While it might seem like a basic choice compared to the other technologies we covered, I selected Excel because I know I’ll use repeatedly throughout my career. I realized that while I can navigate Excel’s basic functions, I haven’t fully explored its more powerful features that could make me significantly more efficient. The original training did a solid job covering fundamental formulas and basic data manipulation. However, I think it could be improved by proving more real-world datasets. The examples were clean and simple, but messy, realistic data would better prepare us for the “real world”. Showing how Excel works alongside other tools (importing from databases, exporting to other applications) would be valuable. I also wish the training mentioned more keyboard shortcuts.
This refresher reinforced that sometimes the most “boring” skills are actually the most practical ones. This semester, I want to focus on building a toolkit of versatile skills that complement my technical programming abilities.