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Episode 18 - From Campus to Spreadsheet: The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge Journey 

Paul Barnhurst
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Show Notes

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 3rd-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 5G Lambdas and more.

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. So it gives them real-world experience of what they would be doing, which is invaluable when you're interviewing for a job........”

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.”

Benjamin Weber

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In today’s episode: 

  • (00:43) Intro;

  • (01:44) Interview with Oz Du Soleil and Jon Acampora;

  • (19:51) Everything about MECC with David Brown;

  • (25:43 - 26:30) Validate your Financial Modeling Skills with FMI’s Accreditation Program (ad);

  • (27:30) Interview with Benjamin Weber;

  • (36:34) Interview with Patrick Chatain;

  • (41:28) Interview with Missy and Teresa;

  • (48:38) Interview with Craig Hatmaker;

  • (54:00) Outro.

Full Show Transcript

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Welcome to Financial Modeler’s Corner, 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.

 

Welcome to Financial Modelers Corner, where we will talk all about the art and science of financial modeling with distinguished financial modelers from around the globe. I am your host, Paul Barnhurst. The Financial Modelers Corner podcast is brought to you by Financial Modeling Institute. FMI offers the most respected accreditations in financial modeling.

 

This week, we have a special treat for you with multiple guests who attended the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge. At the beginning of November, I had the opportunity to spend a day at the University of Arizona campus and watch these students compete and talk to the commentators, talk to spectators, faculty, and I've brought you a number of interviews, and I can guarantee you this is an episode you won't want to miss.

 

First, I had the opportunity to interview Oz Du Soleil and Jon Acampora. They were the announcers for the event, but they're so much more than that. They're both Excel MVPs. They announced these events on ESPN, they are known worldwide for their Excel skills, and they bring just a unique style and flair, in particular, Oz. Oz is someone you won't want to miss.

 

This is a great clip, it's nearly 20 minutes long. They discuss why they attended the show, what they do for a living, and we also talked about the magic of Power Query. So without further ado, we'll go ahead and roll that clip.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So I'm here with Oz and John. Thanks for joining me for a minute.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Thanks for having us!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

John, what brought you to the competition here?

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

I just love watching these college kids compete in Excel. A lot of them are very new to Excel, so it's fun to see the challenge that they have to go through in learning a lot of new skills all at once. I think we've had years and years of experience with Excel, so approaching these cases a little different, and it's cool to see them have to figure it out.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

How about you, Oz?

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

What brings me to this? Being asked and saying yes, right? And then I don't know. What brings me, okay, more precise.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

Like writing a formula.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

You hard-coded the question, whereas we had to put some relative references in there so that I can answer this problem. I like the competition. I like the challenges because they're always interesting. Some of them can be contrived, but they get you thinking and have conceptual like one is around how many loads of laundry do you have to do to have a full outfit? That's one from the past. But when you have to pull out interesting functions in order to get at that and think it through, those are fun. And they expand what Excel can be, and people learn and have fun.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I like it. Jon, got a favorite memory, from coming here, this is not your first one, right?

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah, last year was a lot of fun! I think last year we saw kids from all over the world, which was cool to see kids from Madagascar traveling here.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Wow.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Took them like, what, two or three days to get here.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Five layovers, you know.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah, just to get here. It's cool to see the passion at such an early age for Excel, which is what we all love and know, but to see the younger generation, that's great.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And, Oz, what do you enjoy about doing the announcing? What do you enjoy about it?

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

I like the intensity of the competition. And last year, seeing people with placards and rooting on their favorite teams, that's a lot of fun.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I bet that would be really fun. I'm excited. This is my first time being here and I’m excited to see that.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

The spirit, the college spirit is cool, yeah. They've written out signs and placards…

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Felt like a football game back there!

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Yes, well here's the thing. Last year was the first year. This is only the second year.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

So I'm hearing about the Esports arena. Okay, I'm thinking about some conference room that's got some printed-out thing taped on the door, but to get in there and see the glow of the neon and the gaming chairs and the fancy computers and stuff, this was a true arena, not some janky splat up thing that they’re gonna down once the event is over.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

That's cool! So next question for you. Tell me, how did you get into Excel? What do you do today for your business? A little bit of what you're doing, Jon, I know you have an Excel business and a website. Tell our audience a little bit about that.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

So I think that's another thing that actually brings me to this event, is that I was a finance major in college, going into the workforce, into the kind of real world, I didn't realize it was going to be Excel all day, every day. I started having accounting jobs,  I did FP&A jobs, and it's just Excel all the time, twenty-four seven, right? And I loved it, fell in love with it. For me, Excel is like just this, when I open up a blank workbook, I think it's like a blank canvas, probably like an artist looks at a blank canvas and they're ready to paint. That's kind of how I approach Excel.

 

It kind of built my passion with solving problems. So, fast forward, I always liked worked in FP&A, 2015 I left my day job to run Excel campus full time, and now I run Excel campus, which is the website, YouTube channel. We sell online training courses, stuff like that. So I turned my hobby, started back in 2010, into kind of a passion and then a full-time business and career and I’m doing that now.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

That's great. Thanks for doing that, John. How about you, Oz?

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Well, mainly right now I have my YouTube channel and my course is on LinkedIn and I've written a few books, but primarily LinkedIn and spread the gospel of Power Query.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I love Power Query.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

You do? What do you love about your Power Query?

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I think just so much time combining files and putting businesses together. So for me, I'll tell you a story about how I started.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

All right!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So I really didn't know what it was, I heard about it, took a new job, was trying to figure out a way to access this big, huge data set. All of sudden a I started reading up and, well, there's Power Query and Power Pivot. I used access as the back end for my models. I didn't know what I was doing at the time, but I got rid of that and kind of built it all out. It was like, wow, you can put all this report together and find all these. And I was just amazed. But it allowed me to access a bunch of data from our ERP where they’re all downloading your report, trying to match it with their actuals to figure out what was going on. And I combined that all into one data model and they eventually built it as a queue for those companies. And that's how Power Query started. Then it allowed me to continue just building reports and I started to learn Power BI, and it transformed. We had terrible data, I had a ton of mapping, but at least it gave me a way to turn it into SQL, and get an IT in there to have a more stable solution, which when I was there never happened, then I left and they hired somebody to actually do it right. It allowed me to get access to the data and provide the reporting that I couldn't have done without.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Right! Empowering your damn self! That's right! You don't have to go through IT and DBAs or business analysts begging, getting down on your knees and kissing their ring and stuff. No, you kiss your own ring. That's right.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

DIY data analysis!

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

That’s right! Yes! Yes! My introduction to Power Query was when I had seen it. But what is this thing? But then a client sent me a document, a spreadsheet,  basically I had to unpivot some data, right? So, I was looking at this because they want maybe let's say the top five or something and I got this whole matrix. I remember seeing a video that Bill Jellen did on unwinding a PivotTable. I never thought about PivotTable. I saw somebody do something called Unpivot Column in Power Query, and I went in there and boom, there's this flash of light, and I think I saw Jesus. You all think this is funny, but yeah, I did. This light, this blinding light, when that thing unpivoted, tears came out of my eyes.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Amen.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Amen.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

But yeah, I didn't have to go find that unwind and pivot table because I had started thinking about what formulas I can write, how can I peel this part with different formulas… Unpivoted. And then when they introduced the six joins.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, the joins agree.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Lord, yes. Being able to bring data together, peel it apart with anti-joins, do comparisons, do the inner joins…Power Query!

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

That's funny, that was the same experience for me. The introduction to Power Query was also unpivoting. But I've been writing macros, in fact, I wrote an add-in to essentially do complex unpivots. And I was sitting next to Ken Puls at one of the first MVP summits that I went to, probably 2014 or 2015, and I was showing this ad in, and he's like, oh yeah, well, you can do that with Power Query. I'd heard of Power Query.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Like, what are you talking about?

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Essentially there were some conflicts on pivots, they had headers up at the top of the sheets and multiple headers and columns, right? So there were some stuff that had to happen there, but he walked me through it because he's one of the experts.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, no, I know. I've watched his videos and website. He knows his Power Query.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

His was one of the first books I read about Power Pivot and Power BI, his and I can't remember the other guy's name, he used to work for Microsoft. He had another book. I bought the two books right at the same time. That's what kind of guided me as I was figuring it out.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

So that was my come to Jesus moment with Power Query. Ken was my Jesus.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

He'll appreciate that, I had someone on the FP&A Today podcast, Kathy Svetina, and one of the questions we ask everybody is, what's your favorite thing about Excel? She goes, when I figured out Power Query, she goes, “angels came down”, and it was similar to your experience. It was great. I remember her saying “and rainbows”, she was all excited, it was very similar to your experience.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Yes.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

In the world of data, it is a game changer.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

It is.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Get the message out. I'm glad you're talking about it because someone's going to hear this and give it a shot.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I hope so. It is amazing how few people still use it. I mean, it's getting better every day it gets better, every year we keep reaching the message. But I almost wish we started with highly structured data and Power Query and then top formulas for a lot of people for data. Just because I feel like you would have that background structure that you need. The formulas are great and you need to use them in Excel. There's something to be said for just combining the two together, it just changes the application.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

I 100% agree. I think one challenge with adoption is that Power Query started out as an add on.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yes.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

And it's still very much, it's on the data tab now, which is great, but it's still very much an added tool.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

It's its own program in many ways, right? It locks the rest of the application, you’re in a completely different screen. There's an adoption learning that you don't get with general Excel.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Exactly. I mean, it slows it down a bit. Hopefully, in the future, Microsoft can figure out a way to really integrate it fully. Like you're saying you have step one in the data analysis process, at least in my opinion. And it's not step one in Excel yet. Maybe someday, because I think it would really open up adoption and just save, you know,  I had a story someone posted on LinkedIn that said they're saving their company 8000 hours a year or over two years, $500 grand saved, and essentially time expenses with just some relatively simple power query tasks that were all done manually in the past.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I believe it.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

That's life-changing.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Yeah. And I've gotten messages from folks, like literally life-changing. I talked with a lady who got out of an abusive relationship, had no skills, got this kid and now she's a single mother all of a sudden, and she just messaged me that she's been moving up, that now she's like the CTO sidekick.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Wow. It's awesome.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Wow. And a lot of it is Power Query, and then she added on some Power BI. I don't do Power BI, but she thanked me for that foundation of Power Query.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, it is a natural to go to Power Pivot and Power BI in order to learn Power Query. I mean, not everybody does, but yeah, it's a nice intro. I find it's a good way to kind of get yourself your feet wet and start to learn if that's where you want to go.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah, absolutely.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

And that can open up a whole different conversation because I've never had to do true analysis. Usually what I'm doing is bringing stuff together from disparate sources.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, you're just cleaning.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Exactly, cleaning up or correcting the data because they are migrating to their first database in a company. Some company of two people is now ten people, and now they can't keep email and stuff all around. And so can you bring all of this stuff together, dedupe it, split columns, put columns together, make everything uniform so that then it can be fed into a database. That's a lot of kind of stuff that I've done. Sometimes they just want to know how many of something, but I still got to bring it all together, all of that stuff, and say, okay, 37.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, the end answer may be really simple sum, but you’ve got five different sources. It's like, okay, how do I get it in a data structure that I can easily sum.

People make Power BI seem so simple. If you have a cleaned up data model and all you're doing is visualizing it, is all good and simple.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Sure.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

But when you have to figure out how to create that model and clean up all the data, that's where the work is. Yeah, we're all on the same page there. That's where I spent all my time. It's like throwing it into a simple sheet and visualizing. That's the easy part, getting the count. The hard thing is whatever else that needs to be done, and matching, because there's ten different ways to spell the word delta, which you never do. Delta air, Delta airline, Delta Air group.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

All space, altogether, misspells, yeah. But when a person knows how to clean data, first of all, it's a certain breed of person who's willing to do it. And once you have that person mold it, cherish it, because that's the power. Because, I've worked with a medical school that would postdoc students. They know all the analytical stuff. But what about getting that data clean? Or like, these tests would go into a portal that was maybe like five rows high and eight columns wide and a blank space, and then another test, blank space, another test. But then the results would come back in one tall column, but now they got to put it back into this 5 x 8 with the spacing.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

It's interesting to think, like, we live in this world of data, right? There's no shortage of data, but in order to analyze it, you have to prepare it. I don't know, I just kind of wonder, like, what percentage of data is actually ready to be analyzed. And you're right,  not much.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Not much.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

People don't realize, studies show the average FP&A professional spend I've seen anywhere from 45% to 75% on non-value-added activities. The biggest one, they'll call that data prep.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Interesting.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Right? I've heard sometimes that  50% of the time can be spent on prepping data to do the analysis. That's why so much money is being spent on all these tools that connect to different systems and trying to find different ways. I can tell Oz is really excited, he loves all those other systems.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Oh yeah, I love them. I have people asking, you know, why isn't data cleansing taught in colleges and stuff? Well, data comes in all kind of crazy ways.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

There's not one simple framework of here's how you clean your data.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Exactly right. Because you got one vendor over here who's dealing with data one way and another vendor, and then customer service and marketing is over here and now, you got to bring all this stuff together.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

It's a digital set on itself.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

It's a matador, right? You get the cape and you can't be scared of this bull that's coming because it's coming. You got to be elegant and let it pass.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And on the elegant note, not to keep you guys too long, I’d love to keep going. I can go forever.

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Maybe Oz can pull out the sword or something

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

That’s what I was waiting for, I’ve seen his video with the sword. Maybe it’s a snake, you know, when he pulls the snake out. I remember that.

 

Oz Desolay:

OOh, pulling the snake out!

 

Paul Barnhurst:

How about we do this! Just one last question here, and I'll let you guys get back so you can do your announcing. Tell me, if someone wants to learn more about you, where can they find you. Jon?

 

Guest: Jon Acampora

 

Yeah, I'm at Excel Campus.com and maybe YouTube channel, Excel Campus. So that's a great way to follow me.

 

Guest: Oz du Soleil

 

Look me up on LinkedIn and my YouTube channel, Excel on Fire.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yes. I have both of them on my subscription list.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Our next guest is professor David Brown from the University of Arizona. He runs the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge, and he joined us for a few minutes to talk about that experience, also about his experience as he was getting ready to compete in the Financial Modeling World Cup, in the Open Championship. And so we'll go ahead and roll this clip. This next clip is, again, David Brown, professor at the University of Arizona and the one who hosts this competition.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So I'm here with David Brown at the Financial Modeling World Cup, and last week we were together at the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Championship. So, David, why don't you start by just telling us, tell our audience what that is? What is the MECC?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

The Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge is a program built for students to really expose them to Excel, to gamify it, to make it accessible to where students want to get in and learn more. It's so hard to get students' attention, and so we're trying to do it through a gamified approach to Excel.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And how have you found it's working?

 

 

Guest: David Brown

I think, really well! We see so many students that get really excited about it and want to start clubs and get their classmates involved. It's just a matter of getting the exposure and for them to understand what it is, and then they start going. But getting over that first hump can be the challenge.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And how does it benefit them? Like in the real world, what's the benefit for them as they go out into the workplace?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Well, I mean, a couple of things, right? Sometimes we get sponsors to actually write cases that are based on what they do. So it gives them real-world experience of what they would be doing, which is invaluable when you're interviewing for a job. You have a little bit more understanding of their work and that comes off in the interview. Beyond that, though, it's just learning how to critically think. I think that's what employers almost universally want, is someone that can solve a problem, that can think about it in a unique way and approach it. And these gamified Excel cases are all about coming up with different ways to approach problems.

 

One thing I love about being a competitor in this space is seeing how people approach problems differently, right? You put ten of us in a room, you're going to get ten very different solutions, even if they're all correct.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So how much of a better modeler would you say you are today because you've competed?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

It's a good question. I feel like fundamentally I'm no smarter than I was, and I can still critically think I am much more efficient than I used to be. The advances that have happened in the last couple of years, as far as dynamic arrays and just a myriad of other functions, have made it so I have tools that allow me to go much quicker than I used to. So maybe not a better financial modeler, but a more efficient one.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Makes sense.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

But I guess time is of the essence, so I guess that makes better too.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, you can do more and you can do it quicker, but it's not like the fundamentals of modeling have changed because you do this.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Exactly. And I'd say when I coach my students, I tell them, the reason you're learning the Excel functions and getting good at keyboarding is so you have more time to think.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

No, and that totally makes sense. I always like to say with the model, the assumptions, that thinking the critical is the important part. You can build the most beautiful model in the world, but if the assumptions are garbage, it doesn't do anyone any good.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Right.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And you can build a poorly designed model, but if you have really good assumptions, at least then, if it's right, you can make a decision off it. You ought to put both together. Obviously you want good design and good assumptions, but if I have to pick one, I'll take the good assumptions over the good design just because I can still make an intelligent decision with it.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Right. And the competition rewards good design because good design is more efficient, you get to the answer quicker. And so that's kind of the challenge of it, is how can I use all these different, unique tools I have to come up with a quick solution, not just a correct solution, which is kind of the minimum standard here.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And you're competing tonight, right?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

I'm going to try to.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

You’re going to try. How are you feeling? You feeling ready?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Ah, no! I mean, I put a lot of effort in the last six months into the MECC and getting it ready to go and also my students and getting them trained, and honestly, that's been the most practice I've put into this right now. Is just preparing like, hey, I want to teach you guys a little bit about Lana Banana or some other case. And so that's what's gotten me going over them.

 

I had a vision kind of back in August that I would spend a half hour every day working on this. And if I would have done that, I'd think I'd be a lot more comfortable now. But I didn't. And so I'm going to give it my best go.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

We always have those grand ideas and then reality hits. Family and work.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

It’s just a half hour. How could I possibly not do that?

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I think, you know, it's really all the questions I have for you today. Good luck competing tonight! Really enjoyed being in Arizona with you and seeing the students compete.

 

One last question. So can you tell us a little bit about just kind of how the competition itself went? Like what university won or was there anything exciting that happened in the competition?

 

Guest: David Brown

 

It's phenomenal! So overall, a great success. We built on the success of last year. It was the second annual. We had students from about, I think twelve countries from 20 plus universities come in. So there's really a lot of excitement, a lot of sponsors, too, that are showing the students that they are interested in these skill sets for getting jobs. And the sponsors are just so excited to see what the students are doing in this.

 

So overall, great excitement. I was very pleased to see the University of Arizona team on. So those were a couple of my students, two juniors and a sophomore, so we've got a good pipeline at U of A. And then Patrick Chatain, who is here, he was the individual champion. He was one of the finalists last year, so kind of great to see him go from being just out of the finals last year into getting first this year.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I know, I really enjoyed it! It was my first time seeing it and it was fun to see how excited the students were and just the learning that takes place. They all recognize that it made them better and that's really what it's about. And that's why I've become kind of fan of this type of thing is it does make you better. You learn, you learn from others, you learn different ways of how things are solved and how to do things.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

And then they're the ones that start to get their peers involved.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Exactly.

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Because you can get a marketing message on LinkedIn and you're probably not going to listen. Your professor tells you something and like.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

You're definitely not going to listen!

 

Guest: David Brown

 

Right? But your classmate tells you, or the upper classman that just got a really good job tells you that's where you start to get traction. And I think that's where we are more than we were last year, is more students are starting to spread the word and that's the key to making this thing reach more people and do more good.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

No, I agree with you and hopefully I'll be able to make it again next year and…

 

Guest: David Brown

 

We'd love to have you!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Good luck tonight!

 

David Brown:

Thank you very much.

 

Commercial break:

 

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Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Last clip was David Brown. Next up, we're going to have two contestants who both made the finals. We're going to have the winner, Patrick Chatain join us and also Benjamin Weber who placed third. We'll hear from Benjamin first and then we'll hear from Patrick.

 

Just a little bit to add about Patrick. Last year Patrick made the finals. This year he won the event and he also competed at the Financial Modeling World Cup in Vegas and he made the finals. He was in the ESPN and he was one step away from making the very final competition, the final eight. There were two semi-final rounds and he finished, I believe, fifth in his semi-final round, and the top four moved forward. So very impressive for someone in college. Super smart kid, and both these guys, very impressive, and you can see the benefit of competing had on their learning in college and how it better prepared them for the workplace.

 

So we'll go ahead and roll those clips next.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I have here with me today, Benjamin Weber. Benjamin is joining me from Austria. He recently competed in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Championship, and he's going to share a little bit about his experience.

 

Benjamin, welcome to the show!

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

Welcome. I'm pretty happy to be here.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, excited to have you. So why don't we start with you telling us a little bit about yourself, just where you're going to school, where you're located, those types of things.

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

Yeah! My name is Benjamin Weber, and as you have already mentioned, I'm from Austria, and I also go there to school in the capital city at the University Of Applied Sciences Technikum Vienna, and I'm currently living in Burgenland, which is a small region of Austria, southeast from Vienna, roughly 50km, for Americans, I don't know, 70 miles, I guess?

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Miles, I guess about 30 miles, 50 km ought to be about 30 miles.

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

Yeah, of course. And yeah, I'm 21 years old, and as you mentioned, third place in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Congratulations on third place! That's really exciting. That's quite the accomplishment. So I'm curious, why did you decide to compete in an Excel modeling competition? What got you involved in that?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I mean, to be completely honest, the first thing I ever saw of Excel Esport was when I scrolled on TikTok and just saw a random video popping up about ExCel Esport. And I just wrote to a couple of friends of mine, ExCel Esport, what's that, and can I compete and where can I register? And then I searched a bit at Google and found out about the FMWC and the MECC and the MBWC and just decided, why not signing up and trying it out? And it turned out it was a good idea to sign in.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So you found it on TikTok and you reached out to others. What excited you about it when you saw the video? Like, were you using Excel a lot before, or was it a new challenge or kind of what made you decide to dig into it when you saw the video?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

Since high school, I used Excel a bit and still continued it also in my private. I also used Google Sheets a lot in my private time and decided, I think I'm pretty good at Excel, but I did not think that I'm world-class or something like that. And I just decided, why shouldn't I try it out? Because I'm kind of the person who likes to try things out and it looked like a good challenge and so I thought it might be exciting to take part and that's why I chose to take part.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Got it. No, that's awesome. I appreciate kind of sharing the story. And did it turn out to be what you expected? Like when you did it, was it really challenging or was it easier than you thought, or what did you find when you started competing?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I mean, I started competing at the last FMWC stage in 2022. That was my first Excel competition, and FMWC I thought was really hard because I am pretty good at Excel, but I'm not that big of a financial modeler or in that kind of perspective. And all the different special terms in financial modeling were pretty difficult, especially with the English language barrier, because I went to a business high school, so I knew some of the names in German but not in English. I often had to translate it during the competition at the Financial Modeling World Cup.

 

On the other side, at the Excel Esports competition, I found it pretty difficult at the higher levels. I think the lower difficulty levels I could easily do, but then when it comes to pretty hairy Lambdas and something like that, that you need kind of, it was pretty difficult.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I can imagine. Yeah, I've done a couple of competitions myself and it's definitely easier at the lower levels and gets harder as you go. So do you feel like you're better in Excel today for having competed? Do you feel like it's made you a better Excel user?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I don't know if the thing that competing made me really better, but I think the after work, after I have done a competition, I look into the files and decide I could have done it this way and that way, and then you learn a lot of new functions. I mean, to be honest, when I started competing, I didn't even know what Lambda, let alone  dynamic arrays and all of that was. I mean, of course, they are pretty new functions, but I didn't know most of them and now I know most of them and I think those are pretty good functions and they have pretty good use cases and I really want to use them now and I use them. So I think that made me a much better user in Excel.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Makes sense. I appreciate that answer. So how about you let our audience know what are you studying in school? What do you want to do when you're done with school and what are you studying?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I am studying business informatics and I'm currently also working part-time at a software company in Vienna located, in the IT project management. And I'm also planning on staying in that kind of field of study in the IT project management.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Great. So the IT area, business informatics. So you'll be on the IT side of the business world, makes sense. What's your plan as far as competitions when you finish school, do you plan on continuing to compete in the Excel Esports or what's your thinking?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I mean, it made pretty much fun and so I have no reason why I shouldn't compete anymore. And I already bought the ticket for the MLWC for the season next year, so I'm pretty happy that I will be competing and I'm looking forward to this competition and hopefully, as successful as the last season.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Great. So I know in the college one you came in third place. Talk a little bit about what that experience was like in Arizona, seeing the other students competing and how it felt to come in third place. Tell us a little bit about that.

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

First of all, I think I have to say that it has been my first time ever in the US or ever outside of Europe, besides two small trips to just holiday resorts and also my first long-haul flight across the Atlantic. So it was a pretty exciting thing to travel also completely on my own. That's what made me a bit nervous, but I think everything went fine. And also once I went to Arizona and to Tucson, everything went completely smooth, and I already met some other competitors at the airport in Tucson, even though they didn't come with my plane. But we already met and we connected and also the connection with all the other competitors and guests and all of them was really nice and everything was nice and it was a really great experience to be there and to compete there. So I think it has been a really good experience.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Great. No, I appreciate you sharing that. And so I'm curious, what's your favorite function or feature in Excel? What do you like best about Excel?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I mean, the thing is, the first thing when Excel is, it's pretty simple and once you start it, you can just type it in and see within a few seconds already what you have done and you can change it really fast if you have done it with links and so on. That's kind of the biggest pro thing of Excel, I think. But also when coming to pretty complicated things, I really like those long formulas. Like using Xlookup is the best function. It's the best change x level introduced, I think compared to Vlookup and so on. And also as mentioned previously, those Lambdas, Takes, Lets and so on. Just playing around with them makes fun, I think.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Great. I appreciate you! I agree it can be a lot of fun to just play with different formulas and see what you can do. So I'm curious, outside of school, outside of Excel and work, what do you like to do for fun? What are some of your hobbies?

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

I'm a pretty big football or soccer for the american or australian, I think people fan. I am big fan of Schalken Ruffier. At the moment, we are in the second tier of the German Bundesliga, in a relegation zone, so it's pretty hard time to be a fan. But of course, you have to stay loyal, and so I really love going to games with a few of my friends. So I'm also traveling to Germany a lot of times just to watch football games. And besides them, I also play football and other games most of the time besides work and study. It's not that much of time, but I think I make the best of it.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, no, I remember the school days. You don't get a lot of free time, especially when you're working.

 

Well, Benjamin, thank you for joining me, enjoyed chatting with you for a few minutes, and good luck as you continue to compete in the competitions, and thanks again for joining us.

 

Guest: Benjamin Weber

 

Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Hello. I'm here with Patrick at the Financial Modeling World Cup. Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved in the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge.

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

Sure, yeah. So, as you mentioned, my name is Patrick Chatain, I just participated in the Collegiate challenge of Excel. I worked at Operis in financial model auditing. And if you know Michael Jarman, he's also an Excel star. He was my manager there.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Ah, s you worked with Michael Jarman. That makes sense.

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

I worked with Michael Jarman, and I saw he was doing all the competitions and stuff, and he encouraged us to do them. I didn't do much when I was there. I did one or two of the financial one, but they're pretty hard, obviously, once you're starting, that's the point of them. And then I went to do my masters at McGill, and I saw they launched the Collegiate Challenge, and I was like, okay, maybe now I have an edge at this because I know this and I'm a student. And it went pretty well the first year. The first year was online and I was second, and then from there, I was like, you know, let's practice more. Let's get more involved. And I started to do the general one and also the financial modeling one again, getting better every time. And now I'm pretty active in all this Excel Esports.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So how has it helped you as far as your career? What would you say are the benefits of it?

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

Well, definitely you get exposure so people know you, you get connections, you get people reaching out to you with opportunities and stuff. So that's what I'm going to be looking now that I'm finishing my studies. Yes, it's a different skill. I think the Financial Modeling World Cup obviously finances its target. Excel Esports, whether it does not have a direct application, to put it that way, we do it for fun, and it's like abstract problems, it does show critical thinking, it does show problem solving, it does show that you're a fun and nerdy person as well. So it definitely gives a good image.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Cool. And I'm curious, what do you like to do outside of work? What do you have for a hobby?

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

Outside of work? I like to cook, I like to do rock climbing. I like to play soccer as well, a little bit of video games and Excel. We all like Excel! Excel Esports!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Got it! Cool! And so do you know what you're going to be doing after you finish school or you already have your job lined up?

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

It's not lined up yet, no, I have finished my thesis just now, like within two weeks. So right now is the last stretch, and then I'm just going to start applying hard in January looking for a job in finance or tech. I want to experience tech a bit, but I know my forte is finance. I know there's an intersection between both of them, so there could be a way to find good opportunities there.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

And if somebody wants to get better at modeling or better in Excel, any advice you can offer them?

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

Yes, definitely! One, watch the pros. If you watch them, if you watch Michael next year, if you attend the conference next year, there's a lot of really cool stuff that they teach. And two: practice! Definitely practice. Like  I said in the beginning, I was pretty bad at the beginning, and that can throw you down a bit, but you need to persevere a bit and you get better.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Last question here and then we'll let you go. We know you have to get back to the conference, but what's your favorite Excel function or feature?

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

It's a very good question because before I would have said something like Xlookup or something like that, but after the final for the collegiate challenge that I won, I'm definitely going to say to Column, that's what won me the case. Putting all the array, a map, all in a column. So then you can index easily and match stuff. Definitely!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, and so our audience knows it's taking a range of data and putting it all in one column.

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

All in one, all in one column. All the whole 2D array goes in one column and that makes you index stuff a lot faster. And it's part of the dynamic arrays and all this new 5G Excel that's going on.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Well, thank you for joining us. I appreciate it. And congratulations on winning, that's a great accomplishment, and good luck with your job as you finish up school.

 

Guest: Patrick Chatain

 

Thank you so much!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

We just had a great opportunity to listen to Patrick and Benjamin share their experiences, why they competed in the contest, how it's helped them in their careers. Now, something I really like to emphasize, and we're going to end with a couple more clips that really emphasize the importance of learning Excel. It helps with financial modeling, it helps college students in their career. In this episode, we can clearly see that as we have a lot of people talk about that.

 

So we have two clips coming up next. The first is going to be with Missy and Teresa from Salve Regina University, and they talk about why they started with Excel as they were building out a data analytics business analytics program, how they wanted to start with the basics for their students and help them learn. And so naturally a fit for them was learning Microsoft Excel and competing in this competition with their students.

 

And then the last clip we'll have before we wrap this thing up is with Craig Hatmaker. Anyone who's listened to episode seven around dynamic arrays and Lambdas knows that Craig Hatmaker is very passionate about Excel and he's built what he calls 5G Lambda components that make modeling much easier, make it possible to build fully dynamic models. And so this is a great clip you won't want to miss. He has a lot of wonderful content on YouTube and other places. So we'll go ahead and roll these clips for you.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Well, I'm here with Misty and Teresa. Thank you for joining me for a minute. Why don't we start with you telling me where you're from.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

We're from Salve Regina University, which is in Newport, Rhode island.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Cool. And what brought you here? How did you end up coming for the program?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

I found out about MECC at MIT Sloan conference in Boston and I saw a little portrayal of what the possibilities were and had spoken to David and yeah, kind of just went from there, signing up our students.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Cool. So tell me a little bit of your background. How'd you end up teaching or kind of what do you teach?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Sure, my background, I have an undergrad degree, a bachelor of science in physics and math. I decided then to go into finance after an internship, so I did my masters in that, and then I went for a doctorate in finance. Worked corporate throughout all of that, and just wanted to get further into academia, so started to adjunct and then got a full-time job after that. So I am in my second year at Salve Regina. I'm an assistant professor of business analytics.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Cool. And how about yourself?

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

So I'm the director for our business programs at Salve, and my background, my research and corporate experience is all in hospitality and event planning world. And I came up sort of through the business programming, eventually coming to Salve about five years ago. And one of the things that we've been really focusing on as far as reinforcing business analysts, data analytics, analytical thinking in general in our students, and so just at the point that actually when we hired Teresa, her sort of charge was like, help us build this analytical thinking. And we started building more coursework and business analytics, and then we realized we probably need to take a step back and actually give them the basics, starting in Microsoft Excel. So when she found out about this opportunity, we felt like it was a perfect match for where we're going with our program.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Why do you think Excel is such a great place to start for analysis and analytics and for people to use it?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

I think it gives a good grasp of just handling data and knowing the data well, thoroughly. I think it's a great intro tool, but you can make it so advanced, which is a nice kind of growing opportunity for most students, but it really just allows them to get to know the data inside and out and really manipulate it. How they see is the best way. You could do so many different things in so many different ways, and it really suits the different ways that students think. So I think it's a great kick-off tool, and it's pretty user-friendly to kick off with as soon as they enter it. But again, the sky's the limit with Excel, so.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

No, I 100% agree. I mean, I've used it much of my career, I’m a big believer. I train people on it. Every time I turn around, they're adding something new. Like, they've added Python, the new pivot by and group by formulas, dynamic arrays, like I'm always telling people, okay, if you're using Excel from ten years ago, yeah, you could make the argument that maybe it's not analytics, but if you know what it's capable of today, it's more than powerful enough to do what 95% of everybody needs. There are exceptions, obviously.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

Yeah.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Cool. So how have your students enjoyed the experience so far, what have they said or how's it been for them?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

They are loving it. Yeah. I mean, from my experience with them, at least so far, they have been so excited to be here. They have been having a great time mingling with everybody. So that's been great. Yesterday they had the poster-making session, so they had a few students making posters with them, which was nice to see. And, yeah, they seem to be thriving in the environment and they are just excited to see what they're capable of.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

They're very excited. I mean, I think they recognized pretty quickly that they were probably more junior than a lot of the competitors, and I think it made them a little bit nervous.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Sure.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

And now that they're in the environment that they're seeing that they can compete and they are also seeing where they can grow, which is really nice because we've told them this whole time, this is our first time here, you're our guinea pigs, we just want to see what this is about, how this is going to work.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

What every student wants to hear! You’re a guinea pig!

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

Right? You are trying to take the pressure off of them, like, just do what you know, and I think that's something that's been pretty powerful for them because they could come back next year and compete and they can see a little bit more clearly now where they have room to grow.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah. And so I'm curious, as they prepared for this, how have you seen their skills improve? How big of a change has it been?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

So I actually picked my students from a new one-credit course that I created to start teaching Excel. So these students came in with, having never opened Excel before, back in September. So they have come a long way. And especially once our course ended, it was just a six-week course, but then they started working on all of the competitions themselves and all the cases, and I think even they can't believe where they are.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I bet. Yeah.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

So from not having opened it to where they are right now, it's a…

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

It’s a crash course, and the reality is all it will help them a ton in their career.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Absolutely.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

If they're going into business, pretty much every company uses a spreadsheet. Even if it's not Excel, it's Google sheets. And there's a heavy overlap.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Right, absolutely.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

So, I mean, I know my career being finance, FP&A, there wasn't a day that didn't go by where you didn't get into Excel and working, I mean, you've worked in corporate America, sounds like before you started teaching, I'm guessing you used it just about every day.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Yeah, exactly. I tell them that, but I don’t know how much they believe you until they start using it.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

There's a lot of truth to that.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

Yeah, we were laughing about it yesterday, actually, because we have for the last few years been trying to make the case to get more curricula involved that uses Excel, and so we're making the case with our administration, with our students, with our faculty, and in the classroom. We're telling them all the time, like, this is how you're going to use this, and when you're going to use this, and you're going to use it all the time, and when you're faculty member, and then as soon as they finish their internship, they're like, you're not going to believe how much I use them. Yes, we are actually going to believe that.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, I totally believe that, sadly enough.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

But it's nice now because they're seeing that, and then that spreads amongst the students as well. Instead of having listened to someone tell them, now they are peers telling peers that actually we really use that.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

That's great. So, last question. This is the one we like asking. What's your favorite function or feature about Excel? What do you like best?

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

I'm a big, maybe rudimentary, but I love If statements. They help me, especially in just academia, that is basically my whole life with them.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I remember my first internship, I felt I spent the whole summer doing If then.

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Yeah, exactly.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

We were in a data integrity group, and there were four codes that I had to figure out. Yeah, let’s do that. So sick of them by the end of those three months. But I can relate.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

I would say that's definitely the most functional part, that you can apply it almost anywhere. I'm a very visual person, so a Pivot Table is always really helpful for me. So I like being able to turn data into a picture and then have a clear understanding of it.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Great! All right, well, thank you both. I really appreciate you carving out a few minutes while you get back, and your students are working hard at the moment, and I hope they do well. So thank you!

 

Guest: Teresa Starzecki (Salve Regina University)

 

Thank you.

 

Guest: Missy Varao (Salve Regina University)

 

Thank you.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

I'm here with Craig Hatmaker. How are you doing today, Craig?

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

Wonderful. It's a great day here in Arizona.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

And what brought you here?

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

So the Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge sponsor.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Aren’t you a little old for competing in a college challenge?

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

I'm very old for competing. I don't compete. I would not win because these brains here are so much faster than mine.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

You and me both. So what brought you here?

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

I'm going to be presenting fifth-generation modeling, also known as 5G, which is basically assembling models from components as opposed to writing out formulas.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Can you elaborate on that? What do you mean by a component? Maybe tell our audience what that means.

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

So one of the wonderful things that's recently come out from Excel is Lambda and dynamic arrays. And dynamic arrays can allow us to assemble a large model section, such as a depreciation schedule for all your assets or an amortization schedule for all your loans and debts. Instead of creating the formulas for doing that depreciation schedule for each period and each asset, we can use a single function called depreciate, give it the inputs of each asset and the timeline that you want to run this over, and it will generate the depreciation schedule for all periods, all assets using one function in one cell, and that's it. So the dynamic arrays spill it, the Lambda compresses it into a single function. So that's the component, that single component we would use to assemble the model instead of handwriting that formula, which of course is error prime. And the nice thing about dynamic arrays is they simply cannot be inconsistent. You cannot add a new formula which sometimes plagues financial models or somebody entering literally where they shouldn't.

 

So dynamic arrays eliminate that possibility completely. Lambda eliminates the possibility of entering the formula incorrectly. It just speeds things, makes things flow much nicer. And the nice thing about this is, from most financial modelers perspective, they're going to be what we call component consumers. They will be using these functions not knowing how they're written. It doesn't matter. Nobody knows how sum, the C++ code that's under sum, nobody knows how that works. They just get the function. They know the function works and they use it. Well, why not take the function, depreciate and just use it? That's all most people need to know. But there will be some advanced people, probably from this group.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Yeah, I would imagine these competitors, they're your advanced up-and-comers for sure.

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

They're going to see the things that they do all the time in financial modeling and say, rather than do this over and over again, I'm going to create my single Lambda and I'm going to use the 5G standards, fifth-generation modeling standards, in order to make sure that this function can be used in any worksheet by anyone, anywhere on the planet. And you can download these things from the web, and you can use the advanced formula environment to import them directly into Excel. So it's an exciting opportunity to be able to present this to these young minds and these future Excel-ers.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

No, I'm sure they'll love to see that presentation. I think that's great that you're doing that. I know you've retired now, so tell us, what are you doing in retirement these days? What are you up to?

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

So I love the term that my friends in the UK have called it. They said, you're not in retirement, you're in preferment. Because I get to do what I prefer to do and I prefer to spread the word about 5G. I prefer to get 5G standards solidified and get the courses created so that the next generation, the people that follow after me, won't have to suffer the problems that I had to suffer. I like this, it's my hobby. It's something that I really enjoy doing. So I do that, I do traveling, hopefully I'm going to be writing a book on Lambdas. So we'll see.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Well, exciting. That's really exciting. I look forward to hopefully seeing your book. Glad you get to travel. What's your favorite thing about Excel? It's the question we're asking all the students, so we'll ask you as well. Do you have a favorite function or feature? Let me guess, Lambda?!

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

Actually, dynamic arrays is my feature that I just absolutely love. And the only reason why I'm doing lambdas is Lambdas make the dream of dynamic arrays in financial modeling a reality. Dynamic arrays by themselves can't do all the things that are needed in financial modeling. So Lambdas will help make those dynamic arrays work in financial models. But Lambdas are scary for most people.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

They are for me. I still need to spend more time with them. I admit it, I'm kind of like a little more programy than I like.

 

Guest: Craig Hatmaker

 

Yes. So the idea of being able to package these Lambdas as functions that anybody can use and not know how they work means now the masses can use it. Now, if you are a business, you can use the same concept to codify your business standards. So if you have a standard way of calculating weighted average cost of capital, because there's many ways of doing it, your corporation can create that Lambda and say, when any modeler comes into your corporation, you can say, this is how I want you to calculate it. Whack!

 

Don't use any other method. Use this one method. So using 5G, corporations can codify their standards. They can also raise the level of junior modelers. When a junior modeler comes in, they can start performing at expert levels because experts have created advanced functions for the junior modelers to plug into their models. So this is why I'm so excited about it, because I think it's going to change the way, revolutionize the way that models are made.

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Oh, that's exciting. And I hope the presentation goes well for you and I appreciate you carving out a few minutes today. So thanks for your time, Craig!

 

Host: Paul Barnhurst

 

Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did. It was great to talk with these college students and people supporting these college students, of how they're enhancing their skills and the importance of Excel. What's clear to me from going to these events, and interviewing all these people, is Microsoft Excel is not going anywhere. It's something we all need to learn and get better at. It will help us in our career. It's not the only thing, but it's a very important thing.

 

So I hope you enjoyed that episode. And just as a reminder, Financial Modeler’s Corner is brought to you by Financial Modeling Institute. And as always, if you ever have questions or ideas for the show, please feel free to reach out to me. And last but not least, make sure you hit that subscribe button, you hit the like button, you give us five stars and a great review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to the shows. Thanks!

 

Financial Modeler's Corner was brought to you by Financial Modeling Institute. Visit FMI at www.fminstitute.com/podcast and use code PODCAST to save 15% when you enroll in one of their accreditations today.