Mac dilemma
Sorry for the long post.. revolves around owning a Mac and if I should buy a Windows Computer.
I am a junior at a non-target. I just learned the basics of financial modeling last spring, have a strong knowledge of finance at this stage in the game, and have very OK Excel and PowerPoint skills. “OK” being generous. I understand the importance of these basic skills and am about to start some BIWS Excel/PowerPoint classes.
I feel very confident in my knowledge of finance, and the technical understanding of financial statements. But if you can’t work efficiently and make presentable work it does not matter.
I landed a SA position at a BB bank for summer 2021. I bought a Mac going into college, love it, but we all know the limitations when it comes to financial modeling.
Does it make sense to buy a nice Windows laptop to practice modeling and PowerPoint skills?
Was in a similar position last year. Bought a Windows laptop, ditched my Mac and used the Windows laptop throughout the year. Granted I didn't make the purchase purely for the sake of strengthening my shortcut skills, but having it for all my classes and projects all year really improved my usage of shortcuts come time of my internship this summer. I would say go for it, but just keep in mind good quality laptops can be expensive and depending on your budget it might make more sense to use a PC or school computer if you really want to practice shortcuts.
Thanks a lot, I was thinking about waiting until Black Friday this year for a sale as well.
I actually ended up buying a thinkpad (https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/deals/doorbusters?IPromoID=LEN489409&sort=sortBy¤tResultsLayoutType=grid), when they went on a really steep sale earlier in the pandemic. Literally got the whole thing for only $600 with great specs. I also think there's still a pretty good deal going on at the above link^. Ultimately, it's impossible to say how much you'll be expected to do from home over the next few years, so decided to invest in a thinkpad just for a laptop with more work-oriented capabilities. However, I also am a solid Mac user so I bought this with some money I made last summer as my second laptop, where I do a lot of my computing projects and excel work.
I think the question is, how much do you value your Mac?
Thanks for the advice and link. I live my Mac for personal use, but it is a true pain for a lot of my finance related school work.
I bought a Dell XPS 15 for college and was very grateful to have it for all my classes that used Excel. The Dell XPS laptops are about as close as you can get to the design and build quality of a Mac though they are still a ways off. I now use a Mac for my internship at a PE real estate firm, it's kind-of a drag because I had to relearn a bunch of shortcuts and a number of other things are different but even still, I am glad I learned on Windows.
If one already has a Mac, is there a downside to loading Windows on to the Mac.
You have to partition your hard drive and you may end up corrupting your MacOS.
Thanks:) I agree, partitioning is messy business. Reinstalling a corrupted MacOS is a lot simpler than reinstalling Windows, but one could end up losing one’s data.
There's gotta be a better solution to all of this than partitions and double-excel licenses.
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