How to land the job without a cover letter 🙇‍♂️

Hey! It’s a special day for The Workbook: This is our 100th newsletter! 

We launched The Workbook two years ago to help you become more effective in your professional and personal life. From Excel tech tricks to career life tips, we’ve covered a lot…and grown to 340,000 subscribers along the way. 

I am so grateful for each and every one of you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to cry tears of gratitude in my spreadsheets. 🥲

How to Create a List of Duplicate Values in Excel

Just call us Olivia Rodrigo because we’re having déjà vu. 🎶

If you scroll down you’ll notice how Group B has values already listed in Group A (San Diego and Atlanta, just to name a few). 

Sure, you could manually comb through your spreadsheet to find duplicates. But that method is prone to error (and would sting your eyeballs).

So? Let me show you a shortcut that creates a list of your duplicate values in just 30 seconds.

Now you’ll find duplicates in less than half the time it takes Olivia Rodrigo to sing “deja vu” (a 3:35-minute endeavor, to be exact). 

How to Get the Job (No Cover Letter or Résumé Required)

It’s a Friday night and you roll up to the club. Upon arrival, you realize you have three ways to get in:

1. Stand in line with everyone else

2. Know the bouncer or manager

3. Go through a secret door 

Applying for a job can be very similar to this (stay with me)!

The first way is applying for jobs on LinkedIn alongside hundreds of candidates, and the second is networking to find a referral. As for the third? It’s publicly showcasing your interests, creativity, and expertise before you’re hired. 

Here are three examples of the “secret door” in action: 

1. In 2020, I started posting TikToks of Excel tips. By the sixth day, the CEO of an IT company reached out asking me to create content for his company. I’d gotten a job that didn’t formally exist (no résumé required!) solely from social media.

2. Nina Mufleh was itching to get hired by Airbnb. She created an online résumé modeled after Airbnb’s website, complete with an outlined business strategy to get noticed. Not only did she go viral, but she landed another dream job at Upwork!

3. To catch Spotify’s eye, Emily Vu designed a Spotify-themed résumé to apply for her dream role as a product manager. The result? Emily’s résumé went viral on Twitter—and Spotify offered her a product manager internship.

The “secret door” isn’t always a solution. But it’s a reminder that you’re allowed to get creative and try new things to stand out.

That could be creating a company-themed website or résumé. It could be you posting your skills on Tikok and Instagram. Or if you have “no experience,” you could enroll in free online classes and share your journey on a blog or newsletter.

But as long as you’re determined and creative, a secret door will eventually reveal itself to you. 🚪

• Want to remove the “Grand Total” in your pivot table? Here’s how, in 24 seconds.

• “I can do less and attract more” and other top-notch productivity mantras. 

• Can’t present in person? Here’s how to pre-record your audio in PowerPoint. 

• Instant save: This Tweet is loaded with tried-and-true Excel tips. 

• Zeroes = messy spreadsheet. Luckily, here are three easy ways to clean 0s. 🧹

Thanks for reading our 100th edition! 🎈

If there’s ever anything I can do to make The Workbook the best possible resource, don’t hesitate to let me know. More Excel tips? PowerPoint? How to grow your career? I’m here to help best I can. Hit reply and tell me what you’d like to see.

Stay Exceling,

Kat