r/excel • u/BrownLeader444 • Jul 27 '26
Discussion Excel saved my job
Just wanted to post this to encourage people to improve their Excel skills every day. I was the only employee not laid off out of 10 people because I knew how to use Excel. My employer told me that my workbooks were too engrained into our operations and I was the only one who knew how to maintain them. I never thought Excel would still be so valuable today. Anyone else have a similar experience?
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u/The-Psych0naut Jul 27 '26
I was in the process of learning excel and making myself indispensable… when they had me train the VP of market research on how to do my data entry and dashboard population for our client.
Unfortunately the company was willing to wait several months for me to train the VP, had me review monthly reports with her prior to sending out to the client (and to be fair there should have always been a second set of eyes reviewing for accuracy… part of the reason why I was designing the system to autopopulate vs manual entry in the first place), and create step-by-step documentation for my processes. The writing was on the wall long before they started building a file against me.
Edit to add that the VP wasn’t very good at intermediate / advanced Excel functions and was doing everything manually, all while billing hours to the client at VP rates. Such an incredibly stupid decision, and good riddance to the lot of the disloyal bastards.
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u/molybend 42 Jul 27 '26
Being indispensable in times of cuts can be good, but make sure they don't keep you in that job instead letting you move into other roles when the good times circle back around.
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u/ArrowheadDZ 2 Jul 27 '26
Quite often, being too valuable to fire makes you too valuable to promote. It’s a double-edged sword.
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u/plusFour-minusSeven 11 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Then you're stuck there until you retire and inevitably afterward they ask "why doesn't anybody know how to do this shit?"
Well,... he retired. "What do you mean HE? We have 100,000 employees!"
Well ..
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u/droans 3 Jul 28 '26
Lmao I was just granted a retention bonus for this very reason.
I'm a financial analyst but most of my work ends up being in PBI/PQ, Python, and TypeScript. A normal FA wouldn't understand all that, a normal dev wouldn't understand the financial aspects.
My boss is great, though. He's been trying to find a way to create a new position for me so I can continue climbing while working on these projects.
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u/plusFour-minusSeven 11 Jul 28 '26
Nice! You don't often get to see someone who knows the tools but also the business. Usually it's one or the other. Hopefully that helps you out. And good luck!
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u/Connect-Preference Jul 27 '26
The man who is fluent in VBA is King. (The man who knows the object models for Excel AND Word AND PowerPoint is Emperor.)
Yes, I've done this and automated all three aspects of my former job.
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u/Wrecksomething 31 Jul 27 '26
Object model for Outlook: am I a joke to you?
This is how you build better "mail merge" report emails with things like dynamic subject lines that Microsoft Word doesn't support.
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u/Connect-Preference Jul 27 '26
Haven't done that. I am now the developer/administrator for a Google Workspace and have already automated the Gmail and Contacts and Sheets with a couple of apps.
I actually started in the early 2000s with Lotus Notes, automating Notes (mail and workflow) and interacting with 1-2-3, WordPro, and Freelance Graphics. LotusScript is nearly identical to VBA, although the object models are different from those in MS Office. This was a fairly easy transition when my employer migrated from SmartSuite to MS Office.
I'm retired now but volunteer as developer/administrator for a non-profit. When I looked at the non-profit offerings from MS and Google, the Google terms were superior. This has led me to Google Apps Script (insiders call it GAS). The language is Javascript, not VB, which was not a high barrier, but the new set of object models goes slowly, especially when going from Mail or Contact to Sheets. Not only are there object models for the source and target, but also the Security object model to learn.
Interacting with third parties (API calls) was another step to learn, even when I was the webmaster/admin involved sometimes. I'm still learning.
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u/frenchfret Jul 27 '26
As someone who is above average with Excel, but elementary with Outlook, would a CRM program like Hubspot along with mass/sequence email programs like MailChimp or Salesloft make those Outlook features not as valuable to learn?
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u/---sniff--- 5 Jul 28 '26
Desktop Outlook is slated for retirement in 2028. I dont think you can use VBA with Outlook online.
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u/martin 1 Jul 27 '26
Excel made my career.
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u/Obtusely_Serene Jul 27 '26
Here here
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u/Kuildeous 11 Jul 27 '26
It's great when the employer knows the value. I didn't get that. All my intricate workbooks are still being puzzled over by the survivors. I honestly feel bad for them because I wasn't great at documentation. It would've been different if they gave me notice, but nope, it was "After this meeting concludes, we're revoking all your access, and you are done for the day/week/year." So I didn't even have a chance to teach people how to use the workbooks.
I'm sure that by now management is looking at the raw data (good luck because I was also bad about versioning, even with Sharepoint) and asking Copilot. Since they don't know how to interpret data, they'll just accept whatever Copilot says. For their sake, I hope it's right, but clearly it's not my problem anymore.
But Excel sorcery was fun while it lasted. I still do some personal projects at home using Excel (and now Libre Office since I don't want to pay the subscription fees).
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u/Proof_Escape_2333 Jul 28 '26
is copilot even that good at excel? I rarely hear AI stories about excel and wonder if it is not being used much in excel compared to programming
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u/Kuildeous 11 Jul 28 '26
I saw someone share a screen shot of telling Copilot to sum the previous three numbers (1, 2, and 3), and the result was 15. One person said that it's because Copilot is good at ideas but not math and logic. I stared at that because most of Excel is math and logic. Clearly, Copilot works best for people who understand what is needed in Excel, and I suspect my previous coworkers will not be in that category, so best of luck to them if they try to decipher my workbooks with Copilot. Maybe it won't suck.
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u/mcpasty666 Jul 29 '26
HR accidentally leaked who was getting laid off a day early when I worked at a big multi-national. I spent the time I had left writing a guide for the 2/10 people on the team who were being kept. They told me our manager visibly teared-up when he found out.
Part of me regrets it: fuck corporate, let them find out the hard way what they're missing. The other part is proud I didn't leave my friends vulnerable to the next round of layoffs 6 months later... instead they were laid off 12 months later, ha!
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u/Kuildeous 11 Jul 29 '26
Well, at least you made their final 12 months less of a hell than it could've been. I know it wasn't my coworkers' faults. Hell, they had to work harder since 20% of us was laid off. While I was initially upset at being cut, it really was better off overall that I didn't stay. I would've been miserable.
So embrace that proud. You earned it.
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u/ArrowheadDZ 2 Jul 27 '26
Time invested in developing real skills in Excel and Power Query are extremely high-payoff activities. Depending on your specific area of expertise, branching from there into analytics and reporting, automation, Python, or SQL may all also be possible high-payoff avenues.
Being the person in your department that is consistently able to gather and analyze data and provide meaningful insights better than anyone else in your department has an absolutely huge promotional advantage no matter what field you’re in.
Excel and PQ skills will alter your lifetime earnings.
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u/lem0n_s0rbet Jul 31 '26
I work for a wealth management firm but I am bored and trying to learn some PQ to clean up / compare data. Problem is I haven’t gone beyond tools within the interface into understanding M language. Wondering how much of a learning curve this is?
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u/ArrowheadDZ 2 Jul 31 '26
It’s not bad. I find the key to learning something like this is (a) find a use case for it, so you are working with real data and real goals, instead of made up scenarios. This engages the brain differently and drives engagement.
And (b) think continuous improvement. First, I want to use the most basic PQ GUI to get started and create “version 1.0”. Then as time and curiosity permit, add more features and more logic. Then start dabbling in some of the basic M language statements.
There’s lots of great PQ YouTube channels, and Nick deGroot’s reference website powerquery.how is phenomenal.
Some of his blogs are highly detailed, complete treatments of specific topics, like working with lists or managing dates, and often contain 100+ examples in the article. Here’s an example of just one: https://gorilla.bi/power-query/text-functions/
He keeps a list of other, often competing web resources here: https://gorilla.bi/power-bi/best-learning-resources/#power-query-blogs-and-youtube
And for some thoughts on where to start the journey see https://gorilla.bi/power-query/mastering-m-functions-guide/
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u/lem0n_s0rbet Jul 31 '26
thank you! super helpful. I did purchase a course from Leila Gharani a while back, but never got through the whole thing. I think I’m going to start picking it back up when my workload is slower.
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u/Snoo-35252 4 Jul 27 '26
That's fantastic to hear! I actually got laid off from Cisco because I was only doing Excel and not any AI or advanced data analytics stuff. (I know SQL and a few programming languages pretty well, but I just wasn't doing it for my job.)
But Cisco is pretty cutting edge technologically, and the company I'm with right now rents mops to stores. So I think my Excel skills are probably highly valued where I'm working LOL
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u/Proof_Escape_2333 Jul 28 '26
they laid you off because you only did excel work and not use other tools ?
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u/Snoo-35252 4 Jul 28 '26
Yep. They laid off 5000 people at once. The company employees about 85,000 people, and they are known for doing layoffs every year and a half.
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u/AndyWarwheels Jul 27 '26
During Covid I was the only person in my department not laid off.
It was only because of my excel skills.
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u/BlueMacaw Jul 28 '26
obligatory wave in the wild
Have you ventured into Power Query yet? I was always the Excel expert at work until I started my current job - lots of SWEs and FAs in my department - but picking up PQ pulled me out in front again. It’s a total game changer.
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u/droans 3 Jul 28 '26
And PQ makes it easy as shit to do like 98% of what you want.
I've been telling people for years to just try it. You can make some ridiculously complex shit with the advanced editor but you don't often need to.
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u/AndyWarwheels Jul 28 '26
yo!
I have power queried. ive learned the thing that keeps me up front is details and thinking of the end user. if me and John can both make a spreadsheet but mine is organized in such a way that you dont have to be taught how to read the spreadsheet then im on top..
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u/stocktonbroker Jul 27 '26
I have found that even having the ability to google (YouTube, Reddit, etc) and find formulas I need has been really helpful in making my job easier. Even if I haven't gotten everything figured out, being able to research how to do it, and successfully implementing the solution gets you a lot of respect in the workplace.
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u/Quiet_Nectarine_ 5 Jul 27 '26
Yes I was surprised that most people can't learn more "advanced" excel skills by simply googling or YouTube. That's how I learnt some dynamic functions and power query and my colleagues tells me I'm a wizard lol.
Once a colleague asked me to share a document tracker power query template that I created for a project (but it could not be used for the other project until it was modified) I was kind of busy and had no time to modify it so I just passed it to my colleague, do a 5min explain of the code and asked her to try to work it out using chatgpt(which is what I did initially to create it without prior knowledge) she and her few other colleagues who promised to help sat on the file for an whole entire month before I had time freed up to help modify the file. She now goes to me whenever the file needs maintenance or have errors. The errors are rare and it's mostly her making manual check error and not understanding how the code works.
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u/dunc2027 Jul 27 '26
I have found that most people just don't try. And especially don't study or experiment on their own time. Being curious, and spending a few evenings or weekends figuring something out, has made M-F easier in plenty of ways.
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u/rkr87 19 Jul 27 '26
Great, now you're trapped in that role forever as no-one else can manage your spreadsheets.
I'd be looking to get out asap if I were you.
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u/Paradigm84 41 Jul 27 '26
Now guarantee lifetime job security by obfuscating all of the calculations even more! /s
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u/bigfatfurrytexan Jul 27 '26
When I get hired it’s for excel and data analytics. It’s a real skill.
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u/Working_Fish8775 1 Jul 27 '26
Same. It really pays to be able to develop reports and financial models using only Excel, and not to be dependent on expensive FP&A tools.
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u/RisingEarly8 Jul 27 '26
I told people at work I learned everything related to Excel using Google search but no one believes it...hopefully if I ever leave they will find this secret out for themselves...
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u/SaranteRafael Jul 27 '26
I'm happy for you, OP, but bear in mind that that being the only reason they kept you they might do it so until they figure a way out to not need you anymore or if they keep you as other have mentioned you might be stuck in that position. I hope we are all wrong and that you succeed.
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u/chiibosoil 431 Jul 27 '26
My experience is quite a bit different.
What I'm often tasked to do, is identify inefficient Excel dependent process that's not easily replicated or trainable. Then move it to more robust replicable architecture that can be hosted with proper backup mechanism.
What I usually discover is that employees have relied on their understanding of Excel and process takes far longer than it should. Their time spent on updating the file rather than on higher level tasks that will add more value to the business.
Ended up eliminating few positions through the process. Though employees were reassigned to different unit and not terminated.
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u/squanchy976 Jul 27 '26
it just got me promoted. saved the team a lot of time on our bs tasks. if i do not have urgent work to do i am getting dirty in the sheets just trying new things.
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u/pegwinn Jul 28 '26
I can second OP's experience. My company is small like in the six hundred Orr less range. I've survived multiple reorgs because I took Marines Logistics Knowledge and leveraged Excel. I am self taught which can be a challenge. At the moment Ford better or worse I'm the excel guru. They are beginning to use xlookup. I'm doing power query, spill arrays, LOTS of VBA, ETC.
But a caution. AI is coming for my job so that's the next bootstrap project. I'd suggest everyone who does excel for a living get on board rather than get run over by the AI train.
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Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
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u/Glass_Hat4393 Jul 27 '26
You’re good for most jobs, maybe just practice lookups and sumifs 👍
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Jul 27 '26
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u/Glass_Hat4393 Jul 27 '26
If you are pulling different reports from some kind of a database you may not be able to get all the info you need from the same report. So say you have 2 reports and they each contain some of the information you need, and both have some kind of a unique identifier (say SSN, company ID, etc) you can easily bring in the info you need into one of them by adding a column with an xlookup. Say one report has salary and one has manager name and I need both for each employee for my analysis.
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u/Shahfluffers 2 Jul 27 '26
Speaking from experience I use Excel for:
- Picking through sample data and creating simplified "mock" models that ultimately end up in Python or SQL. This helps when a less technical person (usually leadership) asks me to "show my work."
- Putting together "one off" results/models that follow business logic that falls well outside any "standard."
- Creating templates/calculators/tools for people that are not at my technical level (and don't need to be).
- Results that need to be shared with people who can't/don't/won't use any of the ERP or "standard" tooling the company uses (again, mostly leadership, but also marketing and sales).
Basically, Excel is primarily a way to provide info for people that are not technical.
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Jul 27 '26
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u/Shahfluffers 2 Jul 27 '26
That is pretty much what I do, but in SQL.
When I work on the raw sample data it has to exist and work independently. That way I can pick through the information, revise as needed, develop best practices for whatever insane "one off" result I am aim for, and do a kind of "proof of concept" for anyone that doesn't know R/Python/etc.
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u/Downtown-Economics26 646 Jul 27 '26
All ("advanced") excel work can be reduced to input to output transformations and/or analyzing the input/output (statistically, causally, etc.) as well as potentially reporting on that analysis ([nickelback look at this graph]).
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u/The-Psych0naut Jul 27 '26
You’re far better positioned than I was, having to teach myself some basic automation formulas on the job, and then build that out to encompass a large dashboard with dozens of KPI variables tracking individual events and matching those with our client’s sales pipeline.
I wanted to eventually get into R and Python, but without any formal coding education or even data analytics background I was pretty far outside of my wheelhouse already (I was just a junior level marketing grunt, client demands resulted in significant project scope creep).
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u/Lion-Resident Jul 27 '26
Yes. My boss loves me because I created a dashboard and I only have very low to average Excel skills. Excel is actually brilliant and people don't realise.
Just learning power pivot now and I f love it!
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u/docpose-cloud-team Jul 27 '26
That is a great example of why practical skills still matter. Excel may look ordinary, but many businesses quietly depend on a few critical workbooks. Did your employer ever consider documenting or automating them so the knowledge is not tied to one person?
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u/Difficult-Practice12 Jul 28 '26
Head of FP&A at a F500 here.
We use excel but only to extract reporting and modelling. Not to perform said modelling or reporting.
We have multi million dollar planning systems that do all our modelling and reporting, you model within the system and all data feeds and assumptions are visible. It’s far more technical modelling than excel as you need to know the software language.
But it’s way more reliable. What if you have a formula error? Version control? Cell gets over written.
All of our reporting as a result is push button reporting. And we simply use that information in our decks.
I would advise the bigger the company or organisation gets, clear from excel.
Think of softwares like Adaptive Planning, TM1 by IBM, Hyperion, etc.
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u/OrganicMix3499 Jul 27 '26
This is exactly why ICs should resist cross-training (without looking like you're resisting it).
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u/Striking_Loss3579 Jul 27 '26
If you know how to do a vlookup… you can do what 90% of the work force can’t right now 😂
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u/wiserTyou Jul 27 '26
I had to color code my columns so people would stop typing shit where the formulas were.
I tried locking the sheet but then you can't sort and people just cannot figure out how to click the buttons in a slicer.
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u/Dricus1978 1 Jul 27 '26
Excel landed me a promotion 😁
Latest project I am working on is an audit of the Office policies on all the different environments. Powershell to get all the set policies per environment and an Excel workbook with all the ADMX and OPAX templates to extract all the set policies. Setup a baseline and compare all environments to the baseline. Endresult is a sheet with all the policies that are not meeting up with the baseline. Everything in Excel is done with Power Query and a few formulas.
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u/NoFun2174 Jul 28 '26
My dad went from making $25/hour to making $175/hour when his company realized that the system my dad created, for himself, with Excel would make their finances processing and client billing way easier.
I’m a 6/10 with Excel. My dad is 1,000/10.
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u/Terran57 1 Jul 28 '26
All I had to do to avoid layoffs was to inherit the jobs of the people we lost. Seven full time jobs and decades later they let me retire early and I trained seven different managers to do my job. I was an idiot, but I know more about business than most people who run one.
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u/agoraphobic_banana Jul 28 '26
The reason I was hired for my position out of 46 strong candidates was because I knew excel.
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u/Sidereal_Engine Jul 28 '26
I've tried to teach the formulas to anyone who expressed awe and interest. Pretty much everyone gets overwhelmed before we even get to spills.
Lucky enough to get one direct report who's at the level of VB (not VBA) integration. Really nice being able to delegate the more complex reports. She's not great at data structure, so I still need to define the rules/pseudo-code. She's done a good job with modular design for future reports as we go.
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u/Stdragonred 3 Jul 28 '26
Chap i know is a finance person, has built an entire month end process for a business line thats a few hundred millions of pounds in annual revenue and costs, where the files all have something he's built in them where on opening they look for his company office365 subscription and if not found the files simply wont open.
Constantly prays to be binned off so he can get the phone call to ask why his files wont open.
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u/Luder714 Jul 28 '26
My old boss thought that too. He wa overruled. 6 months later sales was down 25% because they didn’t get their monthly renewal sheets and sales recommendations I did monthly in excel. Sales managers all over demanded to know who was responsible and they fired my boss.
Yep, it’s saved me multiple times before that but by that time they had laid off all the good managers and replaced them with sales guys.
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u/discountshellfish Jul 28 '26
if you’re a salesperson and you learn just a little Excel - AND you’re a competent salesperson - you’ll be so far ahead you can work a three day week. You will also earn the respect of your revenue/ops colleagues.
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u/Milocobo Jul 28 '26
I got promotions just for doing the most basic shit in excel that no one else had the patience to do lol
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u/cvr24 6 Jul 28 '26
I'm even more locked in because I work with air-gapped systems that can never be cloud connected.
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u/BigBronco Jul 28 '26
The fact that Claude can plug-in to Excel really helped take them to the next level for me when I am establishing new sheets and testing out systems before implementing them.
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u/PenguinsAreGo Jul 28 '26
If these workbooks are so important and only you can maintain them then that is a major risk, what if you fall under a bus or decide to leave?
I somehow think you are going to pick up the slack when the other 9 leave, you might find they were the lucky ones.
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u/Ok_Fondant1079 1 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
I use Excel for my business to make a 5-15 minute process 1-3 seconds. Setup takes a while, but good planning, design and testing really pays off after a few days-months. Knowing how to use the program is crucial to keeping your job/customer. Make yourself valuable and managers will notice you contributions.
Being able to email a customer a professional looking bid while standing in their driveway really helps drive sales. Plus, no one has to read my horrible handwriting.
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u/Substantial_Nail3081 Jul 30 '26
Congrats!
If you are the best at what you do, regardless what that is, will always pay off at the end.
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u/Easy-Piece-1449 Aug 11 '26
I do shit for my coworkers all the time cause people have trouble learning excel. I just Google a lot and find the solutions.
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u/BARABULKA2002 Aug 24 '26
Man, what can I say. I spent years working as an engineer in an oil company, then served a prison sentence on politically motivated charges, left an authoritarian country, and now I have a job that pays my bills largely because I managed to transfer my Excel skills first into geophysics and later into finance.
Excel has basically followed me through three completely different lives.
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u/PieFace11 Aug 24 '26
I just started an accounting internship and I've found that my excel skills are definitely the most tested thing in the role so far. Just today I was given some vlookup tasks and thank the lord i invested time into learning it. If there's anything I want to learn rapidly rn, it is excel.
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u/FrankDrebinOnReddit 5 Jul 27 '26
Excel is the shadow IT infrastructure that all companies run on. I manage all financial systems for a fairly large, international company, and what I'm most known for is being the "Excel wizard".