Who uses Excel the most?

S

Stephen

I'm teaching a college course and would like to convince my students that
Excel is used by "regular" business users, that is, accountants, salesmen and
production workers, as opposed to programmers. Is there any data on how large
the market segments for Excel are?
 
H

Harlan Grove

Stephen said:
I'm teaching a college course and would like to convince my students that
Excel is used by "regular" business users, that is, accountants, salesmen and
production workers, as opposed to programmers. Is there any data on how large
the market segments for Excel are?
Click to expand...

Microsoft doesn't publish anything. Try Eusprig. Also, there are many
academic studies of spreadsheet use, errors and risks.

But if you REALLY want to convince your students that people EMPLOYED
as programmers with the word PROGRAMMER in their job description
usually DON'T use Excel, assign them the task of either finding 10
online job descriptions for PROGRAMMER or SOFTWARE ENGINEER that
REQUIRE knowledge of Excel or explaining why they couldn't if Excel is
only used by programmers.

Another option would be looking at the online course catalogs of the
top 10 business schools. How many schools offer courses on spreadsheet
modeling? Would your students really try to make a case that the high-
powered MBAs coming out of these business schools who took those
classes would be mere programmers?
 
M

Martin Fishlock

Stephen:

One way would be to get your students to get 10 job advertisements for
accountsants, managers etc and see if they requirements specify Excel (or
Office Skills).

You could also ask your Admin. Dept. if the students could have a visit and
see all the staff using Excel.
 
S

Sean Timmons

Ouch.. mere programmers...

Harlan Grove said:
Microsoft doesn't publish anything. Try Eusprig. Also, there are many
academic studies of spreadsheet use, errors and risks.

But if you REALLY want to convince your students that people EMPLOYED
as programmers with the word PROGRAMMER in their job description
usually DON'T use Excel, assign them the task of either finding 10
online job descriptions for PROGRAMMER or SOFTWARE ENGINEER that
REQUIRE knowledge of Excel or explaining why they couldn't if Excel is
only used by programmers.

Another option would be looking at the online course catalogs of the
top 10 business schools. How many schools offer courses on spreadsheet
modeling? Would your students really try to make a case that the high-
powered MBAs coming out of these business schools who took those
classes would be mere programmers?
Click to expand...
 
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