Spreadsheet skills are asked for in a huge range of entry-level roles — accounts, operations, HR, sales support and administration. You do not need to be an expert; you need to be reliable with the basics.
The core skills
- Clean data entry and formatting — consistent dates, number formats and clear headers.
- Sorting and filtering to find records quickly.
- Basic formulas — SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, MAX, and percentages.
- IF for simple rules, e.g. flagging overdue invoices.
- Lookups — VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP (where available) to pull data from another table.
- Pivot tables to summarise large data sets in seconds.
- Simple charts for weekly or monthly reports.
A practice project
Create a small sales or expense sheet with three months of made-up but realistic data. Then: total it by month with a pivot table, flag entries above a limit with IF, look up product prices from a second sheet, and make one clear chart. This covers most interview tasks.
Proving it
- Mention specific functions on your resume, e.g. “Pivot tables, XLOOKUP, conditional formatting”.
- Be ready for a practical test — many employers give a short Excel task.
- Consider a structured course; see free government learning platforms.
Tip: Google Sheets supports most of the same functions, so you can practise for free if you do not have Excel.
