Can I fake computer ability?

PearlJ

Hi all, some advice needed.
I have applied for a job, great position and am more than qualified under all aspects they require, bar one..... Computers.

The job demands a good knowledge of the Office suite. I have none as I have never needed it, except for outlook and word. I have followed the basic tutorials on You Tube. Power Point seems straight forward enough, Excel is awkward but I think a bit of practice will go a long way. I know there's Access as well which I never even looked at let alone worked with.

Is there anyway I can fake it if I get the job and avail of a course in the meantime to get properly acquainted with it or should I fess up and risk not getting the position.

I know ideally I should get qualified before I go for a job with it as a requirement but such is life.

I remeber an interview with Richard Branson where he said if you can't do something in a job, pretend you can and learn it along the way, so I'm taking this advice to heart

cruizer101

Depending on what the job is they may have actually just thrown that in there without really meaning it. Department head needs someone, comes up with specification sends it to HR they add in all the usual, Team player stuff as well as good with office. What's the job OP and some might be able to help as to what particular aspects of Office you might need.

PearlJ

Its an Executive Assistant position. So I would imagine the Office suite plays a vital role in the job but maybe I'm wrong.

theteal

What's the job? I doubt you'll be needing Access.

postitnote

Wing it. If you can use MS Word then i'd say you'll pick up the rest easily enough.

KERSPLAT!

If you haven't even gotten the job yet you probably have 3-4+ weeks before you'd actually be starting. Check out some online tutorials. I'm sure you could get the basics down in that time and learn whatever else you need on the job

PearlJ

PearlJ wrote: »

Its an Executive Assistant position. So I would imagine the Office suite plays a vital role in the job but maybe I'm wrong.

Executive assistant positions vary wildly.

My first though would be that a job like that will be hugely reliant on the use of office, but then again, if you're qualified for this job you've presumably experience in this position. Have you never needed it before?

listermint

Office is reasonably easy to figure out (the basics)

But if this role is for an EA.

Well then i would be brushing up quick smart on both Power Point and especially Excel.

Excel will most definitely be required in such a role and you may be required to produce reports or Pivot charts / tables in that role.


All the best and good luck.

me_irl

Even if you don't have office, or want to purchase office you can access a free (web only) version at office.com.

You'll need to sign up, but you can create and edit Office Docs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). It might give you the benefit of "hands on" practice.

Just a warning that because office.com is web-only, some aspects of the applications are stripped out (eg, creating a two column word doc...unless it's updated and you can!).

Best of luck!

megafan

PearlJ... I feel I know very little about computers & would be the first to put my hands up if a problem arose & admit defeat but when I see what some so called "experts" know about computers & their programs makes me realise how little others also know! You will know best what the job entails but almost every job requires computer knowledge of some description (hard to find any job that no computers are involved in?) & you also might know more than you realise but if not it would take little to get up to speed if needed for most office situations.... take job & Good LUCK! 8-)

PearlJ

Never needed it before Whoopsadaisydoodles. I never needed anything from Excel or Powerpoint. All I used was Word and Outlook.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Polo_Mint

Google and Youtube are your best friend

Ive been using Office for years and still learn every day to make the job quicker and easier

Sala

Wing it. You'll be surprised how little a lot of other people know. My colleagues seem to think I'm some sort of computer whiz kid because I can "fix" stuff for them - like editing margins to try to fit a letter onto one page, moving tables around word, using excel to add numbers so they don't need to do it with a calculator :rolleyes: I then heard one woman say she had fairly good IT skills and I nearly choked on my tea!! A few tutorials and a bit of practice you'll be better than half the office workers in the country.

hardCopy

PearlJ wrote: »

Never needed it before Whoopsadaisydoodles. I never needed anything from Excel or Powerpoint. All I used was Word and Outlook.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

If you're proficient in Word you'll soon pick up a functional level of powerpoint and excel. There are lots of advanced features that most users never go near but every question you could ever come up with will be asked and answered somewhere on the web, google will be your friend.

BenCoughlan15

MS office can be really easy to use, or incredibly intricate, it all depends on what you're using it for.

Excel is the most complex tool there by an arses roar.
MrExcel.com is an excellent resource for the advanced stuff in Excel.

For word etc, youtube is your guy, it's handy, you'll pick it up as you go with some paitence.

Powerpoint is outdated as ****, and is a terrible tool for software, pressie will replace it in five years.

Visio and Access are more for reporting staff, team leads, half way techy types and engineers.

OneNote is also a very handy tool to use too, particularly if you're starting a job, it might stop you from asking the same question twice.


For an absolute basic, learn "rules" and "signatures" for Outlook.
For word, templates, orientation, etc.
Excel, do a beginners course on pluralsight or youtube.


Good luck with the job too

Kenny Logins

Everybody says they're proficient with Office on their C.V., some even think that simply typing in Word or sending emails via outlook qualifies, but if the job actually requires more advanced knowledge of Powerpoint/Word/ExCel you'll be exposed within minutes. I suppose all you can do is have closer look at the job spec and try to learn as much as possible now before the interview. Good luck.

Eric Cartman

please do a course first. There is nothing worse than somebody in an office who doesn't have a clue how to do their job. Not knowing how to use a computer in this day and age is absolutely absurd. Its possibly one of the most vital work tools. Not knowing creates data security risks, more demands on IT supports time, lower productivity and a headache for those around you.

the_pen_turner

if you learn how to lay out a spreadsheet you will be fine.
most spreadsheets are just basic formulas (adding subtracting etc. )
there are very few skill needed to make a very nice spread sheet
start small and use the basic formulas to build up .

learn how to use borders and colour filling. this will make you basic spread sheet look better with very little effort or skill required



you tube is your friend or find a school kid /colleague student to help

MarkR

IF you can use Word and Outlook, you're not doing too bad. That, and google stuff.

MarkR

Eric Cartman wrote: »

please do a course first. There is nothing worse than somebody in an office who doesn't have a clue how to do their job. Not knowing how to use a computer in this day and age is absolutely absurd. Its possibly one of the most vital work tools. Not knowing creates data security risks, more demands on IT supports time, lower productivity and a headache for those around you.

They know how to use a computer. They just aren't familiar with the entire suite of office applications.

How does not being an excel export cause a security issue, as a matter of interest. Only way I can think of is by not password protecting a file when required.

Polo_Mint

Eric Cartman wrote: »

please do a course first. There is nothing worse than somebody in an office who doesn't have a clue how to do their job. Not knowing how to use a computer in this day and age is absolutely absurd. Its possibly one of the most vital work tools. Not knowing creates data security risks, more demands on IT supports time, lower productivity and a headache for those around you.

ffs

Hows your Excel ability?

MarkR

Polo_Mint wrote: »

ffs

Hows your Excel ability?

Probably Excellent

Eric Cartman

MarkR wrote: »

They know how to use a computer. They just aren't familiar with the entire suite of office applications.

How does not being an excel export cause a security issue, as a matter of interest. Only way I can think of is by not password protecting a file when required.

I had 3 customers this week that have infected their systems with a nasty virus because when a word doc that came in by email asked "do you want to run macros" they had no idea what that was and said yes.

Polo_Mint wrote: »

ffs

Hows your Excel ability?

I used to program excel macros for printing and automating other tasks while I was in college. It paid well and the only reason I had to do the job was because of the staff not knowing how to do basic things on a computer.

biko

No worries. Say you have average skills, and if you get a difficult problem just research on youtube/google. It'll be fine.

InTheTrees

I'm agreement with most other posters.

Excel is the biggie. Do some serious studying of Excel, and then along with Word you'll be good.

Remember its more than your future employer you want to impress, you also need to be better than the other interviewees.

DopeTech

Sala wrote: »

I then heard one woman say she had fairly good IT skills and I nearly choked on my tea!! A few tutorials and a bit of practice you'll be better than half the office workers in the country.

Sounds like you do compared to most! Believe me!

mickoneill31

It depends on how much ability you need?

You can get up and running in Excel in about an hour. To be doing sophisticated stuff you could be training for days.

Go to a site like this.
https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=microsoft+word&src=ukw&lang=en&price=price-free

I just searched for Word and clicked the free box.
Take a couple of the courses in Word / Excel / Powerpoint

Access is another kettle of fish. It's more likely they'll set you up with an access database and show you how to operate it. It's unlikely you'll have to create access databases. That would be on the CV.