Quote:
Originally Posted by Neko
"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."
This saying is probably more true for Excel than any other tool.
FACT, and it's not changing any time soon.
Quote:
How much could I earn in NYC with no job skills other than being awesome at Excel? I have no official experience but I know VB and practically every formula there is and I've been able to build spread sheets that self-proclaimed Excel gurus didn't think were possible. Could I land a job that would provide me a comfortable standard of living in NYC?
Firstly, I am assuming you mean VBA not VB. VBA is a stripped down version of VB that microsoft tailored for their office suite (visual basic for applications)
All of my purely excel work was done for companies in Australia that I either worked for briefly or through word of mouth. I believe that I (and probably you by the sounds of it) could save just about any company a ridic amount of money by automating the spreadsheets they use, the only hard part is getting your foot in the door.
I got my current contact in NY through craigslist (a long with most of my apartment) They have a huge access front end with tons of vba and a MsSQL backend, i didn't really have any experience in access specifically or MsSQL but I had done SQL at university so I knew the basics and just learned on the job
The money I make is up to me, I pretty much have a never ending amount of work at the moment but I'm still young and not looking to work 60-70 hour weeks. I do the minimum amount of work to support my lifestyle which involves travelling and partying e.g.
- i went on the road for 2 months in june to go to Norway, Denmark, Egypt and Vegas and probably did about 10 hours a week when i had spare time.
- i just got back from a week in DC/maryland and a few weeks before that i was in philly for a week
- I'm going to canada tomorrow for two weeks (toronto/montreal)
I have no problem not saving much at the moment, but IIRC you are older (at least you've been to afghanistan and back) and are probably looking for different things
cliffs: Do you have any other skills in the area? If not and you have no contacts i would say its hard to make a living here purely on excel, but it's definitely worth it, NYC is awesome.
At the moment i'm charging between $50 - $90 an hour depending on the client, my only problem is motivation, i'd rather experience the NY night life than program 12 hour days. What's the point in having an australian accent in NYC if im at home working
Last edited by zomg; 09-12-2010 at 02:55 PM.