Job interview - Microsoft Excel test

[Jerms]

Hey,

I have a job interview coming up in the oil and gas industry and it requires me doing an excel test. I've never experienced an interview like this before and currently my job does require me to work with some basic excel functions but nothing too crazy. I was wondering if anyone has had to demonstrate their excel skills during an interview and what kind of things were asked and were they difficult or easy? I'm kind of expecting it to hard and i'm also confused on what I should be studying. If there's anyone that can comment on this, i'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

[GQBalla]

not unheard of.

did they give you some specifics they were looking for?

[bubbley]

What position is it for?

[spike98]

Im assuming you have some sort of education implying that you have had some excel training in the past, right?

Study that.

[bubbley]

Learn VLOOKUP and you will be laughing all the way to the bank. That will be as complicated as this test will get...

[sk8r3124]

As a bare minimum,
know inside and out:
Pivot Tables and Vlookups

Whats the position you are being interviewed for?

[Jerms]

no specifics - just straight up "there will be an excel test"

I did take Econ 311 and did use some excel back in university but I don't have my notes anymore nor do I have access to get information such as study guides, examples etc..

I've googled "excel testing, job interview excel testing etc." but there wasn't any strong references.

It's for a market development position

[bubbley]

Originally posted by Jerms
no specifics - just straight up "there will be an excel test"

I did take Econ 311 and did use some excel back in university but I don't have my notes anymore nor do I have access to get information such as study guides, examples etc..

I've googled "excel testing, job interview excel testing etc." but there wasn't any strong references.

It's for a market development position

hmmm...definitely pivot tables in this case as the above poster mentioned...some graphs...vlookup

[sk8r3124]

If you need any specifics, PM me, all I do for 8 hours is excel.
80-90% of it is vlookups and pivots.

[BigShow]

Pivot tables!!! Maybe macro functions, data importing and lookups

[FraserB]

make sure you can link graphs and data to other applications as well and have them auto update.

[BrknFngrs]

Originally posted by sk8r3124
80-90% of it is vlookups and pivots.

:werd: Probably the most useful functions in excel, I would be shocked if this wasn't the focus of the test.

[gqmw]

Yep vlookups and pivots, I highly doubt it'll be harder than that...it's not like they want you to fail...

[adam c]

going to need to know formulas and how to write the correct one as well, i had to do an excel test for a staffing company once

i had my own way of writing formulas but apparently there was a different way they were looking for so make sure you know different variations

and as stated before, vlookups, pivot tables, macros and i would review the basics of vbscripting so you can show them you know how to edit macros to complete more functions

[topmade]

Not sure what kind of test it is, but I took one a while ago and it was done on a pc and you had to do it with the exact steps. Even if you cilcked one option and was like oops, it's not this one, then clicked the right option, you already got the question wrong. So remember exactly where the options are that they are asking for. Also the options are not exactly the same with excel 03 vs 07 so you may want to call up the receptionist to see which one you will be tested on.

[sabad66]

You guys really think that he would need to know VB scripting and macros? Pivot tables and vlookup for sure but not those..

[ntegra98rs]

they're only going to ask him to do VB if he said he could do VB.. its not implied that you know how to write macros just becasue you know how to use excel...

[adam c]

Originally posted by sabad66
You guys really think that he would need to know VB scripting and macros? Pivot tables and vlookup for sure but not those..


yes when i was tested they asked me to look at a vbscript and correct what was wrong, it was a simple if-then-else statement but i still tested on it
as for macro, it was asked how to create one to do the following... then you had to do the steps

[Jerms]

I've never done any VBscripts or any macro's of any sort.

I actually did speak with one of the interviewers in regards to what version and it'll be on 03' excel

Thanks for the inputs and comments, I appreciate it!