# Being tested on MS Excel as part of job interview



## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

Ahoy hoy, I've got an interview this friday for a professional post in a library - my first since I finished my MSc.

There's an element testing my skills on Excel, details below:


> You will be required to complete a data analysis test involving usage data, financials and written communication.
> 
> You will be assessed on your:
> 
> ...



My Excel skills are average - I can do most basic calculations and format things in a reasonably presentable way. I'd like to show I can do a few more fancy things though - I've done an intermediate Excel course, but I'm very rusty on things like pivot tables, graphs etc.

Anyone got any tips on things to practice and the kind of data they might provide me with?


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## Puddy_Tat (Dec 9, 2013)

If you're not used to the post-2007 versions of Excel, you really need some practice, as a lot of the commands are different from the earlier version.

I cocked up an online Excel assessment for a job earlier this year mainly due to not having met the 2007 version before.

These training documents appear to be public domain.

Think there's some online training on microsoft's website.  

Fortunately I managed to get a temp job over the summer that gave the opportunity to do a word / excel refresher...


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## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

Fortunately, I do use Excel 2010 in my current job, though not for anything particularly complicated. I've also got Excel at home, but only the Mac version, so slightly nervous about practising on the Mac version and being flummoxed on Windows.


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## Orang Utan (Dec 9, 2013)

Fuck, that's scary.
I hope I never have to do that!
All I've ever used Excel for is staff rotas and stock order lists


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## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Fuck, that's scary.
> I hope I never have to do that!
> All I've ever used Excel for is staff rotas and stock order lists


I'm hoping that if I can blag a few fancy things for the interview, I can learn everything else on the job by googling it...


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## Orang Utan (Dec 9, 2013)

Good luck fella!


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## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Good luck fella!


Ta! Fortunately one of the interview panel took a uni session earlier this year exactly on analysing usage stats and financial data. I'm hoping I can dig out my old notes! Still doesn't help for how to do stuff in Excel though.


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## Dan U (Dec 9, 2013)

Make sure you can do a pivot table and a vlookup and maybe a sumif or countif as well as a sort

In terms of formatting generally just remind yourself with setting print ranges 

I would make sure you can do an easy line graph, format it, give it a title and named axis and smooth the lines etc. Maybe make sure you know how to do a second axis on it. 

Not sure what else I would want someone to do quickly in an interview tbh. I use excel a lot and crunch data on it and the above is what I use most

Can't see you will he asked about macros beyond enabling them etc


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## Puddy_Tat (Dec 9, 2013)

Pivot tables (in my experience) are very bad at working across different versions of Excel.

The recent 'intermediate' course I did included pivot tables, but only very briefly.  Vlookup (which I used to be able to manage, although not tried in the new version) came under 'advanced' in the online course I did recently.


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## FridgeMagnet (Dec 9, 2013)

I doubt you'll get serious pivot tables - almost nobody actually understands them IME apart from people who sneer at the idea of using excel in the first place. Bone up on the other stuff they mention though. If you do use excel regularly I wouldn't worry too much.

The Mac version of 2010 has the same shitty layout as the windows one iirc you'll be pleased to hear.


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## Dan U (Dec 9, 2013)

Pivot tables on the latest version is a pain in the arse compared to previous versions. Tool me a bit to work it out. 

Also generally finding where things are on 2010 annoys me


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## Maurice Picarda (Dec 9, 2013)

As someone who assigns interviewees Excel tests, I'd be astounded if you're asked to do a pivot. 

What one wants is to see quickly and painlessly how well someone has coped with making sense of some data and presenting it in a pretty way. Testing a pivot table takes ages and is a hassle.


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## de_dog (Dec 9, 2013)

Something as simple as using named ranges across sheets can look very impressive.


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## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

dedog said:


> Something as simple as using named ranges across sheets can look very impressive.


Yeah, I've been reading my notes from the intermediate course I did and thought they might be an easy way of looking like I know what I'm doing.


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## Monkeygrinder's Organ (Dec 9, 2013)

Whenever I've been tested on Excel as part of an interview it's basically just been them setting a minimum very low bar. Demonstrating some basic competence rather than trying to show off.


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## Hollis (Dec 9, 2013)

If you're Excel skills are anything better than 'shit' you will probably stand out from the crowd.

Everyone seems to make out that they have 'excellent' excel skills.. but when push come to shove finding anyone who's remotely competent in it is a rarity.

Anyway, one of the few joys of my working life, is putting together a well-designed _killer _excel test.. ideally with several possible options to distinguish the incompetent from the competent, from the seasoned expert.   etc.


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## strung out (Dec 9, 2013)

Hollis said:


> If you're Excel skills are anything better than 'shit' you will probably stand out from the crowd.
> 
> Everyone seems to make out that they have 'excellent' excel skills.. but when push come to shove finding anyone who's remotely competent in it is a rarity.


This is one of the things that worries me - I think my Excel skills are alright because I know how to do sums, averages, percentages etc, but I've a feeling they want a lot more than that when they talk about "appropriate use of formatting, formulae and graphical representation".

It's the graphical representation bit that worries me.


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## Hollis (Dec 9, 2013)

I dunno, highlight the relevant data, click on the graph function, and pray...


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## Bob_the_lost (Dec 9, 2013)

strung out said:


> This is one of the things that worries me - I think my Excel skills are alright because I know how to do sums, averages, percentages etc, but I've a feeling they want a lot more than that when they talk about "appropriate use of formatting, formulae and graphical representation".
> 
> It's the graphical representation bit that worries me.


Nah, that just means that when asked "when should you use pie charts" you know to answer "when hell freezes over"


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## equationgirl (Dec 9, 2013)

strung out said:


> This is one of the things that worries me - I think my Excel skills are alright because I know how to do sums, averages, percentages etc, but I've a feeling they want a lot more than that when they talk about "appropriate use of formatting, formulae and graphical representation".
> 
> It's the graphical representation bit that worries me.


Avoid using pie charts, basically. Make sure you can do a chart with two 'y' axes, it's a bit of a pain in 2010 and you can display data unambiguously.

Mrs Quoad did a good post about avouding pie charts - at least, I think it was mrs q, it might have been FridgeMagnet ...


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## Puddy_Tat (Dec 9, 2013)




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## SpookyFrank (Dec 9, 2013)

If I try to create the same graph from the same data set in the same way using the same version of excel on two different days I usually get two different graphs, both equally wrong.

Needless to say this is excel's fault, not mine. If I was allowed to draw the cunts with a pen and a ruler I could do it twice as fast.


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## de_dog (Dec 9, 2013)

paste special > transpose is flashy too. eta (for extracting graph-able datas).
And the F key that lets you type straight in the cell without clicking in the formula bar.


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## DRINK? (Dec 9, 2013)




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## DRINK? (Dec 9, 2013)

f2


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## FridgeMagnet (Dec 9, 2013)

equationgirl said:


> Mrs Quoad did a good post about avouding pie charts - at least, I think it was mrs q, it might have been FridgeMagnet ...


I think we both did. With good reason.


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## frogwoman (Dec 10, 2013)

=sum(a1+a2) adds two cells together
make sure you press * rather than x as in (a1*a2)

also =average averages the contents of stuff
if you're adding a column up then do something like this
=sum(a1:a20)


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## AnnaKarpik (Dec 12, 2013)

I would go with knowing how to 
- make graphs
- use conditional formatting
- include countif and if formulae where appropriate 
- use data filter if it might be needed


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