Discover the Gen Z college students who transformed Excel into a competitive esports—they’re engaging in spreadsheet challenges and it’s aiding them in securing jobs

If you’ve ever opened a spreadsheet, more than likely you didn’t find it especially enjoyable—or feel motivated to open it again during your leisure time. 

But at numerous universities across the nation, dedicated Excel enthusiasts are assembling in classrooms, powering up their laptops, and racing against the clock to tackle intricate spreadsheet challenges. What began as a specialized pastime has developed into an that concludes annually with a global competition sponsored by , broadcast on , and boasting a $100,000 prize pool.

Beyond the novelty of being a spreadsheet virtuoso, participants and sponsors state that Excel esports provides something more significant: a means for Gen Z students to transform their passions into professional prospects. It’s granting students an opportunity to display highly desired skills such as problem-solving under duress, analytical thinking, and the capacity to collaborate in team-oriented settings.

For Nate Insko, currently a senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) on the institution’s Excel esports team, that advantage proved concrete. When applying for post-graduate positions, he interviewed with companies like , , and , and almost every time, recruiters inquired about his experience as a competitive Excel player.

“When you’re rolling your finger down the resume and you see, ‘Oh my gosh, competitive Excel, What is this like? I want to talk to this kid about this,’” Insko shared with . “Simply that alone is sufficient to get you into the interview room.”

That distinction eventually enabled him to secure a position as an incoming investment banking analyst at Harris Williams—evidence that in a , even something as improbable as competitive Excel can be the advantage that differentiates a candidate.

Turning Excel skills into a job offer

Excel competitions themselves are far from conventional. Students construct intricate formulas to carry out everything from risk-and-return calculations for stock portfolios to mock video game avatar tracking systems. It’s high-speed, high-stakes problem-solving—merely with spreadsheets.

That technical proficiency has transformed players into unexpected campus celebrities. Last academic year, it wasn’t football or baseball that brought a championship trophy to UTK—.

Ben Northern, who was finishing his industrial engineering master’s program, was part of the 2024 Excel World Championship team. After six months of competition, they bested 8,000 students from more than 70 schools worldwide, culminating in a final showdown in Las Vegas. Northern characterized the victory as “literally a dream come true.”

“A year ago, I had no clue what Excel esports was, and now here we were, world champions,” he shared with . 

The title promptly yielded results. One company flew Northern out after discovering him via the championship, and he ultimately obtained a full-time project management position at , a truck-stop chain predominantly owned by Warren Buffett’s .

, a finance professor… stated that the skills employed with competitive spreadsheets provide students an immediate advantage in the hiring process—but it extends beyond companies being concerned about applicants knowing how to appropriately manage and analyze data.

“The interviewer will look at their resume, and they’ll see [Excel esports], and they’ll say, what is that? Tell me about it,” Kelley stated. “They get to narrate a story.”

As AI simplifies it for students to refine resumes and cover letters, Kelley stated that having something tangible, competitive, and specialized such as Excel esports can make all the difference.

“What I tell my students is that the world is in need of problem solvers, and if you can show that you can solve problems, then you’re valuable to some employer,” he remarked.

NIL isn’t just for popular sports—even Excel esports teams are landing deals

Excel esports has also started , which is usually restricted to traditional athletics.

After one of the team members applied for a corporate position at Weigel’s—a local convenience store chain with approximately 90 locations—the company became interested in the Excel team. It inked one of the first in Excel esports, offering funding for travel and equipment.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” stated Greg Adkins, president of New Frame Creative, a Knoxville-based marketing firm that coordinates Weigel’s NIL deals. He assisted in creating a viral Instagram showcasing the team—filmed with the same finesse usually reserved for football or basketball players.

Having an NIL sponsorship to your credit can also extend far beyond campus, Adkins added.

“If you’re speaking with two job candidates, and one says, I know how to use Microsoft Excel, and the other says, I’m so proficient in Microsoft Excel that I got a sponsorship from a large convenience store chain,” Adkins stated. “I definitely believe it’s an advantage.”