Landed the SA offer at a BB (yay), but now the impostor syndrome is hitting. My Excel skills are a bit rusty.
I keep hearing that speed is everything for interns. Is there a specific resource or drill I should be doing for the next 2 months to get my keyboard shortcuts down? I don't want to be the bottleneck at 2 AM
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Bump, same here
Totally get the impostor syndrome, literally everyone feels it. For Excel, speed helps but honestly just knowing the right shortcuts is enough to not feel useless at 2 AM 😅
My advice: just pick the stuff you’ll actually use: Ctrl + Arrow to jump around, F4 to lock cells, Alt + = for SUM, Ctrl + D to fill down. Then grab an old model and redo it a couple times—time yourself if you want, it actually sticks. Even 15 min/day for a few weeks makes a huge difference. You got this 💪✨
bump
Doesn’t make sense to practice excel shortcuts when you don’t have any of the actual materials you’d need to shortcut around. The muscle memory of shortcuts is not from simply memorizing QAT functions, but it’s more so “oh shit i need to make these edits in 20 minutes” 10x a day.
To answer your Q: yes you could get fired for being too slow. But you’d get at least 2 formal, strong warnings before that happens. Most of the time for interns it would simply result in not getting a return, you’d only really be fired for doing something unethical.
Do these things on day one and simply just FOCUS. You are young and your brain is the most neuroplastic it will ever be right now. Don’t underestimate how much you can learn quickly if you simply do nothing but live and breath your job for 10 weeks:
1. Each time you’re assigned something, ask your analysts if there’s any precedents you should start from / look at to understand what that particular senior wants to see. Build nothing from scratch (unless you have some stupid project but that’s different)
2. Ask your analyst how they move through excel or PowerPoint faster. You’re looking for: can i copy your QAT shortcuts, do you have a shortcuts cheat sheet at all, what are the most common mistakes i should look out for to double check my work before I send it back to you
3. Set timers. The first advice you’ll get is to “never spin your wheels”, which means if it takes you longer than 10-15 minutes to make progress or figure something out, ASK FOR HELP. Most tasks you’re given should take anywhere from 30 minutes - 2 hours to turn in completely, when you are HALFWAY through something - pause and send an update letting your analyst or associate take a look to see id they like where you’re headed. Do not STOP making progress when sending this update, you’re simply overcomminicating and if you’re totally in the wrong direction you’ll get flagged before wasting your time completing it the wrong way.
Do all of this and you’ll get the return, good luck
Why don’t you prepare for your internship by doing an Excel course like WSP?
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