About Joseph

My name is Joseph and I’m a software engineer. I like to exercise, learn, be outdoors, etc. All the boring stuff.

You might be asking, “…so why create a blog about Excel?”

Great question! I will get to the “why” part, but first please let me share with you the “how” I got to where I am with Excel.

How I got to be a bit of an expert in Excel

While I had a job every year since I was 14, my career truly began when I was starting college. I was pursuing a two-year degree in Engineering Science when I got the opportunity to work at a company through a friend of mine. The job involved creating Excel reports and, even though I had no experience, I thought it would be better than working at Napa or Pep Boys, so I accepted the offer. That job was the starting point of my professional career.

After investing in Excel 2000 Formulas, I was well-equipped to create reports, dashboards, and more. Soon enough, my boss began requesting tasks that required VBA programming. To gain the expertise I needed, I purchased Microsoft Microsoft Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA and joined the VBA Express forum. I made friends with influential figures like Ken Puls and followed Excel sites such as Contextures. After some time learning, I decided to join the community and help others with VBA issues, which I found incredibly rewarding.

Later, I graduated with my Associate’s in Science degree and moved to another state. During my studies for a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, I secured a job as a CAD designer. I continued to help people out on Excel forums as a hobby. At work, I was able to utilize VBA extensively due to AutoCAD’s VBA object model, allowing me to create a variety of useful tools. When I noticed that the company might not be doing well, I contacted a recruiter and found my next job. After the interview, I returned to my CAD design job only to be informed that the company would be closing in a few months. Thankfully, I acted when I should have.

It’s quite amusing that my Excel expertise actually helped me land my next job with a substantial pay raise - something I was not expecting. The role was for a CAD designer, as I was still studying mechanical engineering. During the interview, my future boss said, “You know, I get plenty of resumes with CAD experience, but you’re the first person I’ve seen with CAD experience AND VBA experience.” I was quite taken aback that he was familiar with VBA, as people usually think of macros instead. He continued, “I had a colleague who did great things with VBA and we could really use someone like you around here.” I was elated. All my studying and helping out on the forums had paid off, as I had landed a job from what was initially a hobby. It was incredible.

To illustrate what he meant by needing someone for VBA purposes, his first assignment to me was to help him gather and analyze data from a convoluted spreadsheet, reformat it to meet certain criteria, and present it in a specific manner. Doing this manually took him around two hours daily. It was no easy task to program, but after 24 working hours, I returned with a solution. All I said was “Click this button and you’ll have your report.” He clicked the button and, seven seconds later, he had his report - a tremendous increase in productivity given his position as director and the salary that came with it. It marked the start of a great relationship with him and the rest of the team.

In addition to CAD work in AutoCAD, I was also tasked with CorelDraw - not a CAD platform per se, but they paid me so I wasn’t going to complain. Much to my surprise, CorelDraw also supported VBA and I made great use of that too, saving me a great deal of time and effort for repetitive tasks that could be automated. Out of all the VBA object models I’ve been exposed to, CorelDraw’s was my favorite. Their help files were incredibly helpful and full of examples, plus the method names made so much sense to me - very well done.

Eventually, I began to learn SQL and assist the company with their inventory management system needs. This made me the liaison between their database/ERP system developer and the company. Through this, I gained a wealth of knowledge about systems development, UI design, web development, and other geeky topics. Throughout this time, I continued to hone my Excel skills both at work and on the forums. After being at the company for a year, I realized that my true passion was programming. My co-workers helped me come to this realization as I was struggling with some of my mechanical engineering classes. As a result, I switched majors and studied computer engineering instead, where I performed much better. My grades improved significantly, even earning me some awards. By the time I graduated, I had been with the company for a total of 5.5 years.

Subsequently, I found another job doing web development and have been doing it ever since. Although I still do work in Excel, it is much less than before. Now, most of my professional time is spent in JavaScript (frontend and backend) as well as C#.

OK, I get it. So, why create an Excel blog?

I stumbled across Pat Flynn’s blog about how to make money online by sharing your expertise and it immediately piqued my interest. I had always considered starting a blog on Excel and sharing my knowledge, but I thought there were other blogs that already did the same thing. However, Pat Flynn - along with some encouraging friends and my wonderful wife - gave me the motivation to purchase a domain and begin sharing my knowledge. Although there are plenty of blogs and people already sharing their expertise on Excel, I believe I can contribute too. I hope this blog is just as useful, if not more, than some of the other blogs out there discussing Excel.

My promise to you is to provide something unique. Even if I discuss a formula that has been discussed extensively by other Excel bloggers, I will present it in an easy-to-understand way with enough detail to keep you efficient and away from the pitfalls of Excel’s quirks.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this blog. If you have a particular topic that you would like me to cover, I would love to hear from you! Please email me at joseph@spreadsheetsmadeeasy.com with any questions, ideas, or comments.

If you have read this far, I want to express my sincere gratitude for taking the time to do so. Thank you for visiting and enjoy!

Joseph