[stevesycombacct]

Excel Power Programming with VBA, by John Walkenbach

It's what pushed me into programming and eventually data science in other languages, which led to a significant push in my career.

That's not to say that you should read this book, but instead a remark on how adding high-demand skills to my skillset made me more money than any of the side-hustles or hobbies I've ever tried.

[nullserver]

Took an excel course while in college because it met a requirement.

I had a manager come up to me and show me his spreadsheet has spent a week building. (He was very proud)

I asked him why he didn’t use a pivot table and in a few seconds I had re-create it is exact report from the same source data.

I was involved in pretty much every high-level decision and a major corporation for several years there after because of that.

[tamiral]

showing quick value like this has also propelled me, its great how much trust you can gain when you help someone out.

[Leparamour]

I agree with the general of idea of learning high-demand skills, only I always found it to be a bit of a chicken and egg problem:

I have no (interesting) problems to solve with VBA/Vim/Powershell/Keras/Never Split the Difference-style negotiation in my day-to-day work or not enough fantasy to conjure these up in my private studies.

The lack of experience then disqualifies me for roles where I would be confronted with these (interesting) problems. Never understood how to learn intricate stuff inside a void of direct applicability

[Bakary]

In this case, the chicken is the current job from the vantage point of which you see similar jobs to your own that also require a specific skill in addition to what you already know

The egg would be the effort you expend on that skill to meet the basic requirements of the interview for such jobs

The new chicken borne out of this would be you learning on the job and carrying on from the fundamentals you've learned to get the job

[Leparamour]

Thanks for the input! I'm going to reflect on this.

[stevesycombacct]

> I have no (interesting) problems to solve with [...]

In fact, what pushed me into VBA was when $manager thought I would be a good fit to learn it, and gave me the book! I was a lucky case, as the new skills ended up being immediately required.