But at many universities across the country, devoted Excel fans gather in classrooms, fire up their laptops, and race against the clock to solve complex spreadsheet challenges. What started as a niche hobby turned into a competitive college sports which culminates each year in a global competition sponsored by Microsoftbroadcast on ESPNand has a $100,000 prize fund.

More than that the innovation of being a spreadsheet master, participants and sponsors say that Excel esports offers something more meaningful: a way for Gen Z students to turn their passions into professional opportunities. It gives students the opportunity to demonstrate the most sought-after skills such as problem solving under pressure, analytical thinking, and the ability to collaborate in team-based environments.

For Nate Insko, now a senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) on the school’s Excel esports team, that content has been proven. While applying for post-grad jobs, he interviewed with companies including Wells Fargo, Boston Consulting Groupand Raymond Jamesand almost every time, recruiters ask about his experience as a competitive Excel player.

“When you point your finger at a resume and you see, ‘Oh my gosh, competitive Excel, What is this? I want to talk to this kid about it,'” Insko said. luck. “That’s enough to get you into the interview room.”

That distinction eventually helped him land a role as an up-and-coming investment banking analyst at Harris Williams—proof that in a crowded job marketeven something as unlikely as competitive Excel can be the content that sets a candidate apart.

Making Excel skills a job offer

Excel competitions themselves are far from ordinary. Students build complex formulas to do everything from risk-and-return calculations for stock portfolios to mocking up video game avatar tracking systems. It’s high-speed, high-pressure problem solving—just with spreadsheets.

That technical prowess makes players unlikely artists on campus. In the last academic year, neither football nor baseball brought a championship trophy to UTK—it is Excel.

Ben Northern, who is finishing his master’s program in industrial engineering, will be part of 2024 Microsoft Excel World Championship team. After six months of competition, they defeated 8,000 students from more than 70 schools around the world, culminating in a final showdown in Las Vegas. Northern described the win as “literally a dream come true.”

“A year ago, I didn’t know what Excel sports were, and now here we are, world champions,” he said. luck.

The title paid off quickly. A company flew north after finding him through the championship, and he eventually landed a full-time project management role at Pilot Companya truck-stop chain majority owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Eric Kelleya professor of finance at UTK and faculty advisor for the Excel esports team, said that the skills used in competitive spreadsheets give students an automatic improvement in the hiring process-but it is more than the companies that take care of applicants who know how to properly fight and analyze data.

“The interviewer will look at their resume, and they’ll see (Excel esports), and they’ll say, what’s that? Tell me about it,” Kelley said. “They will tell a story.”

While AI makes it easier for students to polish resumes and cover letters, Kelley said having something tangible, competitive, and niche like Excel esports can make all the difference.

“What I tell my students is that the world is hungry for problem solvers, and if you can demonstrate that you can solve problems, then you are valuable to some employer,” he said.

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

Excel sports have started again attract sponsorship moneywhich is usually reserved for traditional athletics.

After one of the team members applied for a corporate job at Weigel’s—a local convenience store chain with about 90 locations—the company became interested in the Excel squad. It signed one of the first name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals of Excel esports, which provides funding for travel and equipment.

“It’s a win-win for everybody,” said Greg Adkins, president of New Frame Creative, a Knoxville-based marketing firm that coordinated the NIL deal with Weigel. He helped create a viral Instagram video featuring the team—shot with the same polish usually reserved for football or basketball players.

Having a NIL sponsorship in your name can also travel beyond campus, Adkins added.

“If you’re talking to two candidates for a job, and one of them says, I know how to use Microsoft Excel, and the other says, I’m so good at Microsoft Excel I got a sponsorship from a big convenience store chain,” Adkins said. “I think it’s an advantage.”