IT training - ECDL or equivalent - advice wanted

[GrumpyGregry]

If it's not in PowerPoint, I'm not reading it.

Clearly you work with Accenture. Nice deck, shame about the lack of reality.

 

[Tin Pot]

Clearly you work with Accenture. Nice deck, shame about the lack of reality.

Reality? You can't handle reality. Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You?

 

[SteveF]

Clearly you work with Accenture. Nice deck, shame about the lack of reality.

Or PWC, KPMG..... Etc

 

[srw]

Or PWC, KPMG..... Etc

McKinsey are the worst by far. They don't even pretend they're not regurgitating your own thoughts on their overstuffed "slides".

 

[srw]

If you need help with Excel befriend someone in Finance, don't ask IT.

But accountants are terrible at Excel. Anything more complex than =SUM and they're lost. And their idea of spreadsheet controls...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

McKinsey are the worst by far. They don't even pretend they're not regurgitating your own thoughts on their overstuffed "slides".

TRU.DAT.

Not matter how uninformed the thoughts too, I found.

 

[the stupid one]

No longer understanding a bloody thing in this thread!



Clearly I need to take some courses . . .

 

[Oxo]

No longer understanding a bloody thing in this thread!



Clearly I need to take some courses . . .

May I suggest ECDL as a good starting point.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

But accountants are terrible at Excel. Anything more complex than =SUM and they're lost. And their idea of spreadsheet controls...

Finance are good at vlookups and pivot tables.

 

[Tin Pot]

TRU.DAT.

You'll need TRU.LOG as well if you want a functioning database.

 

[srw]

Finance are good at vlookups and pivot tables.

Oh no. No. No. Absolutely not. Vlookup and pivot tables are black arts for all* the finance functions I've known. They run "advanced Excel" courses which hint at such mysteries.

In the meantime I have to try and interpret spreadsheets which use =INDEX because VLOOKUP is a bit rudimentary. And use it even when simple cell references exist, and work, and are easy to understand.




*n=1

 

[Ming the Merciless]

ECDL?

Eh, Computer, Does, Lots?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Oh no. No. No. Absolutely not. Vlookup and pivot tables are black arts for all* the finance functions I've known. They run "advanced Excel" courses which hint at such mysteries.

In the meantime I have to try and interpret spreadsheets which use =INDEX because VLOOKUP is a bit rudimentary. And use it even when simple cell references exist, and work, and are easy to understand.




*n=1

Well, all I can say is that in my last permie gig Finance Operations, the bit of Finance I ran, employed Excel ninjas.

Who have since left.

=INDEX id for those nobbers who need a database but only have excel skills so use Excel instead.

I'm surprise anyone interprets anything in Excel. Surely, as an old boss used to say, "That spreadsheet is hearsay, who knows who ****ed the data in it and how, give me the numbers from the primary system"?

 

[srw]

Sometimes the numbers in the primary system need wangling* - or collating from multiple primary systems. Your average legacy mainframe system can't cope with a simple bit of Basic Chain Ladder modelling, let alone Extreme Value Theory or Gaussian copulas. And the systems which can are deficient in their reporting capability.


* a technical term....

 

[Tin Pot]

I'm surprise anyone interprets anything in Excel. Surely, as an old boss used to say, "That spreadsheet is hearsay, who knows who ****ed the data in it and how, give me the numbers from the primary system"?

Quite so.

Which brings us back to:

But accountants are terrible at Excel. Anything more complex than =SUM and they're lost. And their idea of spreadsheet controls...

If it's more complex than SUM() it should be developed in SQL by trained developers adhering to a recognisable SDLC.