Upskilling Tips for Excel

By Grace Edwards, Misha Manani and Lydia Marshall

As a team, we aim to guide and inform publishing hopefuls and employees to break into the industry in an entry-level position or progress in their careers. We explore our top tips for different departments, the key terminology, job preparation and application support, to name a few. We have also interviewed several publishing professionals so you can read about different perspectives and experiences when trying to learn and develop. In this issue, we reflect on our first issue with additional information and advice on using Excel with departments, specific tasks and courses. Almost every role uses Excel, so there is no escaping it!

Departments in Publishing

Sales: When thinking about which departments use Excel, you probably thought about sales first. It is an excellent software for creating reports, analysing sales figures to forecast trends and managing orders. This team can streamline their workflow and make informed decisions aided by the formulas, functions and charts Excel specialises in.

Editorial: This team uses Excel for various tasks involved in the desk editing process (manuscript to publication), including creating a list of author endorsers and log submissions. There is usually an overlap between what editorial teams use Excel for and how sales, production and marketing implement spreadsheets.

Production: Excel is a key tool as it helps them create and manage production schedules, catalogue inventory and estimate costs. They oversee and control many different operations and track milestones for different stages of publication, such as editing, proofreading, typesetting and printing. This is efficient for personal work progress on Excel.

Marketing: You would use Excel to organise and track marketing campaign timelines, manage budgets and analyse engagement and outreach data. This can support you by managing consumer data through reading audiences. Marketing teams can make data-driven decisions to enhance their campaign effectiveness.

Courses

Free Courses

Microsoft Excel Basics: A series of step-by-step videos on how to navigate Excel and use its features. Tutorials include how to use formulas and functions and how to create cells and pivot tables. You can also download templates to work on what you've learnt.

W3Schools Excel Tutorial: This course highlights the most important aspects of Excel. Active learning activities are also available so you can have fun whilst learning. The values given in the tutorial can be copied and put into spreadsheets. This makes it easier to follow along and quickly grasp the concepts. You can also keep track of your progress on your account.

Paid Courses

Microsoft Excel Complete Course – Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced: This Level 3 CPD accredited course appeals to people of all levels who want to be more proficient in Microsoft Excel and become stronger candidates for job roles. Participants get the offer of lifetime access to 126 lessons. After you complete the course, you are awarded a free PDF certificate from Training Express and a PDF certificate from Reed. The course costs £12.

Microsoft Excel Beginner To Professional Course: This course includes twenty nine videos with tips and useful exercises that help to improve Microsoft Excel skills. A wide range of topics are covered, and the course costs £12. Upon completing the course, you will receive a free certificate from Reed.

Our Upskilling Recommendations

Grace: My favourite Upskilling article I have co-written is “Upskilling Tips for Interview Tasks.” This particular article stuck out for me because I found researching the different ways in which employers may test your suitability for a role within publishing fascinating. I found it both engaging to write about and extremely informative as someone who is still looking to start a publishing career.

Misha: I really enjoyed the series we wrote that shed light on the publishing industry in different geographic locations in the UK, e.g., Wales, Scotland and Northern England. This is because publishing is London-centric, and it’s not possible for many people to live in and commute to London. I loved discovering work experience opportunities, publishers and industry organisations and sharing our top tips for immersing yourself in publishing regardless of where you are based. Your location should not be a barrier to breaking into the sector.

Lydia: The upskilling article that has stood out to me the most is “Upskilling Tips for Publishing Schemes.” It was interesting to learn about alternative ways to get into publishing. Some of the schemes that I discovered were the Hachette UK Traineeship, Blake Friedmann Literary Agency and the HarperCollins UK Marketing Manager Traineeship. Finding and applying for publishing roles can be overwhelming, so focusing on the different schemes made the process easier for me.

Thank you for reading our one-hundredth issue: Firsts and Favourites! Join us in the next one, where we will cover Upskilling Tips with the Society of Young Publishers (SYP).