This week was a milestone. I’ve been in the full-time workplace for four years!
Where I’ve Come
Armed with a bachelor’s degree from a fantastic liberal arts school and a master’s in finance from a world-class business school, I was ready to solve the world’s problems — or at least KeyBank’s.
Whoops.
I soon found that being a good analyst was quite different from being a good student. And while my education made me a quick learner, I struggled.
Little did I know that work wouldn’t be a tightly-contained problem set with helpful professors and cool lectures with free food.
No, work is unstructured. Data is poorly organized. Problems are not defined well. I soon learned to make technology my friend — Excel, in particular, has saved me hours, allowing me to analyze data rather than just prepare it.
I’ve also learned that work is self-motivated. Nobody is going to care about your career development as much as you. Nobody will tell you the importance of networking, or additional education, or building a platform online.
Even if they do, the burden to execute is on you. Remember, this isn’t college — your employer is paying you. You’ve got to take much greater responsibility for your career than for your education.
Enter the blog
I’ve yet to find a resource that covers the transition from naive liberal arts grad to wise, grizzled data analyst.
That’s what this blog is for.
Excel is the hub, but I want it to be more. How do I get a job with Excel? How do I sound competent in an interview? How do I build a platform for my career?
The site is a creative outlet for me. I miss the college days of epic research papers. This gives me a place to share stories, demonstrate Excel magic, and forge new ideas.
More importantly, I see a demand for this type of content. From interns at work, to friends who recently graduated, to other analysts I meet at happy hour, we all need to put data and Excel in the context of economics and business analytics.
I hope this site helps in your Excel savvy and career development.
To four more years!
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