and could lend to being streamlined or simplified.


Are you a member of any sporting clubs, school committees etc, lots of them need help with finance, scoring or records management


Of course there are a number of Excel Forums on the web where you get lots of questions posted

Even if a question is answered try it yourself and then compare answers

There are many ways to answer questions in Excel and your way may even be better than the posted answer


Read about formulas, especially the lookup formulas of v/hlookup, index, match, offset as well sumproduct and then research advanced filters and data tables, these will all form the basis of any serious models you construct and you need to know them inside out

Research the trig, stats, finance etc functions as your requirements dictate

 

[NARAYANK991]

Hi Sachin ,


My comments are not really comments , but more in the nature of a dialogue.


You say that you have done as much as you could have ; this can mean that either your present position / job , or your present company may be restricting you.


Secondly , you say that you are a Commerce student , whereas in your present job , 99 % of your job is using Excel.


You need to decide whether you would prefer to continue your career in Commerce / Finance , or you would like to shift to IT or IT-related jobs ; it is not likely that if you continue in Commerce related activities that either your present company or any other company that you may move to , will allow you the freedom to work in Excel 99 % of the time. So , over a period of time , if you continue in Commerce , the advantage that you have built up by your knowledge of Excel , may or may not be so visible.


If you do shift to IT or IT-related activities , then your learning will have to expand to topics other than Excel ; you need to decide whether you can cope with this ; learning in the IT sector is a life-long matter , since every day brings advances.


If you are happy with your present company , your boss , and your present working environment , then it may be worthwhile to talk to as many senior people as possible , and let them know that you have a certain expertise in Excel , which is being used for the benefit of the organization , and you are keen to extend this so that in the long run , you become a specialist in this area , so that your services can be drawn upon by the entire organization. For this , you will have to get to know more about the operations and problems of the various departments that are using Excel , in their own manner , which you can probably improve , if you are given a chance.


Once you have decided your career path , then , there are innumerable ways to increase your knowledge , not just of Excel , but of any other subject. The Internet today is an invaluable resource for anyone to increase knowledge , since there are tutorials , forums , special interest groups for almost any subject under the sun.


Learning VBA is a simple matter , if you are willing to invest the time and effort to go through books by experts. Check out these links :


1. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Excel-VBA-Books/lm/3P9T4WT9MA29P


2. http://superuser.com/questions/160455/good-books-for-learning-excel-vba


3. http://www.excelforum.com/excel-general/685260-great-beginners-book-for-vba-in-excel.html


4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Programming-Absolute-Beginner-Beginners/dp/1931841047


Narayan

 

[ThrottleWorks]

Hi Hui Sir & Narayan Sir, thanks very much for guiding me & understanding my problem, I will definately implement the suggestions in my working.


Have a nice day & thanks once again.

 

[Hui]

Sachinbizboy

I have said this repeatedly, I have learnt more about Excel by helping out here than I ever will at work
This is purely from the different [problems that are presented, the various/strange data formats that people use and the fantastic solutions that everyone posts here to assist solving the problems.

Dive In.