Read a student's account of a past session in our Management Leadership and Development program below. For more information, about MLDP, click here. This session is now offered as part of Rocky Special Ops. Learn more and sign up for the Spring 2012 session here.
On Sunday, November November 6th, MLDP held a special optional session focusing on Excel training. Drawing on their workplace use of Excel, Lindsay Blodgett ’10 and Tom DeFalco ’09, current Associates at the Parthenon Group, taught session attendees the fundamentals of the program. Mr. DeFalco and Ms. Blodgett introduced Excel theory and skills the group, using a comprehensive, pre-prepared Excel workbook as a step-by-step guide to Excel functionality, with integrated practice examples. They highlighted the most pragmatic uses of certain Excel capabilities in a professional setting.
Students began by learning instrumental Excel skills such as spreadsheet navigation, and gradually moved through more advanced concepts, such as writing mathematical and logical formulae, formatting, and database analysis. Mr. DeFalco and Ms. Blodgett shared examples of spreadsheets they have created in their professional roles, and demonstrated the Excel functionalities on which they most heavily rely.
The two presenters noted that the training that students were receiving was very similar to a three-work course that they and many other employees are given in the beginning of their job training. They concluded the session by encouraging students that the best way to become proficient at Excel was simply to practice, and sharing that even they had a hard learning curve with their first on-the-job experiences with Excel. Nonetheless, students left with a greater understanding of the program that they would most likely use in their future employment.
-William Lowry ‘13