How to get the job (with no experience) 💼

Hi there! A huge thank you to everyone who attended the Pivot Tables and Data Cleaning course last week! It was amazing to teach 30,000 of you, and take it from Ali—this Excel class was one of the most useful ones yet!

Are there other Excel skills you’d love a free class on? VBA? XLOOKUP? Vote on the poll below and let me know! I’m here to turn you into an Excel wizard. 🧙‍♀️

The Google Sheets Function You Can’t Live Without 💥

Ready to up your Google Sheets game?

Introducing the ArrayFormula function. Trust me, learning how to use this function will make you think, “What was I doing without it?!”

The ArrayFormula function takes any function that typically handles one result at a time and spills it out so it can apply to multiple cells. Here’s a simple example:

Say you have a column with a set of dates in US format and your goal is to pull the day from each date. To start, you’d use the Day function (in our case, we’d type =Day(B5) and extract that 5!).

Great! Now you’d like to pull the day from every date. So you think, “No problem, I’ll just highlight the entire range of cells.” But when you press enter on your formula of =Day(B5:B8), you only get that first day. 🫠

Here’s when that ArrayFormula magic comes in. ✨ Instead of manually writing the formula for each cell, you’re going to type =ArrayFormula(Day(B5:B8). Voila!

Google Sheets Shortcut: 💡 If you want to be even speedier, after typing your formula press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to apply the ArrayFormula stat!

FYI: This tip came straight from my Sheets Smart course! Use SHEETS20 for 20% off if “Become a Google Sheets Pro” is one of your 2023 goals.

How To Get the Job (With No Formal Experience)

Picture this: It’s a Saturday night and you roll up to the club.🕺🏻 Upon arrival, you realize you have three ways to get in. The first is to stand in line with everyone else. The second is to know the bouncer or club manager. But the third? It’s through a secret backdoor.

The process of applying for a job can be pretty similar to this (stay with me). The first method is to scour job postings and send your résumé to the hiring manager. The second is to network your 🍑 off to get a referral.

“Okay, so what’s the third method Kat?!”

It’s to publicly showcase your interests, talents, and expertise before you’re hired.

Here’s what I mean: In 2020, I started posting TikToks of Excel tips. Within six days of posting, the CEO of an IT company reached out asking me to create content for his company. They didn’t ask for my résumé. I didn’t apply to their job opening. They contacted me solely from my TikToks. 🤯

This is what I mean by the “secret backdoor.” When you use social media, a website, a blog, etc., to broadcast your passion and knowledge, you become a magnet for career opportunities.

You might be thinking, “But how can I show my knowledge if no one will hire me to give me experience?!” Fair enough. But remember—your portfolio is not your résumé!

The internet has tons of free info on almost any subject to help you build a portfolio. From Excel (hey 👋) to marketing, coding to graphic design, it is possible to learn solo and create your own projects.

Of course, the backdoor is not a cookie-cutter solution. Instead, it’s a reminder that applying to a job the old-fashioned way is not your only option. You have the autonomy to learn and upskill while waiting for a job offer (or for your first client, for my solopreneurs out there!).

And when you start taking the initiative, that go-getter energy tends to attract the best opportunities. ✨

• The productivity mantra I’m obsessed with: “I can do less and attract more.”

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Psssst…if you’re not on Amy’s team, you’re missing out! Hundreds of organizations (Kraft Heinz, UPS, and the US Military, to name a few!) are leveraging our Group Training solutions to quickly transform their team’s skill set. Want to learn how your team members can become more productive, efficient, and confident at work too?

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Stay Exceling,

Kat