I remember when I first heard about RPA in the most basic sense. I was working at a large accounting firm, and we had a client for which we needed to pull many invoices for. An associate in another office had success using a program called AutoIt, which is a very simple program used to create automation scripts for Microsoft Windows programs.
After meeting with that associate for an hour, I was on my way to creating my first script. Despite not having much experience, I was able to write a script relatively quickly that pulled invoices in SAP using document numbers from a locally saved spreadsheet. Being very new and unaware of the software, watching the bot go through invoice by invoice automatically was really cool to see, and I was eager to try this program for other potential applications within my role.
A couple of months later, I stumbled upon UiPath. I downloaded the free community version and was amazed at the capabilities that this free product had. It was somewhat similar to AutoIt, but much more sophisticated and expansive. The possibilities were literally endless, with potential applications in so many different areas. With this realization, I decided to start taking the UiPath courses that led to the Advanced Developer certificate. I didn’t have a specific goal or endpoint in mind when I started the courses. I just knew that I found the technology very interesting and that someway, somehow it would be beneficial to me in the future. I quickly realized that this was something that I wanted as a career, and that I may enjoy working as an RPA developer. After all, I was investing very significant amounts of my personal time to do this. I was having fun learning the software and creating my own personal bots to solidify the concepts that I had been learning.
In this era of technology, I hear very often that technology is changing and that those that will adapt will be in the best position to succeed. Working in Intelligent Automation, I think that this sentiment especially rings true. While it can be intimidating, I view this as an opportunity. In an industry that is in constant flux, this presents many opportunities to learn and apply new technologies in novel and interesting ways. This serves as a great motivator and reminder to ensure that I am constantly learning and open to change to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Another element that excites me is the client service aspect. Due to technological progress on RPA developer platforms such as UiPath, an increase in the availability and scaling of cloud computing, and a heightened awareness of automation, RPA (and automation in a more general sense) is on the minds of many leaders within large organizations. With this attention, there is a great market opportunity to drive success with clients. They are more informed about this technology and are eager to make meaningful changes within their organization, which translates to fun projects and great outcomes.
