A day in the life

Arriving early to the training building I was feeling a little anxious as I don’t consider myself an academic. This was this first educational training I would take on since finishing high school, be it a program (Excel) I was familiar with. I’d completed the Excel training online beginner course. But it still does not compare to a class room style instructor led training.

As I entered the training room to see rows of computers, a projector and the trainer. I picked a spot up the back and started looking through the detailed manual! Not overwhelmed but definitely seeing a challenge ahead. I sat and waited for the class to begin, the trainer broke the silence and introduced himself with confidence. Asked my name and proceeded to talk about the day’s activities ahead.

Maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew.

We began at 9am sharp with some familiar areas of Excel. This was settling and I started to think I will be able to handle this stuff no problem. The trainer continued through step by step and I started to notice that I was doing a lot better than first expected “It seems the online training is paying off” I thought.

Before I knew it lunch break was called and I was wondering where did all the time go? We agreed on a shorter lunch break much to my despair, but it was a majority vote.

After lunch we got started on formulas and I thought that my refreshed state would assist, but formulas when you have no experience using them in a real world scenario they are very alien, so this was a brain strain. Luckily the trainer was there all the way with us never pushing the pace to fast, it was an odd communal relationship that dictated the flow of the information shared between us all something that never happened at high school!

We pushed through and after getting through formulas and feeling pretty good about it all. Knowing with the right situation I would be able to apply what I had learnt at work or wherever needed. We then started on pivot tables and this was also new to me but with the most difficult part being you need to find the data to use to work with them they ended up being fun.

I could see the many advantages of using them for large amounts of data.

We ended the day with some easy and fun word art which we all agreed was no longer needed in Excel except for very unique situations. In the end I realised my anxiety was misplaced and that I’m not the useless academic I thought I was, well not as much anyway! I am now looking forward to taking on the Advanced training and possibly the Power BI course. Thanks for taking part in my experience till next time. Rory