Three months into my role at Citco Group, my team lead stopped by my desk. "You're still using your mouse for that?"

I was copying values between reconciliation sheets. Click, right-click, paste special, click values, click OK.

"Ctrl+Alt+V opens paste special instantly," she said. "The V is for values."

I felt ridiculous. I'd did statistics and finance in university. But nobody had taught me to actually work efficiently in Excel.

That was four years ago. Since then, I've worked across hedge fund operations, financial management, retail and now I am job searching. Excel has been constant. Not for the same tasks, but using remarkably similar techniques.

Here are the six Excel skills I actually use multiple times per week, across completely different contexts.

1. VLOOKUP and INDEX-MATCH: Connecting Different Data Sources

At Citco, reconciling fund positions meant matching Bloomberg Terminal data against our internal records. Thousands of rows. Different organizations. Finding the right values manually was impossible.

VLOOKUP became automatic:

=VLOOKUP(A2, DataRange, 3, FALSE)

Translation: Find this value in the first column of that range, return the value from column 3.

Real example from fund reconciliations:

=VLOOKUP(A2, BloombergData!A:D, 3, FALSE)

This finds the security ID from A2 in the Bloomberg sheet, returns the quantity from column 3. I can instantly compare it to our records and spot discrepancies.

The limitation: VLOOKUP only looks to the right. If your lookup column isn't the leftmost column, it fails.

INDEX-MATCH solves this:

=INDEX(BloombergData!C:C, MATCH(A2, BloombergData!A:A, 0))

More flexible, works in any direction, faster for large datasets.

Same logic applies everywhere. My job tracker pulls company information from a master list using VLOOKUP. At my family's business, we matched customer orders with inventory using INDEX-MATCH. Different data, identical pattern: connecting information across sources.

2. Conditional Formatting: Making Patterns Visible Instantly

Your brain can't efficiently scan 200 rows of numbers. But it processes colors instantly.

At Citco, I set up automatic flagging for reconciliation discrepancies. Variances over £1,000 turned red. Under £100 turned green. Between those turned yellow. I could scan hundreds of positions and immediately see which needed investigation.

For job applications:

• Applications over 2 weeks old with no response turn orange (time to follow up)

• "Interview scheduled" turns green

• "Rejected" turns light gray

The formula for the "follow up" rule:
=AND(D2<>"Response Received", TODAY()-B2>14)

This checks if column D doesn't show a response AND more than 14 days have passed since application.

At my family's business, inventory sheets automatically flagged low stock. When quantity dropped below threshold, the cell turned red.

Setting it up:

1. Select your data range

2. Home tab > Conditional Formatting > New Rule

3. Set your condition and choose your format

The principle: if you're repeatedly scanning data for specific conditions, automate the visual flagging. Stop searching, start seeing.

3. Keyboard Shortcuts: Where Real Speed Comes From

Every time your hand moves from keyboard to mouse, you lose 2-3 seconds. Multiply by hundreds of actions per spreadsheet, and you're losing significant productive time.

The shortcuts I use constantly:

Ctrl+Alt+V: Opens paste special menu
Then hit V for values only, T for formats only, F for formulas only.

At Citco, I'd copy calculations but only need the results elsewhere. Regular paste brought formulas referencing cells that didn't exist in the new location. Ctrl+Alt+V, then V solved this in under a second.

Ctrl+Arrow Key: Jump to the last filled cell in that direction
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key: Select everything from current position to last filled cell

These navigation shortcuts transformed how I work with large datasets. Instead of scrolling through 5,000 rows, Ctrl+Down jumps instantly to the bottom.

F4: Toggle absolute/relative references in formulas
When copying formulas down, this adds the $ signs automatically: A1 → $A$1 → A$1 → $A1

Ctrl+1: Opens format cells dialog
Alt+H+O+I: Auto-fit column width to content

At my family's business, teaching just these shortcuts to the operations team reduced their monthly reporting time by roughly 30%. They were clicking through menus for actions keyboard shortcuts performed instantly.

4. Data Validation: Preventing Errors Before They Happen

Free text entry creates chaos. One person types "Interviewed", another types "Interview Complete", another types "Interview Done". Now any formula checking status needs to account for all the variations. Filters don't work properly. Pivot tables show duplicate categories.

Data validation provides dropdown lists with consistent options.

In my job application tracker:
Status column is limited to: "Applied", "Phone Screen", "Interview", "Offer", "Rejected"

This ensures every entry is identical. When I filter or use formulas that check status, there's no ambiguity.

Setting it up:

1. Select the cells where you want validation

2. Data tab > Data Validation

3. Choose "List" under Allow

4. Enter your options separated by commas

At Citco, fund names came from validated dropdown lists. Security types were limited to predefined categories. This prevented typos that would cause reconciliation failures later.

At my family's business, customer names populated from existing customer lists. Product codes validated against inventory. Payment methods restricted to "Cash", "Bank Transfer", or "Credit".

The pattern: anywhere free text entry could create inconsistency or errors, use data validation to constrain the options.

5. Pivot Tables: Fast Analysis Without Complex Formulas

When I need to summarize large datasets quickly, pivot tables do in 30 seconds what would take 20 minutes with SUMIF or COUNTIF formulas.

Example from my job tracker:
Raw data shows 150 applications with various statuses, dates, companies, and roles. I want to know: How many applications per status? What's my response rate by company? How many applications per week?

Creating a pivot table:

1. Select your data range

2. Insert tab > PivotTable

3. Drag fields to where you want them (Rows, Columns, Values)

Done. Instant summary showing whatever breakdown I need.

At Citco, pivot tables analyzed corporate action volumes by fund, by action type, by processing time. This informed resource allocation decisions without requiring anyone to write complex formulas.

At my family's business, we used pivot tables to analyze sales by product category, by month, by customer type. Quick insights for strategic decisions that would otherwise require substantial manual work.

The key insight: pivot tables aren't just for advanced analysis. Use them any time you'd otherwise write multiple summary formulas to create reports.

6. Conditional Formulas: Business Logic in Your Spreadsheet

Business decisions follow logical rules. Conditional formulas encode those rules so Excel applies them automatically.

Basic IF formula:
=IF(logical_test, value_if_true, value_if_false)

Job tracker example:
=IF(D2="Offer", "SUCCESS", IF(D2="Rejected", "No", "Pending"))

Returns "SUCCESS" if status is "Offer", "No" if rejected, "Pending" for anything else.

Combining conditions with AND:
=IF(AND(D2="Applied", TODAY()-B2>14), "Follow Up", "Wait")

This checks two conditions simultaneously: status is "Applied" AND more than 14 days have passed. Both must be true to return "Follow Up".

At Citco, conditional formulas flagged which reconciliation items needed attention:
=IF(ABS(C2-D2)>1000, "INVESTIGATE", IF(ABS(C2-D2)>100, "Review", "OK"))

This compared position quantities from two sources. Differences over £1,000 got flagged for investigation, over £100 for review, smaller differences were acceptable.

At my family's business, inventory reordering used conditional logic:
=IF(B2<C2, "REORDER", IF(B2<C2*1.5, "Monitor", "OK"))

If current stock is below minimum threshold, flag for reorder. If below 1.5x threshold, monitor closely. Otherwise it's fine.

The pattern repeats across contexts: business decisions follow logical rules. Conditional formulas make Excel apply those rules automatically across hundreds or thousands of rows.

The Pattern Across Everything

These aren't separate techniques for separate jobs. They're fundamental patterns that apply to any spreadsheet work.

Hedge fund reconciliation at Citco: VLOOKUP, conditional formatting, keyboard shortcuts, conditional formulas
Financial planning at family business: Pivot tables, data validation, conditional formulas, shortcuts
Job searching now: All six, different data, same techniques

About 90% of what I do in Excel comes down to these core skills, regardless of context.

For employers: When I say I'm proficient in Excel, I mean I can build functional tracking systems, reconcile complex datasets, automate repetitive analysis, and work efficiently without constant clicking. Not that I've memorized 500 functions.

For others learning Excel: Master these six fundamentals first. They handle most real business scenarios. The advanced statistical functions and array formulas matter later, for specific use cases.

My recommendation: Pick one technique from this list you don't currently use. Spend 30 minutes practicing it on a real problem you're facing. Next week, add another. Within six weeks, you'll work noticeably faster than colleagues who haven't learned these patterns.