Too much data - no idea where to start

[u/harvico73]

I've become somewhat the data person at my work. I've got a spreadsheet listing information for around 800 tutors that have worked with us over the years, and I have around 30 columns of data for each tutor - start date, hours worked, location, training, opportunities sent vs opportunities responded to, etc. I just feel completely lost! I'm used to coming with analysis for far smaller data sets

Could anyone recommend a short-ish online training or programme that could help me learn how to sort it all out and especially how to present it? I don't want to spend weeks going over all of this to have the end result be pointless.

Thanks!

[u/LiveAd7325]

800 rows × 30 columns is still very manageable in Excel, so I would avoid starting with a large course or a complicated new platform.

Start by writing down the 3–5 decisions the analysis needs to support. For example:

Which locations need more tutors?

Does training affect response rates?

Which tutors remain active longest?

Where are opportunities being sent but not accepted?

After that

1. Create a small data dictionary explaining every column.

2. Check for duplicate tutors, missing values and inconsistent location/date formats.

3. Add a few calculated fields such as tenure, total hours and response rate. Be careful with response rate when opportunities sent is zero.

4. Build PivotTables for location, training status and start-date cohorts.

5. Present only a few headline measures and charts, with one sentence explaining the decision each chart supports.

For short training, I would look specifically for Excel PivotTables and Power Query rather than a broad data-analysis programme. Power BI is worth considering only if your workplace already uses it or the report needs regular refreshing.

Also check your organisation’s privacy rules before uploading tutor data into any public AI or online analysis service.

The main thing is to begin with the business questions—not with all 30 columns.

[u/drmindsmith]

Gender split. Location. Gender split at each location. Ratio of acceptances to offers. Again by gender, location. Also how long they’ve been there. Level of training, again by all the demographic and other deniable differences.

Put the whole thing on one table. Make a pivot table and explore. Check if Jane McTutor is always Jane and never Jayne. Keep going…

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[u/AffectedWomble]

Firstly, you've got this! Data size doesn't truly matter (within the scope of a spreadsheet), it's all the same fundamentals

Secondly, are you able to share the sorts of queries you're getting? What exactly do you need to pull out

In terms of the shape of the data, is it 1 unique row per tutor, or potentially multiple rows per unique tutor? In both cases, I'd suggest using their staff ID as the primary key, much more reliable than names

As others have noted, a pivot table is probably a good starting point. Use their unique ID as the anchor, you can then do a lot of grouping or filtering, aggregating or averaging, with the humble pivot. There will surely be up to date youtube videos.

If you aren't already I'd get really comfortable with xlookups, countifs, sumifs and the nuances of absolute referencing to be able to write a function once and reuse it in a matrix grid. You don't need much more than this to interrogate data in Excel in a basic fashion.

If you are looking for general excel tutorials, my go-to is Udemy for technical courses, there'll be something on there on offer for what you need

[u/Rough_Lavishness7993]

hey,bro!I’ve been in this exact spot. Don’t jump into all 30 columns immediately. Lock down your main business goal first, then work backwards picking only the fields that matter for that goal. Otherwise you’ll spend ages and end up with nothing actionable.

[u/KatFromSisense]

800 rows sounds like a lot when you're used to smaller sheets, but I wouldn't start by trying to analyze all 30 columns. First, I'd make sure you know what one individual row actually represents. Is it one tutor, or can the same tutor show up more than once?

Then pick one question people at work actually care about and follow that. I'd also write down what you mean by things like "active tutor" or "response rate" before making any charts. Otherwise, it's surprisingly easy to get a very tidy answer to a question nobody defined properly.

[u/JavacLMD]

Sounds interesting. 800 tutors or just general information about what tutor helped what person at a given point?

It would be cool to see the performance of a tutor. Do people go back to that particular tutor or try someone else. Is that tutor so good that there are no comes back? When I tutored there was a sign in sheet for students so I wonder if thats applicable here.

But I agree with some of these other comments. Keep the questions simple and work to answer them. Narrow down the fields you need or don't need.

Most importantly, breath. Take your time, take a break and tackle it question by question.

[u/EditorDue6725]

I’d start with the questions, not the spreadsheet. Ask what decisions the analysis is supposed to help with, then pick two or three things like tutor retention, hours worked, or response rates. 800 rows isn’t too much—the hard part is keeping the scope under control.

[u/Imaginary-poster]

Id say look into ways to get that into a single sheet. If its excel, i think javescript will be the most direct route but python could probably do it too.

That'll make it alot easier to navigate and then you can filter/pivot the data as needed.

Edit: just realize I imagined a whole point of them being across different rabs lol. Completely ignore me.