Advanced Excel Skills

[NorthNineteen]

At my work we are looking for someone with advanced excel skills, the job is in London, it's with a great company, six month full time contract, the pay is okay, but we have only had one suitable applicant. I'm always hearing about people looking for jobs and not getting anywhere but where are these people looking? I'm somewhat baffled.

£20 per hour is roughly equivalent to a £40k salary which isn’t that big for London, and contractors can charge a premium rate in exchange for the security of a salaried role. Excel is a funny beast and ‘advanced’ can mean different things to different people. Someone who can do xlookups might be interested in that kind of pay, but someone with Visual Basic won’t be.

This a bit like the 'why isn't my house selling' threads where the answer is always the price.
£160 per day?! Cleaners charge £25 an hour and you guys hoped to get someone with advanced excel skills for £20 p/hr.
It would be funny if it wasn't a dire picture of how employees value people's skills these days

Yes, I have been on fixed term contracts for years. I wouldn’t go for a 6 month one though. I took a 1 year one after I was made redundant during Covid, but that was due to lack of alternative options. Otherwise I go for longer.

Maybe 5 years ago. IR35 changed that.

If it involves advanced Excel skills, then it requires actuarial/ numerical/financial know how

You can say it's not in finance all you like, but if it requires a certain skill set, you simply have to pay more

Especially given that it's only 6 months

What skills exactly, OP? Is it really FT? <sniff> <sniff>

Would that even cover the train fare from outside the big smoke?

On a salary like that and with the prospect of termination after six months, 'home' would be a cardboard box under a bridge.

Is it PAYE or self employed?

Everybody knows that anybody with Advanced Excel skills would do the job for nothing because we love 💕spreadsheets

Love is.....a spreadsheet ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

@NorthNineteen
What sort of advanced Excel skills are you looking for?

It's not complicated vlookups and the likes plus tracking things

So not advanced excel skills then?

I'm a school admin with intermediate excel skills (who would find it easy to train up to advanced) and I get £15ph plus a lovely pension. £20ph on a 6-month contract is not enough to persuade me to jump ship, even though I live in London, and would love to work from home. I earn £20-30ph doing data entry from home as a contractor on the side.

If you someone with truly great excel skills you need better than ok pay. My colleagues who have those skills do a lot of other things in the digital domain and are paid substantially because of that.

Perhaps you could outline what they're expected to do which might help.

It's only suitable for someone that wants casual work that isn't relying on a salary to pay the mortgage

Well it's a pretty crappy salary and a 6 month contract. Would you apply for it op?

That's £41k pa, assuming you work every weekday.
Presumably no pension contribution or sick/holiday pay if it's contract, not perm.

It's the kind of role I might apply for once I retire next year to top up my pension, but I'd want more than £41k pa pro rata, particularly for a London based job.

You don't pay less for a wfh role. Most office jobs are at least partly wfh now.

As a pp said…you would be better off sending someone on and advanced excel course. They literally take 2-3 days!!

Yeah, 6 month contract and shit pay is your problem. We pay slightly less than that for our assistants.

If it's not complicated why advances excel skills? Sounds like you're asking for skills above what is needed. Surely most anyone can learn vlookup and tracking with a little training - might be more suited to a younger entry level applicant keen to go travelling after?

I expect that most people with the "advanced excel skills" you are looking for have other skills as well and therefore work in roles (finance, data analysis etc) with accordingly higher daily rates for contract work.

You might get lucky with someone who it would suit if they only want a short term role to top up finances rather than pay bills. But I love Excel and even I wouldn't want 6 months of just doing that from home. Even if the pay was doubled.

If it is just things like lookups then sending a school-leaver on an Excel course might be a relatively attractive option - do you have any staff with appropriately aged kids?