I'm looking at entry-level Business Analyst roles and almost every listing mentions Excel. Is this just a generic requirement, or will I be spending 8 hours a day in workbooks? I want to make sure I’m focusing my study time on the right tools for the US job market.
3 answers
For a Business Analyst, Excel is more than just a tool; it's your primary communication medium. You'll use it for data mapping, gap analysis, and even basic prototyping. While you might use SQL to pull the data, the analysis and the "storytelling" for stakeholders usually happen in a workbook. In my 10 years in the US corporate sector, I’ve found that being the "Excel person" makes you indispensable. It’s not about being in it for 8 hours, but about being fast enough that you can answer a VP's question in 5 minutes.
Do you have any experience with Tableau or Power BI yet, or are you starting completely from scratch with data visualization?
It's definitely not a generic requirement. It’s the baseline. If you can't do an XLOOKUP, you'll struggle in any BA role in America.
Agreed. I’ve seen people with Master’s degrees fail technical interviews because they couldn't clean a simple dataset in a spreadsheet. It’s a must-have.
Tableau is great, but don't skip the basics. Many American companies still prefer a well-formatted Excel report because everyone in the office can open it without a special license. If you can create a dynamic dashboard using Slicers and Pivot Charts, you are already ahead of 70% of the applicant pool. Focus on learning how to structure data so that it’s "pivot-ready"—that is the most valuable skill a BA can have today.