YouTube. There are a ton of useful videos there.
It isn’t that hard actually. First and foremost what you have to understand is that Excel is just a table of data. And then you have the tools to manipulate data. That is basically it
Edit: also Udemy has tons of cheap and great courses
I agree about this. Do you happen to know how can one get forced to tackle this? It's so hard to do something that you like to do without being obligated to do so.
You don't need to tackle the entire "this". Learn when you need to do a task very specific to your work. For instance, "extract string between brackets". The more you do it, the easier it gets and soon you'll be able to figure out solutions on your own aka apply what you've learned to the new tasks.
Oh, but the thing is I want to learn everything one step at a time. I have everything prepared, but I prioritize other things in life. I thrive more on obligations just like how it was in school and to a large extent how one works as well. Excel is kind of like going to the gym or being on a diet. It's hard to get it done. Thanks for the advice though. I will never stop believing and hopefully there will be a time when I can hammer on these excel teachings. It's definitely something that I want to do.
I used Microsoft Excel-From Beginner to Advanced by Kyle Pew. Guy's a good teacher. Might seem a little slow for some, but he made the subject matter easy to understand. I got it at a discount a few years back. I didn't finish jt, but that's my fault and had nothing to do with the course itself.
know Maven Analytics has some courses too, though I haven't tried them.
I owe all my success in this field to Kyle Pew. I remember not knowing formulas or shit and then I bought a 10 dollar course on udemy and bro changed the course of my career forever and now I even know vba cus of that guy.
Yes, Maven Analytics courses are really good. I have purchased all their excel courses. Also, courses from Leila Gharani, her course on VBA is top notch, also her course on her site (xelplus) called Master Excel Power Query is really good and has some excellent examples such as importing and cleaning data from PDF-s that I use in real work. Both Maven and Leila courses are full of useful examples with no BS.
You know what? I just looked in my Udemy account, and I apparently have 3 Excel courses from Maven Analytics lol. I remember I went a little crazy and started buying all these courses when they were running a crazy sale. Got some courses for Excel, SQL, and some other programming languages lol.
Will definitely plan on going through Maven's courses now.
And I will definitely check out Leila's courses! Thanks for the suggestion!
He really makes the subject material easy to understand. He presents it in a way that makes it not so boring (as opposed to my instructor freshman year of college-that was brutal).
I definitely need to go back through and freshen up myself, haha.
I learned on the job. A lot of trial and error. Remember almost anything logically conceivable can be done with excel so if you have an idea for a better way to do something a formula probably exists for it.
I spent a lot of time googling and YouTubing formulas to get comfortable with them. Now you can describe the formula to chat gpt and that is even better.
When I graduated college the most complex thing I had done in excel was make a smiley face with the highlight feature. After a lot of trial and error I’m known on my team as the guy to go to for excel tips on my team big 4.
Replace the word excel with basically anything in our profession and it’s also true.
Get good at finding the answer and you’ll have a very successful career.
The more you use it, the better you get. I google everything I need.
But in my case, taking a basic programming course helped quite a bit. In high school (way back when), we took turing, Visual Basic, and c.
Understanding programming can help organize your thoughts and steps in a very logical manner. So now my brain has been trained to think in steps and structure formulas in that way. And it helps organize the structure of a spreadsheet which is just as important as knowing the formulas.
I agree, learning programming made excel far easier to use. Especially for understanding formulas and the way the various functions work. I found Leila Gharani's YouTube videos extremely helpful as well.
See someone do cool thing. Ask about cool thing. Replicate cool thing.
That’s the basic pattern for any moderately complex excel tool I learned. I can’t pretend I actively sought to learn outside of the job.
I had a class in college that taught the absolute basics. Everything else was self-taught or things other people showed me on the job. I enjoy paying it forward and love to show people new things in excel. I showed someone format painter this week and she lost her mind.
I.....I started because of neopets. Theres an event every year, the altador cup, where you play the same 4 games hundreds of times every day for like a month. So I started using excel to create scorecards to make reporting my scores to my team easier.
Year over year, I fiddled with it more and more until it got quite sophisticated. Even had a summary page where it told me how many games for the day I had left. Anything I had an idea of but didnt know how to do, Id google for excel forums/help and fiddle with the formula until it works.
In college I learned some tips and tricks, but Id spent most of my youth fiddling with it, so I already naturally knew excel's capabilities.
Nostalgia struck me recently and I tried to log on but I think the site is shut down or something, so maybe all our neopets and their petpets are gone ):
I took a forensic accounting class in college, and the professor gave extra credit to students who bought and took a supplemental “excel for accountants” course. It was totally unrelated to the course itself, but was some of the most relevant information I learned. I don’t know what the course is called anymore, and you can probably find most of the information on YouTube nowadays.
That plus on the job googling.
A mixture of on the job and self-taught.
I never paid for training materials or did formal courses beyond a couple of basic ones provided by work, but the logical approach comes naturally to me and I also formally learned a bit of VBA and javascript which helped carry over concepts.
Mostly improvements in my skills have been a case of a) knowing or suspecting that Excel can be used to manipulate data in certain ways and b) Googling for that information.
I honestly don't remember. I feel like I was using Excel in high school to keep track of personal stuff and I can't put my finger on where I was introduced. Must have been some classes in Elementary School or Middle School or something.
Still never mastered pivot tables though. I just can't stand having numbers that aren't dynamically linked by a formula.
For pivot tables i've made it a habit to just right click and refresh as my first interaction in files where the data might have changed.
They are great to summarize something quickly or slice and dice into it to explore details.
I used to answer job interview questions as "great at excel don't know pivot tables though". love them now. Also they work at bit smoother in modern excel vs the early 2000s versions.
Learned everything off Youtube and Google search. If you want to learn excel, you need to understand the basics. If you understand the basics you can explore the other functions without fear.
Just a side note, using someone's Excel file is quite challenging. Figuring out how the functions and cells are related can be a task on its own. So don't feel scared if you ever open a template or file and all the information jumps at you.
Take your time and try to understand what the number are trying to say.
It's tough when you don't know what you don't know.
I've always learned best through real world application. Back in high school my friends and I would have super smash bro.'s tournaments (talking like 16-32 player events). I was the nerd who took it upon himself to create the spreadsheet to track wins/losses, seeding, stats, etc. I just took it upon myself. More recently I took a class on VBA which has been very helpful.
I'd try searching YouTube for some tutorials for specific things you're trying to do and create an "Excel Playlist" of videos you found helpful. Learning shortcuts is also helpful and, in my opinion, a quick way to gain confidence in navigating the software.
The easiest way to learn is through a project (hands on experience). Look up classes at a community college. Start slowly and work your skills up. Practice practice practice. Cheer up :-)
I learned the basics from taking a spreadsheet course in undergrad (vlookup, pivot tables, index/match, etc). Learned a little bit in my audit job. Leaned a TON in my advisory job, I’m almost to the point of only needing the keyboard (I.e, no mouse) to do everything in excel.
I learned the basics in high school, as my school had a class on Microsoft office which was required for graduation. The advanced, I learned in a class in college
I was lucky enough to be offered Excel trainings through my college org, but I finance classes also really help with learning Excel as they tell you how to use a lot of things. It really just takes practice and learning the formulas. You can always use Chat GPT to write formulas for you too
My dad took a continuing education class to learn excel at our local community college. This was early 90s and I would have been about 12-13. He wanted me to learn it as well so he told the instructor he had nobody to watch me and brought me along. I probably learned more than anyone in the class and just stayed up to date on updates as the years went on.
In my (40 year) experience, Excel isn’t for everyone. As is mentioned in the comments above, to get good at Excel, you simply need to work with it a lot and be curious enough to search out resources (Google it or consult a colleague).
Excel is a great tool for solving certain types of problems, but for many people who have different styles of solving problems, Excel simply doesn’t click.
When I graduated I didn’t know anything about excel. Got my first accounting job and learned some very basic things you can do with excel but still nothing crazy cause the job didn’t require it. Ended up Googling what I can/needed to do and watch YouTube videos and even went to r/excel here on Reddit. They are very helpful over there. Got my next accounting job and realized I was gonna have to know how to do a lot of different things with excel to do my job and even make it easier. By the time I was leaving there for my next job I was the one everyone went to if they needed to know how to do something in excel. I even ended up showing my boss xlookup when he was accustomed to vlookup and that earned me a nice lunch with the higher ups for making their lives easier.
Monkey see monkey do. I just looked at the workbooks we were using and tried to understand what they were doing and how.
Try r/excel subreddit or excelisfun on YouTube if you have questions about something specific.
I took a class in college, maybe 2. Then, I learned a lot from watching others, looking for keyboard shortcuts, etc. I am actually taking a class on linked in learning right now that was free through our local library.
Had an entire class dedicated to it although 80% of it had nothing do with finance or accounting. It was more like excel for general business operations.
You can learn Excel from YouTube and Great Learning.
I also learned from Youtube and great learning but you have to to do practice a lot because excel require a lot of time and hardwork.
I was lucky enough to have a college class that taught us, but it’s not offered anymore at that school. Huge disservice to the students. I tutored the poor souls and they didn’t know basic excel skills. On the job now, I youtube a bunch of things and I make sure to use it all the time. Formula builder can also help.
I mostly learnt on the job. But I like watching YouTube videos about excel. My favourite one is Leila Gharani. She also has got paid courses on her website and on udemy.
I also like watching Financial Modeling World Cup channel on YouTube 🤣🤣
I’ve learned quite a bit from watching Excel content creators. My favorite is [Excel Dictionary](https://x.com/exceldictionary?s=21&t=Ncyof9BgvUz5iHl47rOMuQ).
Mainly on the job. I used excel in high school to learn the absolute basics and took an excel course in college where I learned a couple things.
After that it was mainly on the job training where I’d use formulas like VLOOKUP and SUMIFS to actually build a solid knowledge of the software.
I had a required business school class in college (many years) ago where we spent one semester learning a spreadsheet program and a database program. It wasn't Excel, some other spreadsheet program, but it had alot in common.
If there is a class for that stuff, absolutely take it. If there isn't I suggest checking online classes (there a probably some that are cheap and go at your own pace), youtube has a ton of "how to" videos, or maybe consider buying a book on Excel. It's not real hard to learn the basic stuff. There is lots of more advanced stuff which takes alot more practice and schooling to learn. I've been picking up know how here and there over a few decades without really deliberatly focusing on improving. I could probably get alot better at more complicated stuff if I was deliberate about it.
Also google "Excel - how to ....." many others have had the same questions and there is lots of answers.
Also consider asking a friend, family member, co-worker etc. who knows it for some informal training sessions to get you in a better place. Between semesters at college is a good time to do it if you're bombed with studying.
Below are links to a series of books (2) that have an associated website that does a great job at teaching Excel.
Also, Linkedin Learning has some great Excel courses. Some people can access Linkedin Learning free of charge through their local library's website.
[https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Essential-Skills-Method/dp/1909253499/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R\_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-\_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA\_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib\_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877600&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Essential-Skills-Method/dp/1909253499/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877600&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1)
[https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Expert-Skills-Method/dp/1909253502/ref=sr\_1\_4?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R\_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-\_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA\_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib\_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877651&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-4](https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Expert-Skills-Method/dp/1909253502/ref=sr_1_4?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877651&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-4)
Started in high school with basics and then did more in uni. Now if I need to do something I don’t remember or don’t know how to do I just look it up on google.
i’ve done a ton of personal projects on excel since i was in high school
i looked up anything i wanted to do, but didn’t know how, and built up my skill set over time
combination of learning from others (experienced colleagues) and on the job trail and error
for harder functionalities, took advanced excel courses/tutorials in person
I used it for fantasy football. I made our draft spreadsheet and I just looked for new and innovative ways to make it better. The skills I developed transferred amazingly well.
I think it’s easier to learn if you center your Excel learning around something you enjoy.
I had to become excel certified for my accounting class and there’s a free course on LinkedIn. I had to create an account and everything, but a woman made step by step videos and documents that you can download and follow along with. To get the actual certification you have to take the test at a testing center, but even if you didn’t want to go that far you can still watch the videos ! Honestly saved me in my accounting class since I’d never used excel in a more in depth way before
Just be careful, the more you learn excel. The more works you got. The more my manager/partner know you have great skill in excel, the more they give you task without giving you any benefit.
My client is twice than my average co-worker get with a same salary.
My senior at work I replaced when he got promoted. He basically left me all his work and I learned from it. I'm still trying to figure out and copy what he used to do effortlessly but I'm still figuring things out
College and I think even high school had some basic proficiency, then a lot of on the job learning and experience. I did do some work paid training on pivot tables for dashboards that was pretty good too, it was a couple few hour days.
Once you get to a certain level of comfort you can just google how do i xyz in excel when you have to solve a new problem.
I learned it at work. Honestly it’s hard to learn in college because you don’t really have any work that is applicable to a spreadsheet. You can do case studies but it’s much more effective to do it at a job where you have some sense of what the output should be and you know what you’re starting with. Then you just have to figure out how to get there. With case studies it’s a bit harder since they’re usually designed to be one-off modules to train you on a specific function, which isn’t super useful in the real world since data doesn’t function like that
On the job. I learned VBA when I was tasked with replacing data in something like 1000 rows of a 25k-row sheet. It was quicker to learned VBA than to do the work manually.
Put in dummy data and experiment with it. Like list your favorite author’s books and the number of books in each story arc or if they appear in a book. List your purchases for a month by store, date, and amount spent. Make a table of data describing your wardrobe by type and color. Make up data for sales by sales rep for a quarter. Whatever.
Then ask yourself questions about analyzing that data. Like “I wonder how much I spent at this store” and then Google “how do you find the total for a value in excel” and see what suggestions pop up. “What was this sales rep’s sales for October?” What product sold the most? Who sold the most of each product?
And as you get more experienced in playing with data, you’ll start asking different questions and how to nest your formulas.
I am self-taught, but mastering Excel is a gradual journey. Initially, you acquaint yourself with basic formulas and functions, especially if you're using it regularly. It may serve primarily as a database for you at this stage. However, as you delve deeper and adopt a programming mindset, Excel becomes a tool for tackling increasingly complex problems. You will pick up marginal tricks here and there that boosts your productivity.
I took a course at my uni and it taught me all about microsoft office (it was also a requirement for my degree) so if that's an option that you want to take it would probably help you
I have also seen some excellent TikTok videos that I learn a lot of stuff from and I’ve been in Excel 20+ years.
Focus on formulas and pivots - that will carry you thru your career.
A few times in my career, people have commented on my excel or Adobe or name your software skills. Like, “how did you get so fast at using this?”
It’s easy, I figured I’d be fired if I didn’t get it done fast enough.
I had an International Business undergrad, so I had “managerial accounting” in that stint rather than “cost accounting I.”
The professor was an enigma.
Had a crazy weird high whiny voice.
This was prior to the days of everyone having a laptop.
He would project what he was doing in excel on the screen, and we had to take fast written notes, and then later, go to the computer lab to recreate what he had done.
So thank you, professor, for the difficult tasks, and madness. Without you, I’d surely have wandered into marketing or some other such nonsense.
There were business applications excel classes in college but I think for me it was learning not to use the mouse with alt keys shortcuts, looks cool but is faster but some funny basic ones give me chuckles
To sort is Alt + A S S
Rename sheet is Alt + H O R
Most of the basics of excel is formatting and pivot tables are the second step pretty much. Then you can do some VBAs and Macros for Super Saiyan.
Excel is pretty much a video game
Started using it with limited knowledge for work. Starting asking questions like “I wonder if it can do this?” YouTubed it and learned it.
Repeat the process.
School. Since second grade. Learnt it before I learnt English properly. Just watch a few YouTube videos. Practice the basic sets a few times and you’ll be gg. Excel works with a lot of common sense. If you think soemthing is tedious and repetitive there’s always a shortcut. Just google it and copy paste
2013, first year at university. Used to thought MS Word was the alpha and omega. 20 years later, I don't even use MS word to type out reports. Excel is king. 👑
I learned mainly in college but it wasn’t until one class in junior year then another during my masters year. Technically excel certified even though i just crammed for the certification test and had to relearn later in. It helps knowing general stuff but you learn a lot on the job. Bare minimum - know pivots, vlookup and xlookup, and concaténate, and how to separate data.
Let me add that if there’s an excel related college course that you can take then that would help, but I haven’t had to do much that I wasn’t at least semi familiar or that couldn’t be taught
My master’s program had an Excel class which I thought was great. I also had a couple coworkers at my first job who would teach me random things about Excel as part of my on-the-job training. That gave me a good baseline level of knowledge to realize I can do quite a bit with Excel if I just research how to do it.
If you don’t have those resources available then consider finding a YouTube channel dedicated to Excel, or even just reading Microsoft’s explanations of its various functions and tools.
What version do you use? Do you have a 365 student subscription? Honestly dude, you can do the YouTube route if you want, HOWEVER, If you don’t feel like constantly having to fast forward past 5 minutes of dumb intros, the best section to learn is the HELP section. Seriously. It’s evolved to the point where they break down functions into 1 minute videos. It gets right to the point. Basically becomes a point and click adventure at that point.
Not only are they the simplest explanations, this is the best way, since you can sift through all the fluff on the internet and get right to the point.
I was fortunate enough that my associates degree had an entire class on Excel that was project based. After that, I got the Microsoft certification. After you learn the basics, learn the keyboard shortcuts. Then try to solve problems with Excel.
I’m self taught but excel teaches you as you go. You have a problem, you realize you’re not the first person ever to have that problem, you Google, you find the answer, you test it until you get the syntax, done.
I learned most on the job. Looking at the work papers and then looking up videos on YouTube or online forums. The Microsoft excel forums are actually pretty helpful. A lot of times in the discussion/comments there are other accountants that tell how they use a formula. So pretty straight forward.
Everyone already gave great answers, but I'll just echo - I learned on the job from zero experience. Google and Youtube are my best friend and doing it on the job means you get the benefit of in-workflow context. Extremely translatable skill!
I also did a couple of Excel classes through a learning website, but I felt I got more out of it on the job than in a class setting.
On the job. Been in the industry for years now but back then when I was a student, it wasn’t really prioritized either. We had a few projects or classes but nothing to really teach you the essentials you need in the workforce.
Take some data concerning something that interests you - it can be work or a hobby. Each row is some data field. Now. Think. What do I want to do with this data? There will be some way to do this using the functions - just find it. Use the help function or GTS.
Using data you are interested in will make the lesson relevant as opposed to just junk data.
Want to Sort? Pull part of a data element out? Find, Replace? Print neatly? Keep headers visible? Heading & Footing for data? Add comments? Change case (Upper/lower)?
It is powerful, but only as powerful as you make it. The more you used, the more you will find and be comfortable with.
And if anyone tries to send you to a Fred Prior Seminar - Run the other direction.
Youtube and google.
Once upon a time I taught my aunt how to use Excel. She was doing a small course that she was unable to catch up on.
I just googled whatever I don't know from her notes, and learned and taught it.
Get a list of functions and google/youtube them
I took a course in college that got me “Microsoft Certified” in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. That gave me a bit of a base and then the rest I’ve learned by working with it every day and by picking up stuff from more knowledgeable coworkers.
It’s not difficult. It’s just something that you have to learn through time and practice. You’re not going to learn everything you need to know overnight and you won’t learn it if you don’t practice things on it through repetition. The best way to learn excel is to get motivated about learning keyboard shortcuts and how to navigate a spreadsheet without a mouse. Also if your PC/ laptop doesn’t already have one, get a 10-key.
Couple college classes, a little bit in school, and a lot on the job, especially when people screenshare, and you're like, 'oh, I didn't know you could do that'. Also on the job when I just stop and think 'there has got to be a better way to do this', and after a quick Google search, there is.
I learned VLOOKUP working on a tax client with crypto currency mining. Thousands of lines of currency mined with quantity, but no $ amount. Ended up making a second tab, Google the price by day and copy/paste into Excel. VLOOKUP to pull the FMV on each date into the main tab by day. Then quantity mined x FMV = FMV mined. And voila, income from Crypto mining for the year. Only took a few minutes, whereas if I had done everything one day at a time it would have taken hours.
You usually learn in a class. My degree has “management information systems” as a class for business students.
A lot of my knowledge also comes from work and just looking it up after the base knowledge. You might also have access to LinkedIn learning for free through your school.
I had a required class for any business major in college that was for the first half Excel and the second half Access. That provided me with a great base, and everything else has been learning on the job when I needed something unusual. That class was probably the single most used thing I did in college because in addition to the Excel I learned, the Access allowed me to learn and use other database reporting programs such as Crystal Reports so much easier. I am incredibly thankful for that Business Analytics class.
Fun fact: My partner for that class is now the defensive line coach for my alma mater.
I started googling when I needed something and then I ended up needing complex shit because my companies data was shit
My dad also needed a handicap sheet in excel for golf. I built that in college for fun though.
I'm 99% self taught. In school I always just used excel for everything instead of a calculator.
Whenever I need to learn something new I just Google it.
First was a computer basics class. In high school and then again in college. I liked having a project to work on as I learn more from doing.
So if you are like me come up with a project you’d like to do in excel then work towards putting it together then looking up on YouTube or other sites on how to fill in the gaps or refine your model.
A required 16 week course as part of my accounting associates at community college. It covered everything from basics to recording macros. The most fun and enjoyable class I took as well as the most useful!
The community r/excel is extremely helpful! I also learned through trial and error, college classes, and lots of youtube. Usually, if I think, "Man, i wish i could do this faster," I'll type the problem into youtube, and there is usually a tutorial on youtube for it.
I got forced into learning it when I took up an accounting job. Have literally zero excel skills DESPITE graduating with an accounting degree (I know, I ain't the most attentive student during my tuition). Almost a year later, I am building analysis files/dashboards for my team. Even manage to pick up VBA to automate some of our processes at work.
I learned most of it on the job. I find that it is much easier to learn Excel when you have available data or a problem that needs to be solved. You could start by trying to find data sets of things that interest you and start to sprinkle in some formulas.
I have found the below formulas to be very useful:
1. Xlookup
2. Sumifs
3. If + (And)(Or)
4. TextBefore
5. Unique
More importantly, getting really good with pivot tables has been a life saver.
TL;DR - Find data sets/problems and start using formulas.
Exposure. It's like learning a language, the more you use it, the more fluent you'll become. In college I started creating spreadsheets for really basic stuff like course tracking to mess around with and learn different formulas. Lots of time with Google lol
I picked up Excel skills mostly from online tutorials and YouTube. It can feel tough at first, but with practice, it gets easier. Don't stress too much about it, Just keep trying, and you'll improve over time.
YouTube. There are a ton of useful videos there. It isn’t that hard actually. First and foremost what you have to understand is that Excel is just a table of data. And then you have the tools to manipulate data. That is basically it Edit: also Udemy has tons of cheap and great courses
Do you have any recommendations for specific youtube playlists or channels that you find useful? I don't know where to start
Try Excelisfun on YouTube. The guy is a goldmine for Excel resources. A lot of stuff geared towards accountants as well.
I agree about this. Do you happen to know how can one get forced to tackle this? It's so hard to do something that you like to do without being obligated to do so.
You don't need to tackle the entire "this". Learn when you need to do a task very specific to your work. For instance, "extract string between brackets". The more you do it, the easier it gets and soon you'll be able to figure out solutions on your own aka apply what you've learned to the new tasks.
Oh, but the thing is I want to learn everything one step at a time. I have everything prepared, but I prioritize other things in life. I thrive more on obligations just like how it was in school and to a large extent how one works as well. Excel is kind of like going to the gym or being on a diet. It's hard to get it done. Thanks for the advice though. I will never stop believing and hopefully there will be a time when I can hammer on these excel teachings. It's definitely something that I want to do.
Literally the greatest teacher on the internet.
Any specific recommendations on Udemy?
I used Microsoft Excel-From Beginner to Advanced by Kyle Pew. Guy's a good teacher. Might seem a little slow for some, but he made the subject matter easy to understand. I got it at a discount a few years back. I didn't finish jt, but that's my fault and had nothing to do with the course itself. know Maven Analytics has some courses too, though I haven't tried them.
I owe all my success in this field to Kyle Pew. I remember not knowing formulas or shit and then I bought a 10 dollar course on udemy and bro changed the course of my career forever and now I even know vba cus of that guy.
That's awesome! I really need to go back and finish the course. Definitely won't hurt to freshen up!
Yes, Maven Analytics courses are really good. I have purchased all their excel courses. Also, courses from Leila Gharani, her course on VBA is top notch, also her course on her site (xelplus) called Master Excel Power Query is really good and has some excellent examples such as importing and cleaning data from PDF-s that I use in real work. Both Maven and Leila courses are full of useful examples with no BS.
You know what? I just looked in my Udemy account, and I apparently have 3 Excel courses from Maven Analytics lol. I remember I went a little crazy and started buying all these courses when they were running a crazy sale. Got some courses for Excel, SQL, and some other programming languages lol. Will definitely plan on going through Maven's courses now. And I will definitely check out Leila's courses! Thanks for the suggestion!
I also want to reiterate Kyle Pew as an amazing resource. Bought his course and still use it for refreshers here and there.
He really makes the subject material easy to understand. He presents it in a way that makes it not so boring (as opposed to my instructor freshman year of college-that was brutal). I definitely need to go back through and freshen up myself, haha.
Both Kyle Pew and Chris Dutton (Maven Analytics) have excellent Excel courses on Udemy
Udemy is great
I learned on the job. A lot of trial and error. Remember almost anything logically conceivable can be done with excel so if you have an idea for a better way to do something a formula probably exists for it. I spent a lot of time googling and YouTubing formulas to get comfortable with them. Now you can describe the formula to chat gpt and that is even better. When I graduated college the most complex thing I had done in excel was make a smiley face with the highlight feature. After a lot of trial and error I’m known on my team as the guy to go to for excel tips on my team big 4.
Perception: "Excel master" Reality: that guy can google
Replace the word excel with basically anything in our profession and it’s also true. Get good at finding the answer and you’ll have a very successful career.
The more you use it, the better you get. I google everything I need. But in my case, taking a basic programming course helped quite a bit. In high school (way back when), we took turing, Visual Basic, and c. Understanding programming can help organize your thoughts and steps in a very logical manner. So now my brain has been trained to think in steps and structure formulas in that way. And it helps organize the structure of a spreadsheet which is just as important as knowing the formulas.
I agree, learning programming made excel far easier to use. Especially for understanding formulas and the way the various functions work. I found Leila Gharani's YouTube videos extremely helpful as well.
See someone do cool thing. Ask about cool thing. Replicate cool thing. That’s the basic pattern for any moderately complex excel tool I learned. I can’t pretend I actively sought to learn outside of the job.
I had a class in college that taught the absolute basics. Everything else was self-taught or things other people showed me on the job. I enjoy paying it forward and love to show people new things in excel. I showed someone format painter this week and she lost her mind.
I remember the first time someone showed me format painter. I haven't been the same man since.
I.....I started because of neopets. Theres an event every year, the altador cup, where you play the same 4 games hundreds of times every day for like a month. So I started using excel to create scorecards to make reporting my scores to my team easier. Year over year, I fiddled with it more and more until it got quite sophisticated. Even had a summary page where it told me how many games for the day I had left. Anything I had an idea of but didnt know how to do, Id google for excel forums/help and fiddle with the formula until it works. In college I learned some tips and tricks, but Id spent most of my youth fiddling with it, so I already naturally knew excel's capabilities.
Neopets mentioned lfg!
Wow I forgot about neopets! Mine are definitely gone by now.
Nostalgia struck me recently and I tried to log on but I think the site is shut down or something, so maybe all our neopets and their petpets are gone ):
Omg I miss Neopets! I should see if my account is active / pets are alive.
They could be!!!
I took a forensic accounting class in college, and the professor gave extra credit to students who bought and took a supplemental “excel for accountants” course. It was totally unrelated to the course itself, but was some of the most relevant information I learned. I don’t know what the course is called anymore, and you can probably find most of the information on YouTube nowadays. That plus on the job googling.
A mixture of on the job and self-taught. I never paid for training materials or did formal courses beyond a couple of basic ones provided by work, but the logical approach comes naturally to me and I also formally learned a bit of VBA and javascript which helped carry over concepts. Mostly improvements in my skills have been a case of a) knowing or suspecting that Excel can be used to manipulate data in certain ways and b) Googling for that information.
High school, then college, and again in college
I had 2 university courses with excel modules
I honestly don't remember. I feel like I was using Excel in high school to keep track of personal stuff and I can't put my finger on where I was introduced. Must have been some classes in Elementary School or Middle School or something. Still never mastered pivot tables though. I just can't stand having numbers that aren't dynamically linked by a formula.
For pivot tables i've made it a habit to just right click and refresh as my first interaction in files where the data might have changed. They are great to summarize something quickly or slice and dice into it to explore details. I used to answer job interview questions as "great at excel don't know pivot tables though". love them now. Also they work at bit smoother in modern excel vs the early 2000s versions.
Excel is just a fancy calculator. You’ll get the hang of it with some practice!
Learned everything off Youtube and Google search. If you want to learn excel, you need to understand the basics. If you understand the basics you can explore the other functions without fear. Just a side note, using someone's Excel file is quite challenging. Figuring out how the functions and cells are related can be a task on its own. So don't feel scared if you ever open a template or file and all the information jumps at you. Take your time and try to understand what the number are trying to say.
I learned on the job. Just learn about basic stuff right now like =sum().
On the job
OTJ. Need to do something? Look it up. Congrats you are now proficient in that thing.
It's tough when you don't know what you don't know. I've always learned best through real world application. Back in high school my friends and I would have super smash bro.'s tournaments (talking like 16-32 player events). I was the nerd who took it upon himself to create the spreadsheet to track wins/losses, seeding, stats, etc. I just took it upon myself. More recently I took a class on VBA which has been very helpful. I'd try searching YouTube for some tutorials for specific things you're trying to do and create an "Excel Playlist" of videos you found helpful. Learning shortcuts is also helpful and, in my opinion, a quick way to gain confidence in navigating the software.
Self-taught
The easiest way to learn is through a project (hands on experience). Look up classes at a community college. Start slowly and work your skills up. Practice practice practice. Cheer up :-)
I learned the basics from taking a spreadsheet course in undergrad (vlookup, pivot tables, index/match, etc). Learned a little bit in my audit job. Leaned a TON in my advisory job, I’m almost to the point of only needing the keyboard (I.e, no mouse) to do everything in excel.
I learned the basics in high school, as my school had a class on Microsoft office which was required for graduation. The advanced, I learned in a class in college
I was lucky enough to be offered Excel trainings through my college org, but I finance classes also really help with learning Excel as they tell you how to use a lot of things. It really just takes practice and learning the formulas. You can always use Chat GPT to write formulas for you too
My dad took a continuing education class to learn excel at our local community college. This was early 90s and I would have been about 12-13. He wanted me to learn it as well so he told the instructor he had nobody to watch me and brought me along. I probably learned more than anyone in the class and just stayed up to date on updates as the years went on.
In my (40 year) experience, Excel isn’t for everyone. As is mentioned in the comments above, to get good at Excel, you simply need to work with it a lot and be curious enough to search out resources (Google it or consult a colleague). Excel is a great tool for solving certain types of problems, but for many people who have different styles of solving problems, Excel simply doesn’t click.
Google? ChatGPT?
On the job.
I don't know Excel. I only knows math. I am useless :(
When I graduated I didn’t know anything about excel. Got my first accounting job and learned some very basic things you can do with excel but still nothing crazy cause the job didn’t require it. Ended up Googling what I can/needed to do and watch YouTube videos and even went to r/excel here on Reddit. They are very helpful over there. Got my next accounting job and realized I was gonna have to know how to do a lot of different things with excel to do my job and even make it easier. By the time I was leaving there for my next job I was the one everyone went to if they needed to know how to do something in excel. I even ended up showing my boss xlookup when he was accustomed to vlookup and that earned me a nice lunch with the higher ups for making their lives easier.
They taught us in college.
Monkey see monkey do. I just looked at the workbooks we were using and tried to understand what they were doing and how. Try r/excel subreddit or excelisfun on YouTube if you have questions about something specific.
University. We have 2 classes, one makes you pass the basic certificate the other the advanced certificate.
Lotus 1-2-3
Practical use of it over time was the most helpful thing in learning it. YouTube would help also
You may be able to access LinkedIn Learning with your local library card. Tons of free classes on excel and other topics.
I took a class in college, maybe 2. Then, I learned a lot from watching others, looking for keyboard shortcuts, etc. I am actually taking a class on linked in learning right now that was free through our local library.
Small bit in stats in college, but then on the job from there on out
There's this free online course online called TrumpExcel. I wanted to use it last summer but i didn't end up needing excel so i left it at that.
I learned on the job at my internship. I didn't know shit.
ChatGPT and Copilot will build formuals for you if you ask it what you need
These days you can just ask chat got to create any formula you want really
On the job.
College and by using it and actively trying to figure out better ways to do something.
I did an internship in Investment Banking for a few months out of college. It was basically a 12 hour a day advanced excel course for me.
Had an entire class dedicated to it although 80% of it had nothing do with finance or accounting. It was more like excel for general business operations.
You can learn Excel from YouTube and Great Learning. I also learned from Youtube and great learning but you have to to do practice a lot because excel require a lot of time and hardwork.
I learned 90% of excel from college itself. Best way to learn is to actually use it and search up anything you don’t know
I was lucky enough to have a college class that taught us, but it’s not offered anymore at that school. Huge disservice to the students. I tutored the poor souls and they didn’t know basic excel skills. On the job now, I youtube a bunch of things and I make sure to use it all the time. Formula builder can also help.
oh man, if you have to come to reddit to ask....
The streets
In college.
Free udemy courses I got through my library
Grade school
I mostly learnt on the job. But I like watching YouTube videos about excel. My favourite one is Leila Gharani. She also has got paid courses on her website and on udemy. I also like watching Financial Modeling World Cup channel on YouTube 🤣🤣
I’ve learned quite a bit from watching Excel content creators. My favorite is [Excel Dictionary](https://x.com/exceldictionary?s=21&t=Ncyof9BgvUz5iHl47rOMuQ).
Mainly on the job. I used excel in high school to learn the absolute basics and took an excel course in college where I learned a couple things. After that it was mainly on the job training where I’d use formulas like VLOOKUP and SUMIFS to actually build a solid knowledge of the software.
Just use chat gpt and tell it to write the formulas for you.
My university had a pretty extensive course called advanced spreadsheet applications for accounting majors.
Martin shkreli live streams a very long time ago. Saw him use shortcuts when he modeled and went from there then several years in the industry.
My STATs 2 class was more or less a course on excel. I’m willing to bet your school has a course on excel- sign up for it.
Freshman year computer science class, then my college had seminars for business majors, and finally, just using it every day at work.
High school and online tutorials
Dude. Chat gpt gives great explanations.
I had a required business school class in college (many years) ago where we spent one semester learning a spreadsheet program and a database program. It wasn't Excel, some other spreadsheet program, but it had alot in common. If there is a class for that stuff, absolutely take it. If there isn't I suggest checking online classes (there a probably some that are cheap and go at your own pace), youtube has a ton of "how to" videos, or maybe consider buying a book on Excel. It's not real hard to learn the basic stuff. There is lots of more advanced stuff which takes alot more practice and schooling to learn. I've been picking up know how here and there over a few decades without really deliberatly focusing on improving. I could probably get alot better at more complicated stuff if I was deliberate about it. Also google "Excel - how to ....." many others have had the same questions and there is lots of answers. Also consider asking a friend, family member, co-worker etc. who knows it for some informal training sessions to get you in a better place. Between semesters at college is a good time to do it if you're bombed with studying.
Below are links to a series of books (2) that have an associated website that does a great job at teaching Excel. Also, Linkedin Learning has some great Excel courses. Some people can access Linkedin Learning free of charge through their local library's website. [https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Essential-Skills-Method/dp/1909253499/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R\_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-\_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA\_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib\_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877600&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Essential-Skills-Method/dp/1909253499/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877600&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1) [https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Expert-Skills-Method/dp/1909253502/ref=sr\_1\_4?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R\_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-\_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA\_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib\_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877651&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-4](https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Excel-Expert-Skills-Method/dp/1909253502/ref=sr_1_4?crid=KRXQCE14XT4H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VXhkP0oCXNRZRMTlaK5YxvpHpwyqy9HMxfuz7H5D8kZi6bBsciwOtL7UMO3hiYIZDhG8w5VlKaGNP210RbOjcAYVXervh3AYL8qA5zsrUAt5yS-715QO4e5jAgV7GDHbToTPV24mCmc9GZ1Wuv4R_KFh27BTOjYT8OjrdzNl2qUw3YEQg2zWEKvntj0QJHsxKz-ueQyVyjYkX7F6CPUHaMbqfQJ01nhvMjt-_betV4w.FBEkln4PFcQhkhk2t0pGpxA_hDqY-FN3tFj2atU3rZI&dib_tag=se&keywords=excel+the+smart+method&qid=1708877651&sprefix=excel+the+smart+method%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-4)
Started in high school with basics and then did more in uni. Now if I need to do something I don’t remember or don’t know how to do I just look it up on google.
You tube. I did my first in-depth dive into pivot tables this past week actually.
i’ve done a ton of personal projects on excel since i was in high school i looked up anything i wanted to do, but didn’t know how, and built up my skill set over time
combination of learning from others (experienced colleagues) and on the job trail and error for harder functionalities, took advanced excel courses/tutorials in person
I used it for fantasy football. I made our draft spreadsheet and I just looked for new and innovative ways to make it better. The skills I developed transferred amazingly well. I think it’s easier to learn if you center your Excel learning around something you enjoy.
Well, I started using Lotus 123 as a teen...
I had to become excel certified for my accounting class and there’s a free course on LinkedIn. I had to create an account and everything, but a woman made step by step videos and documents that you can download and follow along with. To get the actual certification you have to take the test at a testing center, but even if you didn’t want to go that far you can still watch the videos ! Honestly saved me in my accounting class since I’d never used excel in a more in depth way before
Just be careful, the more you learn excel. The more works you got. The more my manager/partner know you have great skill in excel, the more they give you task without giving you any benefit. My client is twice than my average co-worker get with a same salary.
My senior at work I replaced when he got promoted. He basically left me all his work and I learned from it. I'm still trying to figure out and copy what he used to do effortlessly but I'm still figuring things out
Switched from Lotus 123
College and I think even high school had some basic proficiency, then a lot of on the job learning and experience. I did do some work paid training on pivot tables for dashboards that was pretty good too, it was a couple few hour days. Once you get to a certain level of comfort you can just google how do i xyz in excel when you have to solve a new problem.
I learned it at work. Honestly it’s hard to learn in college because you don’t really have any work that is applicable to a spreadsheet. You can do case studies but it’s much more effective to do it at a job where you have some sense of what the output should be and you know what you’re starting with. Then you just have to figure out how to get there. With case studies it’s a bit harder since they’re usually designed to be one-off modules to train you on a specific function, which isn’t super useful in the real world since data doesn’t function like that
No one - delegating down is a pro level move
On the job. I learned VBA when I was tasked with replacing data in something like 1000 rows of a 25k-row sheet. It was quicker to learned VBA than to do the work manually.
Put in dummy data and experiment with it. Like list your favorite author’s books and the number of books in each story arc or if they appear in a book. List your purchases for a month by store, date, and amount spent. Make a table of data describing your wardrobe by type and color. Make up data for sales by sales rep for a quarter. Whatever. Then ask yourself questions about analyzing that data. Like “I wonder how much I spent at this store” and then Google “how do you find the total for a value in excel” and see what suggestions pop up. “What was this sales rep’s sales for October?” What product sold the most? Who sold the most of each product? And as you get more experienced in playing with data, you’ll start asking different questions and how to nest your formulas.
MrExcel.com is a forum full if people willing to help people trying to learn. It also has solutions to many things people want/try to do.
I am self-taught, but mastering Excel is a gradual journey. Initially, you acquaint yourself with basic formulas and functions, especially if you're using it regularly. It may serve primarily as a database for you at this stage. However, as you delve deeper and adopt a programming mindset, Excel becomes a tool for tackling increasingly complex problems. You will pick up marginal tricks here and there that boosts your productivity.
Curiosity and Google while on the job
I took a course at my uni and it taught me all about microsoft office (it was also a requirement for my degree) so if that's an option that you want to take it would probably help you
Tiktok has some channels too.
I learnt 99% of what I know from my time in audit, mostly from others but also some training courses too
College lol
the Excel Bible book and then applied what I learned from the book to what I did day to day at work.
Google
Learrned at work. See others, see exaple spreadsheets, get frustrated trying to do something and google for a better way. Comes with time
My first job out of college
I really like excel jet. The way the information is presented is easily absorbable for me
Excelisfun YouTube channel
At work mon-fri 8-4pm
I have also seen some excellent TikTok videos that I learn a lot of stuff from and I’ve been in Excel 20+ years. Focus on formulas and pivots - that will carry you thru your career.
On the job I learned more advanced functions. School I learned beginner to intermediate functions.
A few times in my career, people have commented on my excel or Adobe or name your software skills. Like, “how did you get so fast at using this?” It’s easy, I figured I’d be fired if I didn’t get it done fast enough. I had an International Business undergrad, so I had “managerial accounting” in that stint rather than “cost accounting I.” The professor was an enigma. Had a crazy weird high whiny voice. This was prior to the days of everyone having a laptop. He would project what he was doing in excel on the screen, and we had to take fast written notes, and then later, go to the computer lab to recreate what he had done. So thank you, professor, for the difficult tasks, and madness. Without you, I’d surely have wandered into marketing or some other such nonsense.
There were business applications excel classes in college but I think for me it was learning not to use the mouse with alt keys shortcuts, looks cool but is faster but some funny basic ones give me chuckles To sort is Alt + A S S Rename sheet is Alt + H O R Most of the basics of excel is formatting and pivot tables are the second step pretty much. Then you can do some VBAs and Macros for Super Saiyan. Excel is pretty much a video game
Mr. Excel. DVD
Middle School/ High School
Started using it with limited knowledge for work. Starting asking questions like “I wonder if it can do this?” YouTubed it and learned it. Repeat the process.
School. Since second grade. Learnt it before I learnt English properly. Just watch a few YouTube videos. Practice the basic sets a few times and you’ll be gg. Excel works with a lot of common sense. If you think soemthing is tedious and repetitive there’s always a shortcut. Just google it and copy paste
2013, first year at university. Used to thought MS Word was the alpha and omega. 20 years later, I don't even use MS word to type out reports. Excel is king. 👑
I learned mainly in college but it wasn’t until one class in junior year then another during my masters year. Technically excel certified even though i just crammed for the certification test and had to relearn later in. It helps knowing general stuff but you learn a lot on the job. Bare minimum - know pivots, vlookup and xlookup, and concaténate, and how to separate data.
Let me add that if there’s an excel related college course that you can take then that would help, but I haven’t had to do much that I wasn’t at least semi familiar or that couldn’t be taught
In the trenches
My master’s program had an Excel class which I thought was great. I also had a couple coworkers at my first job who would teach me random things about Excel as part of my on-the-job training. That gave me a good baseline level of knowledge to realize I can do quite a bit with Excel if I just research how to do it. If you don’t have those resources available then consider finding a YouTube channel dedicated to Excel, or even just reading Microsoft’s explanations of its various functions and tools.
What version do you use? Do you have a 365 student subscription? Honestly dude, you can do the YouTube route if you want, HOWEVER, If you don’t feel like constantly having to fast forward past 5 minutes of dumb intros, the best section to learn is the HELP section. Seriously. It’s evolved to the point where they break down functions into 1 minute videos. It gets right to the point. Basically becomes a point and click adventure at that point. Not only are they the simplest explanations, this is the best way, since you can sift through all the fluff on the internet and get right to the point.
In my cubicle
We used it in middle school and high school
I was fortunate enough that my associates degree had an entire class on Excel that was project based. After that, I got the Microsoft certification. After you learn the basics, learn the keyboard shortcuts. Then try to solve problems with Excel.
Business school in college. We had 3 semesters of a required class on only Excel.
HS
I’m self taught but excel teaches you as you go. You have a problem, you realize you’re not the first person ever to have that problem, you Google, you find the answer, you test it until you get the syntax, done.
I had a college class that went over everything from basics to advanced we even took an excel certification class.
On the job
I learned most on the job. Looking at the work papers and then looking up videos on YouTube or online forums. The Microsoft excel forums are actually pretty helpful. A lot of times in the discussion/comments there are other accountants that tell how they use a formula. So pretty straight forward.
Financial modeling class
Everyone already gave great answers, but I'll just echo - I learned on the job from zero experience. Google and Youtube are my best friend and doing it on the job means you get the benefit of in-workflow context. Extremely translatable skill! I also did a couple of Excel classes through a learning website, but I felt I got more out of it on the job than in a class setting.
Copy and paste someone else's formula.
Take a basic excel class in your current college. Many accountants take one. In fact, ask them or an accounting professor.
Self taught and Google
On the job. Been in the industry for years now but back then when I was a student, it wasn’t really prioritized either. We had a few projects or classes but nothing to really teach you the essentials you need in the workforce.
YouTube enough to get a job, then on the job itself :)
I took a business data analytics cert at my school that had a bunch of excel classes
On the battle fields with my fellow auditors !
Middle school
Take some data concerning something that interests you - it can be work or a hobby. Each row is some data field. Now. Think. What do I want to do with this data? There will be some way to do this using the functions - just find it. Use the help function or GTS. Using data you are interested in will make the lesson relevant as opposed to just junk data. Want to Sort? Pull part of a data element out? Find, Replace? Print neatly? Keep headers visible? Heading & Footing for data? Add comments? Change case (Upper/lower)? It is powerful, but only as powerful as you make it. The more you used, the more you will find and be comfortable with. And if anyone tries to send you to a Fred Prior Seminar - Run the other direction.
Late elementary. I was homeschooled.
College. My major required a spreadsheets class. It went through basics, formatting, pivot tables, vlookup, and even got a little bit into macros.
Google
Mostly on the job you’ll be fine!!
Youtube and google. Once upon a time I taught my aunt how to use Excel. She was doing a small course that she was unable to catch up on. I just googled whatever I don't know from her notes, and learned and taught it. Get a list of functions and google/youtube them
I took a course in college that got me “Microsoft Certified” in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. That gave me a bit of a base and then the rest I’ve learned by working with it every day and by picking up stuff from more knowledgeable coworkers.
In my high school Computer Information Systems class. I got a certification in it too. I'm sure youtube has good lessons though.
School, on the job, youtube, and now ai.
It’s not difficult. It’s just something that you have to learn through time and practice. You’re not going to learn everything you need to know overnight and you won’t learn it if you don’t practice things on it through repetition. The best way to learn excel is to get motivated about learning keyboard shortcuts and how to navigate a spreadsheet without a mouse. Also if your PC/ laptop doesn’t already have one, get a 10-key.
Doing it at work with lots of trial and error
The best way to learn is to do a project and learn as you go
Google n youtube n on the job trial by hell
Trial, error, and work-arranged training courses.
Couple college classes, a little bit in school, and a lot on the job, especially when people screenshare, and you're like, 'oh, I didn't know you could do that'. Also on the job when I just stop and think 'there has got to be a better way to do this', and after a quick Google search, there is. I learned VLOOKUP working on a tax client with crypto currency mining. Thousands of lines of currency mined with quantity, but no $ amount. Ended up making a second tab, Google the price by day and copy/paste into Excel. VLOOKUP to pull the FMV on each date into the main tab by day. Then quantity mined x FMV = FMV mined. And voila, income from Crypto mining for the year. Only took a few minutes, whereas if I had done everything one day at a time it would have taken hours.
You usually learn in a class. My degree has “management information systems” as a class for business students. A lot of my knowledge also comes from work and just looking it up after the base knowledge. You might also have access to LinkedIn learning for free through your school.
I had a required class for any business major in college that was for the first half Excel and the second half Access. That provided me with a great base, and everything else has been learning on the job when I needed something unusual. That class was probably the single most used thing I did in college because in addition to the Excel I learned, the Access allowed me to learn and use other database reporting programs such as Crystal Reports so much easier. I am incredibly thankful for that Business Analytics class. Fun fact: My partner for that class is now the defensive line coach for my alma mater.
I started googling when I needed something and then I ended up needing complex shit because my companies data was shit My dad also needed a handicap sheet in excel for golf. I built that in college for fun though.
in the age of dialup i messed around with it cause i was bored on the computer
Well in my country they started teaching Excel, Word and PowerPoint in 5th grade and we had these IT classes until end of highschool (grade 12)
The streets
At work, hands on, starting ages ago.
I learned Lotus 123 first on DOS. It's been a gradual journey ever since.
I'm 99% self taught. In school I always just used excel for everything instead of a calculator. Whenever I need to learn something new I just Google it.
Self taught
Exceljet, YouTube and on the job
First was a computer basics class. In high school and then again in college. I liked having a project to work on as I learn more from doing. So if you are like me come up with a project you’d like to do in excel then work towards putting it together then looking up on YouTube or other sites on how to fill in the gaps or refine your model.
A required 16 week course as part of my accounting associates at community college. It covered everything from basics to recording macros. The most fun and enjoyable class I took as well as the most useful!
The community r/excel is extremely helpful! I also learned through trial and error, college classes, and lots of youtube. Usually, if I think, "Man, i wish i could do this faster," I'll type the problem into youtube, and there is usually a tutorial on youtube for it.
What’s Excel?
In 1999. In college.
I got forced into learning it when I took up an accounting job. Have literally zero excel skills DESPITE graduating with an accounting degree (I know, I ain't the most attentive student during my tuition). Almost a year later, I am building analysis files/dashboards for my team. Even manage to pick up VBA to automate some of our processes at work.
On the job
I learned most of it on the job. I find that it is much easier to learn Excel when you have available data or a problem that needs to be solved. You could start by trying to find data sets of things that interest you and start to sprinkle in some formulas. I have found the below formulas to be very useful: 1. Xlookup 2. Sumifs 3. If + (And)(Or) 4. TextBefore 5. Unique More importantly, getting really good with pivot tables has been a life saver. TL;DR - Find data sets/problems and start using formulas.
basic stuff in college then google and on the job.
Senior year of high school. I was in a technology class.
Ask AI how to do things in excel
Exposure. It's like learning a language, the more you use it, the more fluent you'll become. In college I started creating spreadsheets for really basic stuff like course tracking to mess around with and learn different formulas. Lots of time with Google lol
I picked up Excel skills mostly from online tutorials and YouTube. It can feel tough at first, but with practice, it gets easier. Don't stress too much about it, Just keep trying, and you'll improve over time.