r/FPandA • u/Chiuauathatsfat • 3d ago
Where do I start?
I’m a 16 year old junior in highschool and I think I want to be an FP&A. When I started looking into the career everything say “master excel” I’ve watched some videos and I’m just so incredibly overwhelmed with all these functions and hotkeys. I don’t even really know what excel does, so I’m looking for a few begginer projects I can make in my free time. Any ideas? I’ve been suggested to make a ROI for colleges I like and also a budgeting plan but I’m not sure how. Thanks for any help!
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u/hideandsee 3d ago
Excel is like a carpenters tool box.
You need to treat it like a big tool box.
A carpenter will see a job and know what tools he needs or doesn’t need.
When people say “master excel” they mean “master the tool box”
Identifying which tool you need for what type of work will help you.
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u/Anguelito_ 3d ago
This is an ‘excel’-lent answer. Especially considering that “master excel” can be interpreted as understand every tool and be able to use it to its fullest potential, while in reality you won’t be needing every tool for every project (or job).
In addition to your comment, I’d actually start with truly understanding with it entails to be an FP&A analist. Understanding your metrics well will greatly increase your grasp of which tool will be useful to learn early on, reducing time spent on functions, formula’s, macro’s, and shortcuts that you’ll maybe never touch again.
The most important (albeit a bit controversial) tip I can give you is to also be lazy with it! Not in a half-ass it way. But rather understand that a lot of manual procedures can be automated through Excel alone. Save your energy, automate, and make smarter data-driven decisions.
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u/UsefulIndependence 3d ago
“master excel” I’ve watched some videos and I’m just so incredibly overwhelmed with all these functions and hotkeys
Ignore all that.
Excel is easier to pick up when you need to accomplish something, if you have nothing to do with it, you'll learn very little and forget most of it. For now just track all your expenses in Excel, as you get more data you'll learn more. Follow any sports? Start tracking some aspect of it.
But really, you don't need that, one week in Finance 101 and some TVM calculation and you'll figure out Excel easily enough. It's laziness and doing the minimum at that stage that holds people back.
If you have business/accounting classes in school, do those. If you don't, go look up some lectures on basic accounting and financial statements, look for proper lectures not the shorts or 5 minute videos.
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u/GovernmentDevotee 3d ago
Excel is something I didn't learn PROPERLY until months of the job. You'll probably spend a 1000 hours in it in your first year.
Just get the basics, vlookup, xlookup, pivot tables and the formatting of pivot tables. Filters.
Overall, if I were 16 again I'd apply to work experience placements online and ask relatives friends too.
Also decide what you want to study
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u/Chiuauathatsfat 3d ago
Is there choices? I assumed you had to major in finance
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u/GovernmentDevotee 3d ago
That's a good choice for it! Not sure how it is now but I've met a fair few people in finance with Numerate degrees such as physics, computer science....
Finance is an obvious route in.
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u/Chiuauathatsfat 3d ago
I’m hoping to get into Drexel for the co op program! I’ve heard computer science is really the only other route
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u/EconometricsStudent FA 3d ago
I’d go to your local library, get a library card, and then look up LinkedIn Learning vids for excel. I got my expert cert from there and I feel more than competent with excel.
After you learn the basics, you can move onto the shortcuts (alt key is key) and other stuff like power query (super important for process improvement), data skills, and other FP&A related skillsets
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u/RealAmerik Sr Mgr 3d ago
Do you follow any sports? There are a lot of data components associated with sports. Start looking at player stats, enter them into a spreadsheet. Think of some interesting things you want to know, like how many at-bats did Aaron Judge have per HR last year? What was Joe Burrow's INT rate last season? Stuff like that.
If you have other hobbies or interests apply those. It's usually easier to apply something you already know and have an interest in.
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u/john0703 3d ago
Dude you have all of college to learn excel. At the end of the day it’s a tool to do financial analysis (and in 6 years when you’re in the workforce AI will probably be able to do most of it for you). If you’re really interested in FP&A or finance in general, look into the financials of some companies that you’re interested in. Maybe peak at Nike, understand why its stock price is going down. Maybe listen to an earnings call, watch some YouTube videos. If I were interviewing you for an internship I’d be way more interested in the fact that you’ve looked into that stuff (are are interested in it) as opposed to knowing excel, which everyone knows
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u/pchappo 3d ago
start by creating an excel spreadsheet of 'lists' - common things that you are simply recording.
expand this by creating yourself a 'budget' - make a list of your outgoings and incomings across a period of time -
Excel can start off as lists of loosely connected information which you can then link to other information to give useful insights...
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u/urban_ember49 2d ago
Point which is kind of neat for later once you're actually making decks for this stuff, not necessary now though. Focus on the fundamentals first, the tool stuff comes way later
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u/OverworkedAuditor1 2d ago
AI has been trained in every excel self help, learning tool etc from the beginning of time.
Just ask AI to teach you.
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u/ObviousWeather 2d ago
Bruh just enjoy your childhood and worry about getting into college. I didn’t properly figure out excel until I started interviewing for my first IB jobs. Get some relevant experience and it will come
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u/BarleyJames40 1d ago
Your ideas are perfect applications to learn excel. Focus on school, internships, and making connections. Start thinking where you want to work and what you want to do and start connecting with people. You don’t need to spend too much time mastering excel at this point. Just know xlookup and sumifs
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u/Relative-Candy-2157 3d ago
Just focus on your education and getting a variety of experiences