What defines an advanced level of Excel?

[Scott M]

I was wondering if somebody could help me with this. I was looking at
applying for an office assitant job and it said I needed an advanced level
of Excel. I have been using Excel for some time now, although I recently
decided to do a short course starting from the basics to help identify what
I may be missing in my knowledge.

We didn't delve into complex formulars but covered all our basics and gave
our selves the background knowledge to explor further. I am all over the
place, such as inputing data, retreiving data from sources such as SQL
server, text files and so on. Formatting spread sheets and creating tables.
As well a bunch of other stuff.

Not sure if this puts me in the Intermediate level or still beginner.

Scott M

 

[Ron@Buy]

Microsoft considers to be at Advanced Level you should "be able to create
advanced formulas to make decisions. Import and export data. Create and use
look-ups and queries. Work with Pivot Tables and other analytical tools.
Record and use macros to automate your work".

 

[JLatham]

I'll agree with what Ron@Buy said with the Microsoft statement.

I'd definitely put you out of the beginner category. Right now I see you
with distinct advantages over the 'casual' or beginning user: your
experimenting and the class have given you some insight into the potential of
Excel. Knowing WHAT an application can do gives you the ability to use those
capabilities to achieve results when you need to. That doesn't mean that you
can do everything from memory or without grabbing a reference to refresh a
skill, such as building a pivot table or complex chart.

Your other advantage is that you're aware that there is online-help from
others that can point you to a solution, help you fine tune one you've come
up with, or even expose you to a feature that you may not have been aware of.

I've been working with Excel and other Office applications for over 15 years
and still learn new things in these forums and others, occassionally ask for
help with some feature that I'm not proficient with and keep finding new ways
to extend the power of Excel.

Apply for the job!

 

[Jellifish]

It depends on the person who wrote that job description, for an Office
Assistant I would be very surprised if they needed "advanced" knowledge of
Excel, to them an advanced feature may be formatting the text in a cell to
be red!

 

[dranon]

I'm with the fish on this one.

As an employer who has had to deal with reconciling resume claims,
"advanced level of Excel" generally means that you don't turn shades
of green when asked to copy one cell to another.

Anything beyond that, such as the complicated task of inserting a new
column, is somewhere beyond "expert". It might even qualify you for a
star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

I think it has to do with the fact that working on an Excel
spreadsheet is working with "live" information. Change cell D9 and,
if you don't know where it is used everywhere on the spreadsheet, you
might destroy somebody else's work.

The first thing I teach people is to work on a "work" copy of a
spreadsheet, save often, and save "versions" every once in a while in
case you FUBAR the darn thing at some point.

An "expert" at Excel should do that routinely and be able to restore a
prior version without slowing down to catch their breath. The purpose
of being able to do that is two fold: 1) obviously, in case of the
need to return the spreadsheet to a previous state, it can be done; 2)
it provides a sense of well being to the user such that they lose
their fear of experimentation.

Once you lose that fear of experimentation, the sky is the absolute
limit and you become, in short order, a real expert.

 

[CLR]

Hi Scott.....
There was once a program called the MOUS, for Microsoft Office User
Sopecialist. It was designed to do just what you're referring to, sort of
"qualify" or "grade" Office users. It consisted of 5 parts, including Excel
having both a "core" and a "expert" classification. I went to school 8 hrs
per day for 6 months and eventually passed all of the tests and became a
Master MOUS, and all without one single bit of VBA code ability. Today,
after much research, experience, and participating in these groups, I am now
the "Goto Guy" for Excel in this 1000 employee company. The majority of the
users I assist every day do not posess anywhere near your skills. It would
be a pleasure to work with someone of your level for a change. You
definately know more than the average bear, and what you don't know, you can
learn here. GO FOR THE JOB!!!

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3