I was only eighteen when I got my hands on a spreadsheet. I got my first job as an audit assistant for a small accounting firm and I became addicted to working with them. But as it goes for an accountant, the most difficult tasks are addition, subtraction, and if it really gets complicated sometimes, multiplication and division.
But when I hit university, I wanted to apply my knowledge of spreadsheets and learn even more from them; and to my very excitement, Microsoft launched the spanking new MS Excel 2007. I got my copy as soon as it came out, and I was hooked. Sometimes I would get up at night just to do some random charting and graphing and play with different functions just for fun.
A few months in school, I found out that there was a university course which taught introductory spreadsheets and other MS Office tools, but to my disappointment, I couldn't take it because I already had a full course load. Interestingly though, there was a Teaching Assistant position open for that class, so I sent the person recruiting for it an email and got an interview.
The interview was very informal, and the lead instructor asked me a few questions and I knew it like the back of my hand. Of course, I never told him that I never actually took the class, and he wasn't careful enough to do the due-diligence and check whether I did or not, so I got the job. There I was, 19 years old, first year of university and an Excel TA. Life couldn't have been better.
Over the next two years I continued to TA and became sought after for my spreadsheet skills. I also joined another tech not-for-profit as as spreadsheet instructor and continued to teach. But then came the real challenge, my first finance internship at a Fortune 200 company. I was excited and scared at the same time being concerned about what the expectations would be like.
As the summer went on, I gained even more technical skills and knew my stuff like nobody else. I also became a mentor to the other interns and they looked up to me to share my vast knowledge in using this complex powerhouse of a tool called Excel. The people at the company loved me, and my reputation was stellar; oh...the adulation.
But now six years from the day that I first started using spreadsheets, I have to say that unfortunately, spreadsheets aren't the best way to excel(no pun intended) in an organization. In fact, its my assessment that numbers are purely data points that help you translate business ideas, strategies, frameworks into a more quantifiable structure so that the boss can some day toot his horn and tell his boss that he "increased or decreased something by x % and how that immensely helped the organization".
What actually is important, on the other hand, is to bring ideas to the table, work with them, and execute them ruthlessly and only use spreadsheets as a tool to quantify and report results to investors and all that jazz.
But to me personally, (even after all this self-actualization of reality and knowing why just being good at technical tools isn't good enough)spreadsheets will always be close to my heart, something that I can open up in my spare time and use to play with an ever expanding library of data sets online. Other tools such as Tableau Public, Microstrategy have tried to lure me away, but to no avail. To them I say-"don't bother, spreadsheets are my first love, and like everyone else, no one forgets their first love".
If you've never discovered a love for a tool like I have, I encourage you to do so, and soon you will realize that it is possible to enjoy something like this as well. Most people will tell you that an experience like this, is stark, quaint, and nerdy, but I'll tell you what, its my love story, and it was absolutely worth it.
But when I hit university, I wanted to apply my knowledge of spreadsheets and learn even more from them; and to my very excitement, Microsoft launched the spanking new MS Excel 2007. I got my copy as soon as it came out, and I was hooked. Sometimes I would get up at night just to do some random charting and graphing and play with different functions just for fun.
A few months in school, I found out that there was a university course which taught introductory spreadsheets and other MS Office tools, but to my disappointment, I couldn't take it because I already had a full course load. Interestingly though, there was a Teaching Assistant position open for that class, so I sent the person recruiting for it an email and got an interview.
The interview was very informal, and the lead instructor asked me a few questions and I knew it like the back of my hand. Of course, I never told him that I never actually took the class, and he wasn't careful enough to do the due-diligence and check whether I did or not, so I got the job. There I was, 19 years old, first year of university and an Excel TA. Life couldn't have been better.
Over the next two years I continued to TA and became sought after for my spreadsheet skills. I also joined another tech not-for-profit as as spreadsheet instructor and continued to teach. But then came the real challenge, my first finance internship at a Fortune 200 company. I was excited and scared at the same time being concerned about what the expectations would be like.
As the summer went on, I gained even more technical skills and knew my stuff like nobody else. I also became a mentor to the other interns and they looked up to me to share my vast knowledge in using this complex powerhouse of a tool called Excel. The people at the company loved me, and my reputation was stellar; oh...the adulation.
But now six years from the day that I first started using spreadsheets, I have to say that unfortunately, spreadsheets aren't the best way to excel(no pun intended) in an organization. In fact, its my assessment that numbers are purely data points that help you translate business ideas, strategies, frameworks into a more quantifiable structure so that the boss can some day toot his horn and tell his boss that he "increased or decreased something by x % and how that immensely helped the organization".
What actually is important, on the other hand, is to bring ideas to the table, work with them, and execute them ruthlessly and only use spreadsheets as a tool to quantify and report results to investors and all that jazz.
But to me personally, (even after all this self-actualization of reality and knowing why just being good at technical tools isn't good enough)spreadsheets will always be close to my heart, something that I can open up in my spare time and use to play with an ever expanding library of data sets online. Other tools such as Tableau Public, Microstrategy have tried to lure me away, but to no avail. To them I say-"don't bother, spreadsheets are my first love, and like everyone else, no one forgets their first love".
If you've never discovered a love for a tool like I have, I encourage you to do so, and soon you will realize that it is possible to enjoy something like this as well. Most people will tell you that an experience like this, is stark, quaint, and nerdy, but I'll tell you what, its my love story, and it was absolutely worth it.
