Friday, July 25, 2014

Overcoming Obstacles

Over this past week I had the opportunity to expand my duties as an intern.  While I was doing meaningful work in the past, it was the type of work that didn’t require much room for creative thought, like researching properties or building exhibits for certain documents.  Now, I’m learning to build financial models through Excel, something that I am extremely excited to be able to learn since I feel that it is very useful to know for my future. 

At first, Excel seemed a bit daunting since it looked like a completely new language to me, but after a bit of studying up I really surprised myself that I was able to use it so effectively in such a short period of time!  Excel seemed pretty cut and dry to me at first, but now that I am actually using it to create important documents, I am realizing that there is a lot of ways to build a formula and that it is up to the individual to piece together the puzzle.  The satisfaction that I get from making these formulas work together to build a model is reminiscent of my childhood days as a passionate lego builder putting little insignificant pieces together to build something of substance.  I’m looking forward to furthering my skills over these next few weeks and I hope that I can maintain this level of enthusiasm as time goes on.

4 comments:

  1. I always worry that my computer skills aren't always up to par compared to the rest of our tech savvy generation. It's good that you picked up Excel so quickly. Also, you're lucky to have been given more meaningful work. It's much better to have something of substance to do instead of stuffing envelopes and fetching coffee!

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  2. I have also learned how to do a lot with excel. It's great that you're feeling so comfortable with it now

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  3. It's great that you the ability to expand your skill set and learn something new and extremely valuable at your internship. Not only was it an important lesson, but it's cool that you enjoyed learning it and connected it to your childhood.

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  4. Alec,

    From personal experience, I know that learning a new soft wear can be a bit terrifying, confusing, and most importantly frustrating. If you keep up the good work and practice you will have a valuable skill that you can market when you are looking for a job in the future. Keep practicing and you will get the hang of it!

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