Week 11 - Clear

This week the concept was clear to me. As our notes state database is an organized collection of related information. The way information is organized is something that I enjoyed. I am all about organization and making my life easier. My previous workplace actually used an Access based program to maintain all information on loans and properties. As the company grew and they bought into more commercial mortgage backed securities the need for this program became greater. It permitted all departments to see the same information on a loan or a deal. It also allowed for information to be uploaded and all departments would have access instantly. Right now I say I am clear but as I work on the project I am sure that things are going to get muddy!

Week 10 - Muddy

This week's information was way too technical for me. All that information left me more confused than when I started the lectures. Again I am finding it difficult to wrap myself around the concept of speed. Now we are discussing "bits" over "bytes". Researching on the internet I found that a bit is the smallest unit of information and the largest unit of information a computer can manipulate. Bytes (bps) are measures of speed. Then later I read a byte is a sequence of bits; usually eight bits equal one byte. It's all Chinese to me, actually I think that learning Chinese would be easier for me!!!

Excel Project

This project was divided into two parts for me. The easy and routine part and the NEW and learning part. The first part of the project was to format and manipulate the raw data. This section was the easiest part of the project. I have worked with Excel and have taken various courses on working with Excel. The general formatting of the sheet was very easy. The manipulating of the data was a higher degree of difficulty but nothing that I found very hard. Working with equations is something I had to do almost daily in my previous job.

The second section of the project was to create two pivot tables. Although this topic has been covered in most of the Excel courses that I have taken, I feel that if you don't put this knowledge to practice you forget what you have learned. The first section I completed in much less than an hour. Creating the pivot tables took me more time. I encountered difficulties while working on the first pivot table. I keep looking at my numbers and they didn't look correct. I went round and round until I finally realized that I had to change it from sum to count. After that the second table was easier and quicker to complete.

Week 8-9: Clear

This week was very clear for me. I have been working with Excel for years. The first six videos were pretty elementary for me. What I found interesting was the videos on the pivot tables. The videos were easy to follow and the explanations were good. In my previous job I charged with first taking the E-learning classes provided by Microsoft for the Microsoft Office package then being the on site contact person for the E-learning training program. Our company moved to this format to improve the training that employees received for the Office package. There were pros and cons to this system depending on how you preferred to learn. Obviously for someone like me taking the E-learning classes was much more convenient. It allowed me to take it during my down time at the office and I didn't miss a day of work going to a site to take the class. I was able to go a my own personal pace which often it was faster than the others in the class and I would get frustrated because so much time would be spent on elementary topics instead of things like pivot tables. I was able to take almost all of the Microsoft 2007 courses. I have used excel in my work environment in various positions. I am very proficient in this program and used it greatly when working on presentations for my previous company. Since LNR deals in commercial backed securities you can see that the need to have high knowledge of Excel was needed. I would create complex graphs from the information provided to me for all the company's presentation.