Excel Basics for Job Seekers: 15 Formulas + Practice Sheets + Interview Q&A

"Proficient in MS Excel" is on almost every fresher resume, and interviewers know it. They test it with a few simple formulas, so you need to know what they are.

Excel Basics for Job Seekers is a 19-page guide plus a practice workbook. It teaches the 15 formulas that come up again and again in entry-level roles like data entry, accounts, operations, sales support, HR and analyst jobs. Each formula comes with a plain-English explanation, an example, a common mistake and a line you can say in an interview.

What's inside

15 essential formulas: SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX/MIN, ROUND, IF, COUNTIF, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, INDEX+MATCH, IFERROR, TRIM, LEFT/MID/RIGHT, and text joining with TEXT

Excel refresher: cell references, the $ sign, error messages (#N/A, #REF! and more) and handy shortcuts

6 key features: sort and filter, conditional formatting, remove duplicates, drop-down lists, PivotTables and charts

15 practice exercises in the included Excel workbook, with an answer key

15 interview questions with answers, plus 5 practical test tasks interviewers use

Resume lines you can adapt, a 7-day practice plan and a one-page cheat sheet

You get 2 files

The guide (PDF)

Excel_Practice_Sheets.xlsx with Sales, Employees and Messy Data sheets, yellow answer cells and an Answers sheet

Who it's for

Students and freshers preparing for placements and interviews

Job seekers who list Excel but don't feel confident

Anyone moving into admin, accounts, operations or data roles

Why you'll like it

Plain language with no jargon

Practise as you learn, so you remember it

Written for interviews, not just theory

Works in Excel, Excel Online and Google Sheets (XLOOKUP needs Excel 2021 or Microsoft 365)