Which coding would you recommend someone starting out in S&T to learn?

Question

Trying to prepare myself for an S&T internship at a BB this upcoming summer. I wanted to hear some input from people currently in the field. How would you rank the three: knowledge of Excel, VBA, and Python as far as importance when starting out as well as continued use. Also, if there is something else that would crack this top three feel free to add that in. I wanted to get a head start for this summer by learning these things as I'm sure they will be useful no matter where I end up and believe it could be possibly quite interesting to learn. Any input would be appreciated.

CentralBanker · Accepted Answer

"youraverageinbred"
Trying to prepare myself for an S&T internship at a BB this upcoming summer. I wanted to hear some input from people currently in the field. How would you rank the three: knowledge of Excel, VBA, and Python as far as importance when starting out as well as continued use. Also, if there is something else that would crack this top three feel free to add that in. I wanted to get a head start for this summer by learning these things as I'm sure they will be useful no matter where I end up and believe it could be possibly quite interesting to learn.

Anonymous Monkey · Answer

I think it all depends on what kind of desk you will be on and the type of background of the people working on the desk have. This past summer I was on an options desk (not a BB) and the traders were all very technical and as a result, I coded most of the summer using VBA and Python.

Like many said above, VBA and Python should be the only languages you should really know but I would suggest that you spend some time building your own projects.

browniverson · Answer

Just learn python and know excel shortcuts my guy

Brody2311 · Answer

The day to day things you will do in excel can be learned on the fly - pivot tables/lookups etc. learning python will not only make using VBA easier for times when you need it, but can then be used for other projects.  Whoever commented above about doing a project you are interested offered great advice.  Simply going through the motions and typing commands off of a YouTube video won’t reinforce how to actually code.  Find some areas you are interested in, build the code / analysis around that, and google the bits and pieces in between where you get stuck.

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Which coding would you recommend someone starting out in S&T to learn?

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Which coding would you recommend someone starting out in S&T to learn?

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