Data Science
Meet Ioana
With a background as a journalist and successful author, she now automates processes so that people can spend more time doing meaningful things.
Hey Ioana! You’ve been a Business Process Analyst at Visma for almost four years already. What’s your job like?
“I'm absolutely in love with my job. I feel really lucky to work here. As a part of the automation team called AutoMate, I analyse and optimise processes and implement robots that automate manual tasks. You can say I’m the liaison between the customers and the software developers. I translate languages. In addition to my role, I wear multiple hats inside the company, since I love to give a hand wherever it's possible. So I'm also leading different projects in my team, as well as promoting Visma on different channels as a social media ambassador. I'm proud to work in the IT field, helping people succeed with automation.”
“You can say I’m the liaison between the customers and the software developers. I translate languages”
Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate! Your background as a journalist and author is quite different. How did you end up working for a tech company, and are there any similarities to your previous jobs?
“Yes, I have published four books here in Romania, two of them were even quite successful. I don’t think my colleagues know this about me … I wanted to try something new and started working at another IT company. I think my background as a journalist helps me to translate things into visual metaphors that might be easier for people to understand. Although I'm originally not a tech person, but rather a business person, I was hunting Visma for years. One day, I saw that they were hiring a Business Process Analyst. I thought ‘this is my chance’. And it turned out to be. When I got a phone call from Visma saying ‘we’re hiring you’ I knew I’d made the right decision. Working here is one of the best professional decisions of my life.”
That’s so nice! What is it about Visma that makes it your best decision?
“To me, Visma is the best employer because of how they differ from other companies. What differs is the care for the employees. At Visma, I don't feel like a number. I'm a human being who’s respected and always heard. I’m given the freedom to have a balanced personal working life. It really is a people-focused company. That’s the major difference. People working at Visma are glad to be in this company, also due to the Scandinavian working culture because most of the benefits that we have as employees come from there. I’m proud to represent Visma. And I'm bragging about it everywhere I can.”
And being happy in our jobs improves our work too, isn’t that how it works?
“Yes, exactly. I‘m happy about going to work every day. I have a wonderful manager. She's one of the reasons why I'm so happy to open my laptop in the morning because she gives me the freedom to manage my job as I want. I have so much support from everybody.”
Coming from journalism, you’ve said it was hard in the beginning, as you didn’t have all the knowledge. How has the transition into tech and journey at Visma been?
“Yes, I work in a great team where everyone’s really happy to help me. I also had many training opportunities. For example, the Visma Learning Zone portal where we can do all kinds of training and e-courses. So within a few months, I was ready to go. It was due to the people that I was surrounded with, that I managed to learn so many things in short time.“
“I have a wonderful manager. She's one of the reasons why I'm so happy to open my laptop in the morning, because she gives me the freedom to manage my job as I want”
Some are a bit intimidated by the words automation and robots – perhaps because they’re worried a lot of jobs will be replaced by machines. How do you feel about it?
“Yes, because they often have the impression that robots will steal our jobs. It's not like that. Instead, when we let robots do some of our tasks, it frees up our time. We can spend it on activities that are more meaningful and value-adding instead. Automation is about quality of life, the robots are our friends! They make our jobs more interesting. We want people and employees to have the time to come up with great ideas for the business, to innovate or maybe just take a walk outside the office during lunch hours. So this is what robots do. I'm in love with robots.“
They truly are an important part of the technological environment! Do you feel like you’re a part of that?
“Yes, I really do. My job feels helpful. I feel that I help people by implementing automation, which frees up their time for innovation and ideation. That’s something a robot cannot do.”
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Data Science
