r/AskIreland • u/Curious_Newt7342 • 16h ago
Work Where can I learn Excel ?
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to become a Business Analyst, no prior experience in that industry, no college degree just ambition. Yes it might be saturated and competitive to get into and the job market is tough but I’m still going to go for it.
My first move is to learn Excel/SQL.
Does anyone know any good courses I could do ? I checked E college but heard mixed reviews on it so thought I’d ask here
Thanks !
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u/Both-Beautiful960 16h ago
Against the grain, but go find an RPG group playing something horrifyingly weird, and try to make an Excel sheet for it.
Grab projects first. Making a budget for your own finances, tools to keep track of recipes, or some other weird frickin’ project will help you get into get into the mindset.
And start with VLOOKUP(), then INDEX(MATCH())
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u/Interesting_Feed_785 13h ago
XLOOKUP Is where it’s at these days.
LET() is my new fave tho.
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u/Both-Beautiful960 13h ago
I should get in the habit of using that more, instead of relying on being able to read horrifying Excel code without it.
I know XLOOKUP(), but as a starting point VLOOKUP() is still a little easier.
Mind, I’ve been using Excel since… Excel 4? Before Excel had color graphics. That perspective is both helpful and a hindrance for giving advice.
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u/Interesting_Feed_785 12h ago
I hate counting the offset but yeah couple of minor niggles on xlookup.
I’ve done a lot more complicated excel this year (and I had a tendency to rely on VBA anyway) than recent years and there’s so much new stuff, I’ve learned loads.
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u/Both-Beautiful960 12h ago
I would personally recommend learning to use an upstream system creating the output rather than using VBA because it tends to create fragile processes, but if that’s not an option then to VBA we go.
I’m glad I managed to get into research instead of doing dashboards anymore, that was killing me.
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u/Asimodega 15h ago
The ETB do online courses with Microsoft certificates at the end of it for free through ecollege:
ecollege is great, on a par with anything you would pay for. It's also a really good first step if you were thinking of trying a longer course such as something through springboard. The reality is no cert or course is perfect and absolutely no 12 week course is going to make you a business analyst, so you will always see people dismissing any of them. You need to start somewhere though.
I'd also suggest keeping an eye out for discounts on coursera around black friday. I completed a Data Analyst Professional Certificate through there 6 years ago, that got me a workforce analyst role in a call centre, after that I did a springboard diploma in data analytics and moved into business intelligence, now I'm completing my bachelors and still working up the food chain. Business Analyst covers a very broad array of roles from ones that are very entry level and use quite simple tools like excel to more complex ones that require an understanding of cloud services, big data and programming languages, it's probably one of the more viable pivots you can make as an adult for that reason, you can gain entry level experience as you learn what you need to for better roles.
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u/ChemicalPower9020 16h ago
For free YouTube is your best bet. Loads of info and resources on there. There's really no need to pay for a course tbh in order to learn. I would only do a course if you're looking for a specific qualification you can put on your CV/LinkedIn.
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u/GrahamR12345 16h ago
eCollege.ie free, paid by taxpayers, includes exam/cert that would be recognised.
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u/Expert-Toe-9963 15h ago
You could try a pitman training course. Just googled and they have this:
https://pitman-training.ie/our-courses/data-analyst-diploma/
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u/TomRuse1997 15h ago
YouTube is the best I find. Get good at shortcuts. May take longer to look up the shortcuts each time initially but then they become 2nd nature.
Effectively utilising AI in excel is really where it's at now too
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u/BisonAcceptable1994 23m ago
I hate AI as much as the next guy, but it's one of the big uses I see for it these days .. copilot can make one in a second that's more robust than anything a beginner could make. I'm not trying to dissuade you, AI is doing the same thing for my industry. It sucks but just an fyi
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u/Ok-Key-7986 16h ago
Udemy is pretty good for standard BI.
I will warn that BI and especially Data Analysis is so oversaturated that its criminal that the government still issue essential skills visas for a role thats scarce on the ground.