I have a job opportunity coming up possibly and I would like to get certified in microsoft excel or take a online class with some credibility . I just want to show I made a effort. I'm a welder stepping into the office and will be using excel. I'd like to show in my interview I made a effort to come in a little more prepared. Anyone have any advice? Udemmy?

Honestly, just learn how to use Vlookups and pivot tables, and that will wow most when it comes to Excel. Coach yourself up on other basic functions and how to make data look “pretty”, and you’ll have a leg up on like 95%+ of those who dabble in Excel.

Pre Edit: saw this thread is old as fuk

still a good advice srs

Not sure what OP's done since first posting but the advice about learning lookups and pivot tables is spot on.

I hire excel jockeys (and am an old excel jockey myself) and having complete mastery of these is critical. Once you get those down, learning VBD is next level that will separate you from the rest of the officecells.

Good luck OP.

I'm a big fan of strings and sumifs personally, there's almost nothing you can't do with data by building out strings and then using sumifs. Formatting and organizing the information into something presentable and that adds max value for the reader, that'll be the next step and usually comes from knowing what you're working with and what's important.

In my experience, the best way to learn is to be presented with problems that need solving and then using google/youtube to figure out how to solve them. You'll start with something simple and eventually you'll be navigating Excel using only the keyboard and building out wild nested IFs n chit.


If you're a welder I'll assume you're working in structural steel or piping. An example here would be doing an estimate for a job, quantifying all the welds by size and type and such, and then being tasked with building a summary of the job by whatever relevant categories and breaking out different metrics etc: estimated hours per area, average hours per weld, hours per tonne of steel or meter of pipe by diameter, and things like that.

Thanks guys. I actually got a job offer this past Friday. I'm currently a welding foremen and run a crew installing and repairing gas lines. I got offered a new job this past Friday to be a inspector. For this job I will only need to learn power point. The rest is very basic data entry that I can learn in a few hours.

Power point will be relatively easy to learn. Just look up some Youtube videos, easiest way to learn. Same with Excel.

You might not have the time to get it done but taking a 3 hour online course at a community college is a good option. They'll set you up with weekly courses that walk you through the common stuff.

Learn data filters, pivot tables & charts, Vlookup, IF formula, Count IF, cell formating, excel shortcuts, how to make and edit charts.

Source: Worked with excel for 3 years in a analyst job

I have no certification in Excel. But I have work experience & work samples (dashboards/visualizations/macros/whatever) provided on my sample works page.

Everything Excel related, you can find great content online to learn from.

You need to learn the logic behind functions/formulas.

Not just VLOOKUP (I never use it), but more importantly, better functions like INDEX-MATCH, or XLOOKUP (although XLOOKUP is not compatible with older versions of Excel).

You need to understand simple logic, such as IF statements. You need to understand how to do something like an =IFNA(INDEX(...MATCH(... type formula.


You need to understand pivot tables, and custom calculations.

For example, lets say I have a pivot table built from a set of data with these three measures in a data set:
Sales, Current Year
Sales, Prior Year
Sales, % Change CY vs PY

You need to understand, that pivot tables aggregate data (i.e., sum). So what does this mean? It means you need to recalculate for any formula driven metrics. In this case, % Change CY vs PY.

In this case, you would need to create a custom calculation for the % change and use that in your pivot table and not the given metric in the data set.

(Sales CY - Sales PY) / Sales PY = % Change CY vs PY

[another way of writing this formula] --> (Sales CY/Sales PY) - 1 = % Change CY vs PY

This is the biggest issue I have seen with so many Excel users. They don't realize they cannot take calculations from a data series and throw it into a pivot table. For example:

9/4/22 Apples 2
9/3/22 Apples 3

If I created a Pivot Table, threw Apples on it, and that # as a value, and didn't have the date as a filter/column/row, I would show Apples 5 (sum). Because Pivot Tables aggregate.

You need to understand slicers/filtering/and so forth.

Thanks for the advice! As someone who was considering creating an online course likehttps://www.sopservices.net/I found your advice and insights extremely valuable. I especially appreciate your advice on structuring the course content and incorporating interactive elements to enhance the learning experience. And I want to add that if you want to get high-quality and modern knowledge, you need to choose a high-quality service so as not to waste money and time in vain.

Be confident and you will win.

Confidence from the moment you walk through the office door will always give you a better chance of landing that job. And I have good news for you, that confidence can be built and strengthened.