Financial Modeler's Corner

From Campus to Spreadsheet: The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge Journey

Jan 18, 2024

Excel MVPs share their experiences at the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge. The importance of data cleaning and organization is discussed. Financial modeling skills and contestant introductions are highlighted. Benjamin Weber shares his experience and excitement for upcoming competitions. Excel's role as a foundational tool for data analysis is emphasized. The new features in Excel, such as lambdas and dynamic arrays, are explored and their benefits in financial modeling explained.

55:26

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Quick takeaways

Competing in Excel challenges helps students improve their skills and gain exposure to data handling and manipulation, which are highly valuable in the corporate world.

Excel serves as a foundational tool for learning analytical thinking and data handling, providing students with a solid grounding in generating valuable insights and developing critical thinking skills.

Deep dives

The Benefits of Competing in Excel Challenges

Competing in Excel challenges helps students improve their skills and gain exposure. It allows them to handle data effectively and manipulate it in various ways. Excel's user-friendly interface and diverse capabilities make it a powerful tool for analyzing and visualizing data. The skills acquired through these challenges are highly valuable in the corporate world, where spreadsheet software is widely used for financial modeling and data analysis.

Introduction

2min

Excel Collegiate Challenge: Passion, Competition, and Magic of Power Query

13min

The Importance of Data Cleaning and Organization

12min

Financial Modeling Skills and Contestant Introductions

2min

Benjamin's Experience in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Championship

6min

Excitement for an upcoming competition and reflection on previous competition experience

2min

Excel as a Foundational Tool for Data Analysis

15min

Excel's New Features: Lambdas and Dynamic Arrays

4min

Packaging Lambdas as Functions and Revolutionizing Model Making

2min

Welcome to Financial Modeler's Corner (FMC) where we discuss the art and science of financial modeling with your host Paul Barnhurst. Financial Modeler's Corner is sponsored by Financial Modeling Institute (FMI) the most respected accreditation in Financial Modeling globally.

In this episode, we have a special treat for you with multiple guests who attended the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC). At the beginning of November, Paul had the opportunity to spend a day at the University of Arizona campus and watch these students compete and talk to commentators, spectators, competitors, and faculty, and we have brought you a few of those interviews.

Listen to this episode as:

Excel MVPs, Oz Du Soleil and Jon Acampora share why they attended the show, what they love about the competition, and the magic of Power Query
The host of this competition, Prof David Brown talks about MECC.
The winner, Patrick Chatain and 3^rd-place finisher Benjamin Weber share their experiences.
Missy and Teresa from Salve Regina University, talk about why they started with Excel as they were building out a data analytics business program.
Craig Hatmaker shares everything about LAMBDA's and 5G modeling components.

Quotes:

“[How does MECC benefit students in the real world] Sometimes we get sponsors to actually write cases that are based on what they do . S o it gives them real-world experience of what they would be doing, which is invaluable w hen you're interviewing for a job . ....... ” - Professor David Brown

“ [Do you feel like you're better in Excel today for having competed] When I started competing, I didn't even know what Lambda, let alone dynamic arrays and all of that was. Now I know most of them and I think those are pretty good functions with pretty good use cases. So I think that made me a much better user in Excel. ” - 3rd Place Finisher Benjamin Weber

Sign up for the Advanced Financial Modeler Accreditation or FMI Fundamentals Today and receive 15% off by using the special show code ‘Podcast’.

Visit www.fminstitute.com/podcast and use code Podcast to save 15% when you register.

Go to https://earmarkcpe.com , download the app, take the quiz and you can receive CPE credit.

Follow Oz du Soleil :

YouTube - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozdata/

LinkedIn - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgOVykPoRbSZQfY9YysiRQ

Follow Jon Acampora :

Website - https://www.excelcampus.com/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonacampora

Follow David Brown:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-david-c-brown/?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name

Follow Craig Hatmaker :