Excel 2007 vs 2003. Do you use it ? Do your clients use it ? Do you think eventually everyone will make the switch? Thoughts and comments appreciated.
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when i was interviewing with some PE shops/merchant banks a short while ago, they were giving me modeling tests in Excel 2007. I'd been using 07 for the past 6-7 months prior to the interviews. At my current firm, we use 07. A good number of companies have made the transition at this point.
What kind of things did you have to model? Is this pretty much standard when interviewing at PE shops?
Different places did different things. Anyway here's the breakdown.
Buyout shops/mezzanine funds/co-investments: lbo model (or a similar model, looking for IRR, Cash on Cash, preferred returns) sometimes a generic template was provided (i was shocked to receive one), other times it was from scratch.
Write up consisted of deciding whether or not to do the deal/make an additional investment.
One place just provided the filings and projections. Others provided the assumptions in excel and you had go from there. Others handed me a 3-4 page write up detailing the potential transaction and I had to build the model from scratch, and then describe what the transaction would mean for the firm.
Merchant banks were similar but since they also did investment banking, it was also modeling out things like sale-leasebacks, liquidations, putting together valuation analyses (comps, dcf, lbo).
They would give you 2-3 companies to do the comps since you had to build those from scratch. Since all firms use CapIQ for comps, they want to make sure you know how to check it.
Excel 2007 is far better. If you don't use it, I suggest getting onboard asap.
During the summer my firm was still using '03 and when I asked why they didn't use '07 they said that they were having trouble integrating software since a lot of the software is built in house and incompatible with the new excel.
completely disagree.. 2003 is a lot better for power users... it's really going to suck when our BB has to switch over. i would say you should probably start using 2007 just for the future.. but 2007 is not better.
Yeah I have mixed feelings. I guess the only better feature is smaller size and the bar at the bottom lists average, sum, etc. all in one, while in 03 you have to choose. Other than excel 07 is crap considering they made it a pain in the ass in terms of layout, I mean all the old shortcuts work but they could have at least left a similar layout...
The major question is, you think eventually everyone will switch.. or you think a new excel will come out by that time?
As much as the layout sucks, 2007 is a lot faster. It takes advantage of multi-core processors and can manage 2gb of ram vs 1gb for 2003. Some of my models go way too slow on 2003. If you have all the shortcuts memorized it shouldn't be too painless of a switch.
Big fan of 2007.
I was tutoring a class in Excel and the class made the immediate switch from 03 to 07, so I had to learn the stuff ASAP. It was a bit odd at first but once you get the hang of it then it's a load easier.
I think most people that don't like it just aren't used to it yet. The navigation is a lot easier for me now but it was confusing at first.
I agree completely. It is a big change, but it is far better and much more efficient. You can access literally every command without touching the mouse now whereas before that wasn't always the case. You don't even have to memorize keyboard commands with the Excel 2007 because they are shown onscreen as you utilize them.
what did you have to touch the mouse for before?
maybe some secondary windows (e.g., chart building...although i think most of that was doable w/ keyboard). i haven't yet attempted this in 2007
i'm just starting on excel 2007. seems to me that the way it displays the keyboard keys for all the menu options could be good, but i still feel like i have to remember where they are because they're so damned many of them...so that's about the same as 2003. i did internship + 2 years analyst at a BB in a modeling intensive group and i'm now about 15 months into my associate job in BB private equity. i feel like I knew where every menu item was and i was used to quickly identifying the shortcuts (alt + key) for anything i didn't know. now i feel like i'm learning this sh*t all over again.
I laughed when i read the comment above that the only good thing was the bar at the bottom displaying sum, average, etc. that was my initial impression as well.
hopefully it gets better...
let's not forget excel 2007 lets you have around 64,000,000 rows whereas 2003 only lets you have a measly 64,000.
has anyone used the BBG add-in with excel 2007? does it work just as well as 2003? what about TT?
I am trying to learn Excel 2007... but fuck.. it is a piece of shit !
I use 2003 at work and have 2007 at home 'cuz of a laptop I just purchased.
What is up with scrolling thru a worksheet using a mouse... can't seem to do that in Excel 2007. I can sroll thru menu options and help functions, but can't scroll around a worksheet, have to use the arrows or the scroll bar to the right or on bottom of worksheet. Incredibly frustrating.
Anyone having this problem?
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