Incoming MBB BA - How To Prepare?

I am an incoming BA at Mck out of undergrad, US office, starting early 2024. I am trying to figure out how to prepare, as I have very limited knowledge of Excel. 

I am looking for a specific course to do that can help me get up to speed. I found an online Data Analytics Program from UT Austin, that teaches the following concepts over 3 months: Python, Excel, RDBMS Business statistics, Data visualization (Tableau), Querying data with SQL, Exploratory data analysis. It costs 2.2k. 

Are these topics relevant for an incoming BA? Is this course worth it?

Is there another course that I can do to get up to speed on Excel and any other relevant topics? 

8 Comments
 

Not worth it man. You’ll get training on the job and they have dozens of free resources when you start it. Just enjoy your freedom until you start

 
Most Helpful

Do what you want if it makes you feel better, but none of this will help tbh. There's no replacement for the on-the-job training and that training is meant to start from scratch.

If you have literally never opened Excel, sure, spend like 2-3 hours playing around with it to understand how it works. But some advanced VBA course or something will be an impressive waste of time.

 

I remember asking basically this same question while I was waiting to start my MBB full time job years ago. I was told to not worry about it and years later I think that is the best advice. You will have plenty of on the job training and taking a course like that likely be an expensive waste of time. 

My recommendation: Go try something new you are actually interested in, travel if you have the funds, go work at a start up, get some more real life experience. Or if you are interested in getting an MBA at some point, prep for and take the GMAT now. Once you start full time you will have significantly less free time to dedicate to it. 

 

Thank you so much! This really helps me, I appreciate it. I'll figure out something else interesting and fun to do, I was just worried I was behind. I will consider taking the gmat (though I am not sure about the mba right now but we will see in the future). 

 

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