Hi,Could anyone please advise what analytical skills and tools are most commonly used by consultants and analysts in their day-to-day activities? Are advanced Excel skills enough? Thanks in advance.

Advanced Excel would fall into the category of "knowledge" that can be applied to analyse things. Analytical "skills" refer to the cognitive processes that allow you to come up with the idea of performing that analysis, and devising appropriate methodologies for it. Finally, analytical "competencies" refer to the proven ability to complete the analysis accurately, efficiently, and so on.Obviously, there's some overlap, but this may help if you're trying to interpret job specifications.

That was very clear and concise. Thanks. Is Excel the most commonly used tool here or are there any others that are used more often, like SAS/SPSS, for instance?

Clear and concise, perhaps, but forgot to answer the original question - d'oh.Excel is the most commonly used base program by some way, especially supplemented by custom VBA applications. The gap between Excel and more specialist programs has narrowed enough that many firms rely on it for most of their day-to-day quantitative analysis. Therefore your experience should be helpful. SAS and SPSS are fairly common in marketing and in-depth market analysis, but you'll probably get ad-hoc training on them unless your role is in those areas.

SQL is also useful

Are strong analytical skills (demonstrated in coursework) alone likely to get me a job or do they only look for candidates with relevant commercial experience? Surely they must have some need for junior/entry level analysts. Thanks