A recent graduate from Nichols College in Boston, MA and now working as an Automation Engineer at Paragus IT, Skyla started her educational journey with an Accounting degree,  but later changed that concentration to technology and automation.   

In a conversation with her advisor, it was suggested perhaps Accounting wasn't the right fit. These discussions led to an internship through Center of Intelligent Automation (CIPA) program at Nichols College.  Skyla defines automation as the improvement of manual processes that are rule based and repetitive. Mostly data entry that was occuring daily or weekly. She using Power Automate with Microsoft to support her automation  Two (2) examples where she has made a visible impact to her internal stakeholders are:     

- The same email is sent every week, from the same supervisor with the same body of content to remind folks about their time sheet.     

- Employees submit reimbursement requests via paper. Through the use of mobile app, employees can send those request very quickly and can managers can quickly approve or deny.  

Other topics discussed wtih Skyla:  

- What prompted the change - the appeal and challenge - Types of activities as an automation engineer - Not every process can be solved by automation.  - Do stakeholders reach out to the department or is it a struggle for internal stakeholders to embrace automation? - Listening is the #1 skill set. The process is explained differently by different people or doesn't exist on paper. - The value of current state processes - Skyla's recommendations for other women just starting their career journey.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/skyla-w/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/paragus-it/