Spreadsheet Deep Dive - MMM #19

Hi there,

Still extremely busy with exam season. By the time you read this I’ll be getting ready to set the Analysis of Strategy A exam and I’ve got an Accounting exam tomorrow. Last week I focused on finance, also my exam last Friday, and started keeping an eye on the /r/financialmodelling subreddit. I’m excited to share some of my finds with you.

📃 In today’s mashup:

• ⭐Highlight: Excel shortcuts on steroids

• 🎓Skills: Spreadsheet Competency Framework

• 💽Data: Normal Distributions Everywhere (literally)

• ⏭️Next

Have a great week!

⭐Highlight: Excel shortcuts on steroids

I came across this really cool macro pack or productivity add-in for Excel that’s provided by Gridlines as part of their free course: Essential Financial Modelling. It’s no secret that I’m a big Excel fan and I really like my shortcuts (to the point that I modified my keyboard to record macros on the fly).

Anyway, if you want to get better at financial modelling, and want to build models super quickly, check out the free course below.

Essential Financial Modelling | Gridlines Training Academy

Core financial modelling skills that analyst should know.

academy.gridlines.com

🎓Skills: Spreadsheet Competency Framework

We all claim to have “Excellent Microsoft Office skills” on our CVs but how can we quantify that? This week I came across the Spreadsheet Competency Framework by ICAEW (the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) which categorizes spreadsheet users into different competency levels.

This is particularly useful when conducting job interviews, however you can also assess yourself against it and see what the steps are to reach the next level. It’s a really comprehensive document so a good one to save for future use.

Spreadsheet Competency Framework | ICAEW

The framework is a structure for assessing ability and proficiency when using spreadsheets.

www.icaew.com

💽Data: Normal Distributions Everywhere

An interesting Reddit post showing the distribution of elevation on our planet. You can clearly see two normal distributions, one for the oceans and one for the continents.

Distribution of elevation and depth across the world [OC] : dataisbeautiful

DataIsBeautiful is for visualizations that effectively convey information. Aesthetics are an important part of information visualization, but…

www.reddit.com

⏭️Next

Today was hopefully the last of the shorter newsletters, as I’d also like to get back to writing my own blog posts again. With exam season nearing its end there should be more time available for these side-projects.

Have a great week!