Is 30 Too Old to Learn Microsoft Office?

Thirty is definitely not too old to learn Microsoft Office, and in some ways, age can be an advantage. You already have years of experience with learning new skills, and you understand how you do it best. You know what learning environment is most successful for you, you are clearer about your goals, and you are motivated to make a change. 

Why Learn Microsoft Office at 30?

If you are in your thirties and taking stock of your career, you might be wondering if you are too old to learn a new tech skill like Word or Excel. Stop and ask yourself some questions:

• Are you comfortable using computers and learning new programs?
• Are you motivated to learn Microsoft Office skills to change jobs?
• Do you want to learn Microsoft Office skills to go back to school?
• Do you have any previous experience working with Microsoft products?

If you can answer "Yes!" to most or all of these questions, you can definitely learn Microsoft Office skills no matter your age. 

If you want to move to a new career, learning Microsoft Office is a good choice. While there are few careers that focus primarily on Microsoft applications, many job advertisements mention those skills. Administrative Assistants stay on top of day-to-day office activities like scheduling appointments and managing a calendar with Outlook, creating documents using Microsoft Word, and maintaining a client list using Excel. Administrative Assistants don't need a college degree, but some earn associate's or bachelor's degrees. Administrative Assistants in the US earn about $44,000 a year.

Accountants use Excel for many tasks like logging income, keeping track of purchases and expenses, creating invoices, charting accounts, and projecting cash flow. You need a bachelor's degree in finance or business to work as an Accountant. In the US, Accountants earn a median income of $78,000 a year.

Paralegals and Legal Assistants regularly use Word, Excel, Outlook, and Access to run legal offices and PowerPoint to prepare presentations. These jobs usually require an associate's degree, and median annual pay is $59,000. 

How Long Will It Take to Learn Microsoft Office?

The fastest way to learn Microsoft Office skills is to enroll in a class. Bootcamp classes are one or two day courses covering one or more Office applications. You can choose a course on a single application, like Word, Excel, or Outlook, or pick a class for training on a group of topics. Bootcamp classes are beginner-friendly and take you from the basics to advanced features in six to twelve hours. Classes include breaks during the six-hour day.

On-demand classes are recorded video sessions that you can watch when you want to. They vary in length and you can break them up into convenient parts according to your schedule or watch from beginning to end. How long it will take for you to learn Microsoft Office skills will depend on how much time you can spend on study.

Ways to Make Learning Microsoft Office Easier and Quicker

If you want to speed up your learning process, you can take Microsoft Office classes in person or live online from anywhere in the world. If you are comfortable with in-person instruction but can't find a class near you, live online classes have a set-up similar to in-person instruction. You have a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and share your screen to show you how to perform digital skills. In addition, you get the same level of attention as in in-person classes. 

Another way to speed up your Microsoft Office training is to use the many free resources available. Noble Desktop offers many free seminars to introduce you to topics like Top 10 Beginner Excel Tricks You Need to Know and PowerPoint Presentation Design to introduce users to these powerful applications. Microsoft also offers free tutorials to help you get started with Microsoft Office. These videos are grouped by subject and are a few minutes each.

Once you have some skills, one of the best ways to learn digital marketing more quickly is to create a website and some social media accounts to practice your skills. You can start with a website for yourself (or help a friend!) and use it to test different techniques. Doing volunteer work for friends or non-profit groups can provide experience in optimizing websites, writing blog posts, and setting up email marketing campaigns.

Learn Microsoft Office Skills with Noble Desktop

Whether you want to learn Microsoft Office skills for home tasks, school work, or to find a new job, you can find many course options. These 6 - 12 hour courses are available in person in New York City or live online from anywhere.

The Microsoft Office Fundamentals Bootcamp from Noble Desktop helps you gain the skills you need in essential Office applications like Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. These four applications are used every day by businesses all over the world, and learning how to use them efficiently and effectively can help you start a new career. Instruction includes an overview of the Excel workflow, how to format worksheets and add visual effects, and how to create graphics. The course also covers creating PowerPoint presentations by choosing layouts, adding content, and running a slide show. In the Word class, you will learn how to navigate through documents, add images, and create tables, lists, and notes. Finally, the Outlook class will cover automated email searches, managing a calendar, scheduling, organizing contacts, and tracking correspondence. You get a 15% discount when you sign up for the 4-day bootcamp instead of taking each class separately. 

Microsoft Office Intermediate Bootcamp from Noble Desktop takes up where the Fundamentals class stops. You will learn about Excel Pivot Tables, advanced functions like VLOOKUP, and how to make your workflow smoother and faster with automation. The PowerPoint module covers creating reusable templates, how to import files from Excel, use multimedia and layered objects, and record a slideshow. The Word section covers automation tools, custom document styles, and productivity features. Finally, the Outlook class shows you how to configure email accounts, perform advanced searches, control spam, and manage calendars and contacts.

The Complete Microsoft Office Bootcamp from Noble Desktop will make you an Office expert. This advanced course offers 54 hours of instruction in PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and Excel. The course goes from introductory material through advanced to give you comprehensive training in these important business skills.

Noble Desktop offers Outlook Bootcamp for new users who want to understand how to use this Office application for sending email and scheduling appointments to increase productivity. Learn about customizing, automating, and managing your email accounts, plus optimizing your calendar and organizing your contacts.

If you want to build confidence in your document preparation skills, Word Bootcamp from Noble Desktop can help you get there. This comprehensive class can take you from beginner to expert in as little as two days. Learn how to navigate through Word and format documents; work with text at the sentence and paragraph level; insert images, tablets, lists, and citations; track changes; customize document style; and use forms and mail merge features.

Noble Desktop's three-day Excel Bootcamp will take you from absolute beginner to expert in a few days. The course starts with the basics like performing calculations, creating graphs, formatting, and printing. Move on to more advanced features like pivot tables, VLOOKUP, SUMIFs, and advanced database functions like INDEX and MATCH. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

PowerPoint Bootcamp is a two-day course from Noble Desktop to help you learn PowerPoint basics like creating layouts, adding text, images, shapes, SmartArt, and more. Work with tables and charts to organize information in your presentations. Day two delves into more advanced features like how to create a reusable PowerPoint Theme/Template to make an easily updatable, engaging, consistent presentation. Add excitement with animations, add video, and learn how to manage large presentations with sections and custom shows.

Excel Level 1: Fundamentals from Noble Desktop covers the basic concepts of Microsoft Excel. This course covers how to do calculations, create graphs, format worksheets, and print or share them in Microsoft Excel. Class assignments are designed to help you practice concepts based on real-world examples as you learn them. Students also receive exclusive reference materials as part of the class. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Noble Desktop's introductory PowerPoint Level 1 course covers the fundamental concepts of this popular presentation software. Learn how to create new presentations, choose slides and add content, add pictures and graphics and learn to adjust them, how to use SmartArt, draw lines and shapes, align objects, insert tables and charts, add transitions, and learn to run the final presentation. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Microsoft Word is one of the world's most popular word-processing programs. This introductory Microsoft Word Level 1 course from Noble Desktop covers the fundamental concepts and skills, including preparing and sending mass letters, labels, and emails with one click, introductory formatting, and shortcuts to save time on routine tasks. This course is available in person in NYC or live online from anywhere.

Noble Desktop's Microsoft Access Level 1 will help you keep your Microsoft Office work organized. Access is a database program that can organize and manage data. You will learn to join, sort, and filter data from different tables, use forms to view, access, and input data, and create and format reports. The class will also cover designing a relational database, joining tables, validating data, using advanced queries, and organizing and customizing your database.