Is Excel dead for health economists? I checked out 225 health economics jobs on EuropeanHealthEconomics.com, that we have posted on the job board over the last three months. Surprisingly, only 15% required Excel skills. And even fewer, just 8%, were looking for health economists with VBA skills, typically for modelling and HTA roles.
This makes me wonder, are we health economists moving away from Excel? Or do hiring managers just assume every health economist candidate knows how to use Excel, and simply do not mention this in the job descriptions?
When it comes to CVs, most health economists do not include Excel skills or courses on their CVs, even though Excel is (or was?) the main tool in our field. If you are an Excel guru, highlighting this is probably an easy way to stand out from the crowd.
If I think about my health economics work, I’m using Excel every day. How about you? Have you used Excel today?
