I started a new job through a temp agency, they like me except complained that I

[lotusflower007]

didn't know excel,? They wanted someone who knows advanced accounting formulas. I've taken a class in college (about 4 years ago) on the Microsoft Suite. I learned basic adding formulas, how to make charts, etc I've taken tests through staffing agencies that said that I was about average on excel.
My boss also told the temp agency that I didn't know how to use word also. Yet I have never sent him a word doc. I've tested high in word, I have been using word since middle school, and I have a degree in Graphic Design, so I am comfortable using word, and it's basic features. I know that I am not a super admin pro at it that knows every little feature on it, plus for me I have higher advanced program knowledge of professional desktop software, so I use that. Unless I am just typing a plain letter or so. but I know how to adjust margins, word count, put on page numbers, turn into a web page.. etc
anyways so now I'm afraid that they think that I misrepresented myself
My resume never said anything about accounting. I've helped a small business, and myself as a freelancer keep track of invoices, payments, past dues, collections, and purchasing materials, but I have never used excel to keep track of sales, accounting etc. I have used excel to keep track of data, and have herd from past jobs that they really liked the way that I was able to create charts, and organize data in excel, and was very useful for the whole office to be on the same page.
They want to do another test on on excel, (on my free time of course, which I have none with a family, freelance projects, etc)
The temp agency gave me a tutorial. Most of it's pretty easy, except for in the end when it gets into advanced formulas. The tutorials doesn't really teach much except for steps to take. I need to know why, why did the makers of excel choose this program to be set up this way, what's the logic behind it,and I need to find some other advanced online places to
learn these. I also am wondering if I should summon up my Transcripts from college to prove that I did take the course, and also to ask my old temp agency in my old town to dig up my testing records to send over. or would this be looked at as defensive behavior ?
Why do they think that there advanced usage of excel is basic usage?
I should add, that my background is Graphic Design, the job title is "Marketing Assistant", where my main role is doing graphics, flyers, brochures, catalogs, marketing campaigns, product photography, website updating and maintenance, the only excel docs I see are price sheets, which I import into Indesign ( easy) and some customer / distributors contact list. but they are asking for some pretty intense Graphic Design skills, and I don't know too many that have HR/accounting background and a Graphic Design background.

 

[ChesterBunny]

Why did you accept this job?

I'm kind of skipping over a lot of your explanation because I want to focus on what appears to be your core question. But yes, your background, explanation and proposed actions do sound a bit defensive. It also sounds like your temp agency is trying to make money by pushing a square peg into a round hole. (This is not your fault, it's there's.)

Q: Why do they think that their advanced usage of excel is basic usage?

A: Because it probably is, and that's the threshold the client assigned to this job. You either meet that threshold or you don't. (Nothing against you personally.)

Example: accountants, finance analysts and compensation analysts (HR) should at a minimum know how to do the following: VLOOKUPS, Pivot Tables, nested logic formulas, dynamic model creation, etc.

Anyone in a job like this who cannot demonstrate this mastery should be fired, because in these kinds of jobs it's all about mastery of data and being able to analyze and report on it in relatively short amounts of time. Management doesn't have the time or patience to wait for an answer when the employee cannot perform these skills. Not being able to proficiently utilize the features of excel also introduces error risks. So no only is the work slow, but it might also be wrong.

Other jobs have lesser thresholds of what is expected. I once worked with a guy who claimed to know excel. I found out later why his work was soooo slow. He didn't understand the sum feature (truly basic) and he referred to the multiple tabs as "advanced excel". So literally this guy would type numbers into a cell, add the number on his calculator and then type the answer into the bottom cell. Yes, this is an extreme example, but again the person swore up and down during his interview that they knew how to use excel. We had to let him go. He just didn't have the skills to do the job.

Look at it this way: At a very basic level, a manager wants to know that their employees have the skills to do the job at hand. (There's just no time for screwing around in this economy; especially if you're relying on a temp agency to provide you with vetted and reliable candidates.) If the employees don't have the skills there are two choices: offer training or find someone who does have those skills.

It sounds like you don't have the level of skills needed for this role, despite your prior coursework. This may not be the best job fit for you right now. That's perfectly OK. You can learn this stuff; I swear it's not rocket science. It just takes some mental dedication.

Cutting to the core of this... those in-person classes offered by local training schools and community colleges are actually not very good. Most people get through the classes and promptly forget what they learned, because a lot of the techniques do not readily apply to their jobs. The best way to learn the more complicated features of Excel is to buy a book, reverse engineer what your co-workers have done, read some of the Q&A's from the Microsoft user-base, etc. I promise you that anything you're working on has been addressed at least once in the Microsoft user database. Everything you need to learn on the fly is right there.

Good luck to you! :+)