[Pete]

My internship has ended a month ago; however, this question has been plaguing me, ever since.

I was told that I performed fairly well at the internship. My only weakness was my excel skills. Unfortunately, I was not offered a full-time position at the end of it, like I was expecting. They even did a background check on me, the last week of the internship, which led me to believe I was going to be extended an offer. Yet, unfortunately, the offer didn’t come. I was told they had already hired for all available positions and that I should “keep in touch.” They told me to let them know when I had completed the 150 credit hours and that I wouldn’t need to do another background check, if I was hired within a year. In addition, they advised me that they would be more than happy to provide a positive reference.

I asked the person, who provided the feedback, if he honestly felt I did well; he mentioned that other than my excel skills, I performed fairly well. I was also told that my background check came back clean.

I even asked several partners how I performed and they stated that nothing negative about me was mentioned. One added that he would push for my full-time employment. Since leaving, they have been open to referring me to others within the firm.

Do you guys believe this “keep in touch” was a “brush off” or do you believe they were honestly just not hiring at the time? Someone I have kept in touch with at the firm also was expecting me to receive an offer and has told me he was hearing a ton of positive feedback about me. I’m honestly just baffled at the whole situation.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[M123]

The Excel feedback is very big and absolutely universally valid. Trying to read into what motivated a decision is counterproductive. The productive thing to do would be to kick tail on boning up on Excel. You can buy MS Office for personal for $10. You can get great trainings on the youtube. Learn to do sumifs, vlookups and pivot tables and charts to start. The next interview you go to can be an explanation of how you are driven to learn Excel and show what you can do.

Regarding the other part of the question – you can take time to reflect on performance, what worked, what didn't, what you can do better, and what you will do to improve. But I encourage you to not obsess about it as it is a negative energy sink and almost all conjecture.

[Birdman]

Where can you buy MS Office for 10 dollars?

FAR- 74, 78 (10/15)
BEC- 73
REG- 65, 88 (05/16)
AUD- 7/16

[Pete]

I plan to call the firm to find out, which excel courses they recommend, after completion of the 150 hours (very soon). Would this be a good move?

I really am not looking forward to going full-throttle on the job search, yet again, but I guess that's what I will need to do :(.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[MeanJoe]

Personally I would not contact the firm and inquire with them which excel courses they recommend. You can learn a lot of excel functions through youtube or websites dedicated to learning excel.

I would familiarize yourself with IF/AND/OR functions, nested IF/AND/OR functions, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, Index+Match, Pivot Tables, Conditional Formatting, Text to Columns, keyboard shortcuts, Sum, Sumif, basic formatting, MAX and MIN, Count, Countif, ROUND, LEFT, RIGHT & Concatenate functions, Cell references (absolute & relative)….more and more

I would look into take a basic excel class on Edx or Lynda… Youtube is great as well.

Honestly if you dont know how a function works or how to use it I would literally google it.

[Missy]

Honestly I'd just take them at their word about all the available slots being filled. If excel was really any kind of deal breaker they wouldn't have gone so far as the background check. The 150 credits was probably a bigger factor imho and you're already pursuing that. Meantime check out the series of excel is fun videos on YouTube.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

I work in industry and Excel skills are very important to me as a hiring manager. In fact, I probably wouldn't hire someone if they weren't fairly proficient in Excel or I at least felt like they had the capacity to learn. However, I may not be in the norm. I am younger and am very automation/efficiency oriented. If you are still looking to meeting the 150 hour requirement, you could try finding a college course that would help enhance those skills.

[Author]

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