Discovering the Power of Excel (As an Absolute Beginner!)

Although many people have heard of Excel, they tend to underestimate it, thinking it is only a tool to enter data. However, it is much more than a set of rows and columns.
In simple terms, Excel is a tool used to organize data, perform calculations, and derive valuable insights. The following examples will better portray how versatile and valuable Excel is in the real world.

1. Sales Performance Analysis- A business can use Excel to track sales performance, such as by assessing whether females purchased more products than males. Such insights may then influence business decisions, such as whether to adjust inventory depending on demand.
2. Human Resource Management- An organization can use Excel to keep records of their employees, such as the hire date and department they work in. Such information can then be used to automate salary calculations, analyze performance over time, and evaluate trends, such as gender-based pay differences.
3. Tracking Academic Performance- A school may opt to use Excel to keep records of students’ demographic information (such as gender and age), as well as test scores. Using the available information, the school can, for instance, identify learners with learning challenges and offer them additional support.

What Features Have I Been Exposed To?

From my first week of learning about Excel, there are certain features and formulas I have been exposed to, and have grown to appreciate:

1. The “IF” Statement- In the sales performance example, let’s say the business wanted to assess if sales made were of high value or not. =IF(D2>15000, "High Value", "Low Value"). If the calculation (as above) were executed, the business would identify high-value and low-value sales.
2. Conditional Formatting- If an organization wanted to identify employees who, for instance, earned the lowest amount of money, it could use conditional formatting, such as color scales or data bars to spot them, especially when the data set is large.
3. Data Validation- Normally, the data validation tool is used to restrict the kind of information input into a cell in a given column. So, let’s say that the school wanted to restrict academic performance into either poor, good, or excellent, the mentioned tool will prevent unrelated entries from being made, therefore ensuring consistency.

My Personal Reflection

Before interacting with Excel, I only viewed data as something that you simply entered into rows and columns. It did not appear as something I was able to interact with. However, my view of data has completely changed.

I recognize and appreciate that every piece of data in Excel has the potential to tell a story. Using certain tools, such as pivot tables, one can recognize patterns, discrepancies, and similarities. This data then has the potential to generate actionable insights. Now, more than ever, I am quite excited about using Excel to explore data further.