Don't discount a tool just because you've never used it. Excel has pros and cons just as R or python do. Excel is also heavily adopted in business groups and something any analyst should be proficient in, at the very least to communicate quickly with stakeholders. It's not difficult to learn, so why the resistance? Can't tell you how many times I've had to explain to stakeholders why spreadsheets aren't appropriate for storing data, but if I didn't know how spreadsheets worked how could I possibly convince them otherwise?

And a note on what you've learned in school -- universities aren't always in sync with what's actually relevant to industry. Keep that in mind.