Biz Features

The Secret to a Better Career is… Microsoft Excel?! [INFOGRAPHIC]

by . November 23rd, 2016

Value of Microsoft Excel to your Career

The key to a great career is… Microsoft Excel. Who knew?

Microsoft Excel is one of the most used software in business. In fact, most of the job listing in the market these days needs to at least have a basic understanding of how this particular spreadsheet program works.

But how exactly can your career benefit from learning Excel? Business learning solutions company SkilledUp prepared a nifty infographic to explain exactly that.

Value of Microsoft Excel to your Career
Courtesy of: SkilledUp

Additional Notes on Excel


  1. Burning Glass Technologies recently conducted the study on the divide between jobs that demand digital skills and the ones that don’t. The result was not surprising. Those that require digital skills are outpacing those that do not require it. They found out that:
    • Nearly eight in 10 middle-skill jobs require digital skills. Spreadsheet and word processing proficiencies have become a baseline requirement for the majority of middle-skill opportunities (78%).
    • Digitally intensive middle-skill occupations are growing faster than other middle-skill jobs. Digitally intensive jobs have grown 2.5 times more rapidly than middle-skill jobs that do not require spreadsheets, word processing, or other digital skills (between 2003 and 2013, 4.7% growth for digitally intensive jobs compared to 1.9% growth for other positions).
    • Digitally intensive middle-skill jobs pay more than middle-skill jobs that do not require a digital component. Digitally intensive middle-skill occupations offer 18% higher wages on average: $23.76 per hour compared to $20.14 per hour for all other middle-skill jobs.
  2. The pivot table which is listed as an advanced skill but in my opinion, it’s probably the most important Microsoft Excel skill that you should master. Dave Bruns from Exceljet has an excellent story on exactly why there should be no exceptions in learning how to manipulate data with pivot tables.
  3. Lifehack compiled a list of tips and tricks that you could learn in order to be a Microsoft Excel power user.
  4. The best quality of life improvement that Microsoft put on Excel is probably the ability to view two spreadsheets side by side. It’s not common knowledge so be sure to check out their step by step guide to do it. This improved my productivity by a lot.
  5. If you’re bored with all the business stuff that you, you can learn how to use Excel to produce works of art, like this work of this 74 year old Japanese artist or Pikachu below.

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How do you use Excel in your work? Tell us your story below!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kevin is a reader first, a writer second, and a gamer somewhere in between. When not rooting for Tyrion Lannister for the Iron Throne, he's probably writing some morbid short story. He enjoys some surreal art, clever advertising campaigns, and a warm cup of coffee while reading Murakami.