Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Steven Savage It can happen to any of us. We're there, minding our own business, probably giving someone advice, and we're struck with the absolutely terrifying realization of our own competence.
It hits us that we know what we're doing. We are struck by the realization of how much we know and what skills we have. Our ability to effectively leverage our history and experience looms large in our mind. We realize we're really quite competent.
This of course, is a terrible blow.
In a conversation on LinkedIn.com, several of us were discussing if saying "thank you" in today's overloaded age of email and messages was just wasting people's time. The overall conclusion was no – even if it added one more email to someone's bursting inbox.
I'm on the side of saying thank you, and wanted to note its importance in career searches and the geeky job world.
And it's time for another entry in our practical yet boring columns. This time I'm going to discuss another exceedingly common and boring thing that's worth knowing how to do in your career.
That thing is Spreadsheets. Yes, spreadsheets. Excel. Columns and rows and sums. Those things.
And as exciting as they are not to many people (personal note: *I* love spreadsheets), they are something you're going to want to know a lot about, and they're something you're going to want to use.
So. Let's get boring.