It all started when as an Internshala Student Partner, I was intimating my college mates about the importance of learning new skills through Internshala Trainings. The trainings and their content piqued my interest, and I thought about enrolling in their Advanced Excel training since being a management student, I knew it’d come in handy. Even though I was a bit skeptical about taking up an online training, I enrolled in it after reading a few reviews and experiences of students who had previously completed the training.
The training was divided into 4 modules, and each module had an assignment along with a test. The first module familiarised me with the basic operations and formulas of Excel, and I went on to learn about the features such as Paste Special, LOOKUP function, sparkline, advanced charts, data analysis through various charts, and conditional formatting. I also learnt to summarize data in a spreadsheet through pivot tables and to put hyperlinks in a cell along with file protection and an advanced filter.
The training was so interactive that it felt like a two-way conversation. The assignments were based on real-time industrial data which let me get my hands dirty on some practical applications of Excel. The training also had an option to download the videos which made sure that internet was never an issue while learning the advanced techniques of Excel. During the training, I faced some issues while working on flash-fill, scenario manager, relative performance, etc. but with the help of the live chat support, I was able to resolve all my doubts. There was a Q&A forum where I could post my questions and get an answer within 24 hours.
After I completed the training, I started looking for internships. I applied to a summer internship at Pepsico, wanting to get a chance to work with Varun Beverages Limited. Soon after, I received an email mentioning that I was shortlisted for the internship and they’d like to schedule a telephonic interview. The interview revolved around my educational background and marketing knowledge along with a few questions on MS-Excel, which was a primary requirement for the internship. Next, I was called in for a face-to-face interview wherein I was asked why I chose to pursue a career in sales and marketing, what were my strengths and weaknesses, and why would I be a good fit for the internship.
The interviewers also asked me to walk them through my resume followed by a few questions about the PepsiCo products. Since Excel was an important criterion for hiring the intern for this position, I was asked quite a lot of questions evaluating my knowledge of the subject such as the difference between VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP. Thanks to the training, I could answer all these questions without the least bit of difficulty!
As a sales and marketing intern, I was responsible for analysing the activity in the market and presenting it in a spreadsheet. I generated Keep Performance Initiative (KPI) of employees along with targets like year till date (YTD) and month till date (MTD) and added the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) in Excel sheets. Throughout the internship, I used the knowledge I had gained during the internship. I found lookup features, data analysis, sorting, filters, table functions, and conditional formatting particularly useful while recording and managing in-person communications between Varun Beverages and its market community, exploring and monetizing data, keeping stock, and onboarding the merchants. The Advanced Excel training not only helped me get this internship but also helped me in making my internship an absolute success.
About the Author: Mukul Agrawal, a student of IPS Business School, enrolled in the Advanced Excel training from Internshala. He shares how the training helped him during his internship at Pepsico. This story was first published on Internshala, an internship and trainings platform.
