Inc. SA - Am I Cooked?

Incoming SA at a BB/EB and slightly panicking about Excel/PPT.

I’m starting as a summer analyst soon and honestly don’t know much Excel or PowerPoint beyond the basics.

How much am I actually expected to know on day one? Am I screwed if I’m not already fast with modeling, formatting, shortcuts, and building slides?

I’m not trying to show up clueless, but I’m also not sure what level of technical Excel/PPT ability analysts realistically expect from interns at the start. Is this something people learn on the job, or should I be cramming hard before I start?

Would appreciate any blunt advice on what I absolutely need to know before day one.

4 Comments
 

I expect all my interns to be retarded and useless because it helps me avoid being disappointed. That doesn't mean I'm going to recommend retarded and useless interns. If you want to impress, then be impressive. That is the way to think about it. 

Yes, a lot of skills are learnt on the job sure, but do you want to be learning powerpoint skills or picking up other useful things because your brain is only going to have so much learning capacity each day.

 

Fantastic way of putting it. There is only so much capacity out there to learn and I agree that having sharp excel and PowerPoint skills before starting opens up so many possibilities to get some real responsibility. But if OP is reading this, don’t worry, just grind harder than anybody else in office and network with guys you’re working with and you’ll be fine.

 

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