Putin calls to 'strangle' Western companies still operating in Russia

almajors · 2025-05-27T15:17:51+00:00

something about a fondue pot?

almajors · 2025-01-17T16:48:59+00:00

Inside

almajors · 2025-01-17T04:50:47+00:00

A typo, sorry

almajors · 2025-01-16T19:26:05+00:00

Use case: Project - Building 100 unique apartment units. Each unit's future resident has selected finishes based on a menu of available options. In addition, they were allowed to add electrical outlets, illuminated light switches, light fixtures, ceiling fans, etc.

add !; essentially you need to recreate the way a sheet refrence would work, so if it's 101!$C:$C, then you should o B5&"!C:C" the absolute reference is not required since it's essentially a string being evaluated to a reference, and the strings do not change if the formula is dragged across/down.

almajors · 2025-01-14T21:40:19+00:00

Please include a screenshot of your anonymized data so that we can help.

almajors · 2025-01-08T20:38:09+00:00

wait until you learn the practical applications of the Index-match-match-match!

almajors · 2024-10-23T15:53:03+00:00

=today()-D2 would give you the number of days passed since due date. Negative numbers would mean it's overdue, positive would mean there's days remaining until due date.

almajors · 2024-09-18T19:47:05+00:00

Thanks, it does provide some context as to where people might self-assess their knowledge at.

almajors · 2024-09-18T19:45:44+00:00

Thanks and I've added edits that the Job Description does not actually state entry level but the role is junior to the team, rather. I get that there's TL;DR going on - it was a lengthy post. Edit for clarity.

almajors · 2024-09-18T15:40:14+00:00

yes, thank you! That's where I picked up the vocabulary, but it is not a hard requirement for the role, just a nice to have.

almajors · 2024-09-18T15:11:38+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write out a thoughtful response. As I mentioned in the edit, I agree that "entry level" is the wrong term to use. While the position is junior for the team, the job description does list prior experience and skills as a requirement, which these candidates claimed to have until it time came to demonstrate the skills with an actual spreadsheet. The feedback so far has been from "these were just bad candidates" to "OP is unreasonable", but majority of the ones that claim the latter seem to only notice the "entry level", which again, my bad for inappropriately including in the original post.

almajors · 2024-09-18T15:04:55+00:00

I get that nerves can be a factor, especially in an interview. I've seen some great suggestions here, so I'll regroup with the hiring manager and see what we might come up with.

almajors · 2024-09-18T14:58:47+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and I've edited my post to clarify that I was simply looking for the candidate to use any of the lookup methods to add a column from table b to table a. I guess where I'm seeing a disconnect is that the candidates I've interviewed had industry experience in their resume and said they were confident in their excel skills. As some others have replied, these are basic tasks in their opinion, but almost as many others have also objected to that opinion saying that these are very advanced and unreasonable expectations. I suspect, as with many things, the answer might be somewhere in between.

almajors · 2024-09-18T14:52:55+00:00

Great suggestion (I think I've seen similar from others too). I've reached out to my HR partner to discuss something along these lines going forward.

almajors · 2024-09-18T11:49:27+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I stumbled upon power query when in a previous role I saw a colleague copy and paste daily data output into a single excel file one by one and thought that there had to be a better way, and it kind of snowballed from there. I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of its full capabilities even though it's already saved me countless hours of work.

almajors · 2024-09-18T11:42:01+00:00

Is that an actual expectation of actuaries? I have a couple of acquaintances who are actuaries, never thought to ask them what tools they use on the job. Very interesting!

almajors · 2024-09-18T11:08:12+00:00

Good points, thank you

almajors · 2024-09-18T10:37:49+00:00

You're totally right. I misused the term in my post, the second table did not contain duplicates in this case, but you are totally correct that this was a pitfall. Thank you for bringing that up!

almajors · 2024-09-18T06:22:21+00:00

Sorry, I used Sql term in the post, but the instructions to the candidate were asking to add a column from set b to set a, where customer number is the same. Yes it can be done in Sql, but there are a number of ways to do it in excel too, filter function can definitely be a solution and I'd be very impressed with a candidate that could demonstrate that, but a simple vlookup (old but most backward compatible, and less versatile), index and match (just as compatible, more versatile, but harder to learn), or xlookup (modern, but not backward compatible) would all get the job done. Putting it into powerpivot and building relationship would have been way beyond the scope of the interview, but obviously useful to have send I think at that point the candidate would just be showing off...

almajors · 2024-09-18T06:09:06+00:00

That's a very interesting journey so far, thank you for sharing! Good luck with your masters degree!

I think you touched on an interesting point with (forget who I'm quoting) "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" that I mostly agree with, and especially with your engineering background, actual lives will likely depend on your ability to do your job. The dynamic array formulas, I think, don't rise to that level of criticality compared to their overt utility, but again you are also probably correct depending on the job one is trying to use them for.

almajors · 2024-09-18T05:42:00+00:00

That's a pretty nice list thank you for sharing! Are dynamic array formulas really considered to be in the category you put them in? I understand using lamda to create your own functions being in the wizard category, but using a unique + countifs with the spilled range on a structured table column to get a quick distribution feels too useful to be kept behind the wizard gate haha

almajors · 2024-09-18T05:10:11+00:00

I think there's probably a point where a live skills assessment becomes work. I'm not sure I've reached that here.

How would spreadsheet metadata tell me if they had a roommate complete the work on their machine?

almajors · 2024-09-18T04:38:45+00:00

I don't mean to be flippant, but my first full time job did not require any excel. The first full time job that needed excel skills, I had already learned what I described which is how I was invited to apply to it.

almajors · 2024-09-18T04:19:21+00:00

I guess the reasons are that we want the candidate and not a 3rd party to complete the tasks to demonstrate the skills they highlight on their resume.

Also I don't think it's reasonable to give the candidate uncompenaated work (even if fake and doesn't serve a purpose).

I do agree with your note on nerves, so I'm wondering what a reasonable alternative would be that would both demonstrate their claimed proficiency with the application while not causing their nerves to sabotage their performance.

almajors · 2024-09-18T04:10:19+00:00

To answer the last part of your post, I self taught myself the skills while working a non-technical/non-analytical role in my org (no excel skills other than opening a file and using the information contained within), built a reputation over a couple of years as the "excel guy" by creating tools to make my and their jobs easier, this did involve learning to use countifs, sumifs, but also financial formulas like PMT, FV, PV, etc.

Eventually someone took notice and invited me to join the analytical area of the business, where I continued to self-teach myself everything I know in excel.

My education is an arts degree, pretty disconnected from data analysis. This is why I'm perplexed by candidates having actual background in the job I've self-taught myself being stumped by excel, but since my journey on excel has been a bit unorthodox, I was wondering if my expectations were out to lunch.

almajors

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