You are not screwed, but you are about to learn a hard lesson about enterprise software ecosystems. The intern who chose a MacBook over a ThinkPad for a job that is fifty percent Excel work made a choice based on hardware preference, not workflow reality. That is understandable, new hardware is exciting, and the M4 MacBook is an impressive machine. But the question was never about which laptop looks better on a desk. It was about which tool lets you finish your VLOOKUPs and database uploads without friction.
Here is the practical truth: Excel on Mac is not the same application as Excel on Windows. It lacks Power Query, Power Pivot, and the full VBA runtime that enterprise workflows depend on. When your job involves manually uploading data, handling invoices, and maintaining sales tracking tables, those missing features are not abstract conveniences, they are the difference between a five-minute task and a thirty-minute workaround. The multinational corporation that offered the choice likely runs its entire data infrastructure on Windows-based Excel. That is not a conspiracy; it is the reality of enterprise IT. Choosing a Mac for this role means you will spend more time fighting the software than doing your actual work.
The good news is that this situation is fixable, and it does not require buying a new laptop. Most large corporations have remote desktop solutions or virtual Windows environments available. You can run the full Windows version of Excel through a virtual machine or a company-provided remote desktop session. It is not as seamless as native performance, but it restores the tools you need. Alternatively, you can explore AI-native spreadsheet tools that work across platforms and automate the manual tasks you described, uploading data, matching records, and updating tables. These tools are designed to handle exactly the kind of repetitive, error-prone work that makes up half your job. They do not care whether you are on a Mac or a ThinkPad.
Your choice of laptop does not define your productivity. But your choice of tooling does. The intern who adapts, by learning the remote workaround, testing an AI-native alternative, or simply requesting a Windows loaner, will turn this mistake into a skill. The intern who spends the next six months manually re-entering data because the Mac version of Excel lacks a feature is the one who will stay stuck. You are not screwed. You are just at the first real decision point of your career: choose to solve the problem, not defend the hardware.