Having taught for close to four years now, I’m still blown away by the lack of computer skills exhibited by a vast majority of students.  Despite my best efforts to encourage people to take advantage of our semester together to learn even basic Excel skills, few people include even basic formulas in their homework submissions and those that do, I suspect, knew Excel before they landed in my class. 

Against that backdrop comes some analysis from Hunter Richards at softwareadvice.com that looks at what skills employers desire in job listings. that looks at what skills employers desire in job listings.  As I’ve stated many times, though, the foundation starts and ends with Excel and Hunter repeats that in his anlaysis as well:

This article would be a whole lot shorter, and a lot less interesting, if I focused on the one product you absolutely must know – Microsoft Excel. Nearly one hundred percent of these employers mentioned Excel skills as a necessity. If you’re an accounting student and you don’t know about Excel, I advise you to stop reading this immediately and go learn it.

For those of you that have mastered Excel, please take a look at the other skills that are in demand.  As I’ve stated in class, I’d rather hire someone with demonstrable skills in the product(s) used at my company than someone with a high GPA or a college degree.  That’s the real world.  Take a look at Hunter’s analysis at this link:: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/accounting/which-tech-skills-help-accountants-land-jobs/