Is VBA useful for Consulting Career?
Hello guys.
I've secured an internship at Roland Berger for the next year, and I'll have some free time next semester to develop some useful skill.
Is VBA a good thing to learn? I'm looking for something that can make my life in consulting easier, accelerating my career.
I already know intermediate Excel: vlookup, hlookup and pivot tables.
Should I learn VBA next semester, develop more my excel skills, or so anything else? I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks :)
Go for it! I picked up VBA in college too. There's a book called "Power Programming in Excel" i have that is a gold mine for VBA and really all you need.
Along with this, make sure to pick up on Access, databasing, SQL basics as well. This is a reminder to myself too, I should make sure to stay fresh on this stuff.
Congratulations for getting the internship, RB is a fantastic firm. I would really advise against learning VBA or anything else that's more complex than the standard tools of theMS Office package if you're looking to pick up such a skill just to increase your value for the internship.
This is coming from someone who used to code (C, C++, VBA, VB.Net and a few other languages that were already used in ancient Rome I think) and who spent a few years in strategy consulting. Frankly, for most of the interesting types of engagements that I am sure are what attact you to consulting (growth strategy, restructuring, new product development, M&A) you dont need more than Spreadsheet-based analysis. There are a few odd cases indeed where massive amounts of data will need to be looked through but I suggest you try avoid those as they may have you end up in a windowless room somewhere where you as the data kid spend weeks of inputing and shifting through data. If you proudly present yourself to your straffer as a VBA pro, that type of engagement will quite likely come your way.
If you want to maximise your value as an intern in terms of specific tools now, I suggest you become a real ninja in Excel and Powerpoint. Your manager will love you. Apart from that, reading widely to become a little more up to date with current events in politics, business and economics would be good.
In case you already have maxed out these areas or just want to learn VBA, go for it, it's really fun (just not that relevant in consulting).
Wow, really different opinions here hahaha.
InterestedinVC, had you some situations in Consulting where it was useful knowing VBA?
M2, so it's more useful to master Excel first? Do you suggest some subjects, books?
Actually not really a difference in opinions. IiVC mentioned that he picked it up, I then said it's a great thing to learn but can't recommend that as a prep for your internship.
Yes I think Excel wizardry will be useful for a while in your career. Focus should be on knowing how to build clean, well-formatted and error-free models in no time. There's a ton on the web (Macabacus etc.). Try to internalise hotkeys and learn how to operate without a mouse - much quicker.
Come to think of it, I haven't used VBA too much. There are times I'm doing things in Excel and think to myself, "I could probably come up with a macro to make this go quicker" but then I realize how long it would take for me to figure out how to code it. Seems easier to do things manually usually. I'm no pro at VBA however.
I'm only ~ 1 year removed from college, @m2 's advice supercedes mine. In fact, I'm going to apply what m2 said.
Yes, I definitely agree becoming an excel master is #1. Hotkeys, advanced functions, pivot tables, etc. I definitely stand by what I said regarding databasing.
There are many, many times when being skilled at VBA will let you write a macro to do something more quickly than you could do it through spreadsheet/formula-based analysis. There are very, very few times when you would HAVE to use VBA for something.
How much time it could potentially save you depends on how well you know VBA--it will almost never be the case where investing significant amounts of time into learning how to write a particular macro will pay off, but if you are already good (and quick) then it may make sense.
So basically it comes down to:if you like coding and have free time now to learn the language, go for it. If you aren't interested, don't bother. Not knowing it will not hurt your career.
Hello guys
Well, it seems like I'll go back to my excel studies, and become better at the software. There is some material that you guys recommend, with advanced exercises and all?
And VC, what exactly do you want to mean when you say databasing?
I mean learning how to use MS Access, the database functions within Excel, maybe the basics of SQL code.
I feel like VBA can be incredibly handy for just about any job where you're using a computer
Thanks for all your opinions, guys :)
I'll be contacting my future manager on Roland Berger to know his opinion, too, but probably I'll be studying advanced Excel for the next semester, and just take a look at the basics of VBA
Learning basic programming is always useful and worth it. If you are just learning VBA syntax this is a huge waste of your time but if you learn how to think like a programmer (even at a basic level) it's worth every minute spent.
^ This. Being able to think like a programmer is incredibly valuable. It offers a completely different approach to problem solving that things like an Economics/business background might not teach you as thoroughly.
To answer your original question, Yes, I think it's useful to learn VBA. At some point, you'll likely face some large task that VBA could help finish in a fraction of the amount of time that you could otherwise. Personally, I've found learning it to be an extremely clutch capability, especially whenever we have periods of our project that are excel/data-heavy.
Personally, I took a Saturday afternoon a couple of months ago and just went through a crash course...then I tried to learn one new capability/trick every day for two weeks. Even THAT amount of effort probably increased my work productivity by 15-20%.
The great thing with hotkeys is once you learn them and show off as people watch you go on your computer at work, people automatically assume you are an expert at Excel. Life is all about perceptions I think.
My hiring preference:
Analyst w/ Excel & VBA skills > Big 4 Analyst/Consultant w/ PowerPoint formatting skills (which I generally find that they only have this skillset, and little Excel).
You're already ahead of many consultants I know in the industry.
its more than just learning VBA. Gain an understanding of SQL. Learn a bit about MS Access and how to create what amounts to mini systems for your team. Those 'mini-systems' may become a prototype of a larger IT project. Who will they turn to at that point for an in depth understanding... its you!
When do management consultants choose to use VBA macros? (Originally Posted: 12/11/2017)
As either an intern or full-fledged consultant, what VBA macros have you seen used often? Alternatively, what VBA macros would you suggest that an incoming associate learn? Thanks!
I've seen some idiot-proofing with dialogue boxes from former consultants. I don't know how common that is overall, but they seemed to use them frequently.
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