I am interested to see whether you have any formal training in Excel?

My guess is you are no different from me: self-taught to use most of the software that empowers our lives. I remember teaching myself Lotus 123 – that trusty old “/” command. I am still convinced that the speed of my backslash commands could beat any of my colleagues forced to navigate by point and click.

Lotus suddenly faded away and we all began praying to the Mighty Microsoft Excel. I don’t have a vivid recollection of the way I used Lotus 123 in the early 90’s. What I am confident about: if I was forced to go back to the 64k machine and my old friend Lotus, I would still do my job just as quickly and efficiently. Ok, I have to admit that it all looks sexier with graphical presentation and interface but how far have we really come over the last 15 years? My point is that we should have progressed with leaps and bounds.

I think I am lucky if I use more than 10% of Excel’s functionality. I learnt most of what I know by watching colleagues performing routine tasks in excel not admitting that I didn’t know how to perform a vlookup or a whatif! I haven’t had any formal training and I am sure I could do my job more efficiently if I learnt just one new thing each day.