Excel Your Life

College students – it is in your best interest to become proficient in Microsoft Excel.

It will be one of the most important hard skills you will carry on your resume particular if you are majoring in business, economics, accounting or finance. This blog post puts a strong emphasis on Excel and why it is important in your life and career.

Why Excel? Because it helps you build structure and organization in different aspects of your life. It is easy to learn and is essential in today’s workplace. By having this skill, it sends a message to your employer that you can convert data; create analysis, visuals to assists in analyzing information, trends, and accessing information. Excel can be used to help business planning as well – it will accommodate and allocate your resources for you and help track business progression.

By learning how to do these things, you are already a valuable asset to your future employer. It really helps you display skills that many of your peers might not have acquired in university.

As an undergrad at the University of Washington, it seems as though Excel has been neglected in high school and lacks a strong presence in college courses. I am lucky that I picked it up as a member of the Microsoft Apprentice program was when I actively learned and used Excel in my job daily. It quickly became critical tool in my toolbox that I continue to develop. My message is directly towards college students – we are almost entering the workforce and are immediately concerned with internships and post college life. By showing your employer that you can effectively communicate data into structure and presentable data – you are golden.

Teachers – how will you integrate this hard skill into your high school or university curriculum?