Emil Haldan, Junior Consultant, EPICO NextGen

Can you briefly describe the business area you work with and your primary tasks

Through EPICO NextGen, I am a member of VELUX and the VILLUM Foundation, which are non-profit foundations. I am part of a small team that works with IT administration. Since we are only three people, we work with a wide range of different tasks, where my primary role is RPA developer (Robotic Process Automation).

VELUX and the VILLUM Foundation invest more than one billion kroner a year in scientific research and anthropology, among other things. This means that there are a lot of projects that need to be processed, as many applications come in. It ends up with a lot of administrative work, where some of the manual processes are time-consuming and large in volume. Here, my primary role is to investigate the possibilities for automation, develop, quality check the processes, and finally implement it in operation. Based on this, the administrative employees in the foundations are given the opportunity to use their skills on tasks that require the human "touch", which are often more exciting and meaningful.

In addition to this, I also perform administrative work and support tasks. This typically involves contacting a supplier, or helping people use Salesforce and their mobile phones.

The position is study-relevant and matched to what I have expressed about my career development to my personal NextGen Agent.

What are the most exciting and challenging tasks in your job?

So far, both the most exciting and challenging task has been to program an "archiving robot".

This has been needed, as it has so far been a competent employee who has been responsible for manually archiving applications for projects, after which they are forwarded to various grant areas. Despite the fact that she does a good job, there is great vulnerability in the process, for example if she is ill, on holiday or changes jobs.

Therefore, my first task was to create a process that replaces exactly the task she is working on. The employee is wildly excited about our collaboration, as it takes the heavy responsibility away from her and gives her time and opportunity to look at other tasks.

The purpose of the robot is to process the applications that come in, so that they are screened before they are sent out to the various foundation advisers in the grant areas. Here, it is really important that both the organizations and the applicants are "linked" to the organizations and contacts we have in our database.

Since applicants may sometimes try to hide as they have the hope that it will increase their chances of receiving a grant, they sometimes hide middle names, or use a different phone number and the like.

In this context, I have created a dynamic system that matches applicants with the contacts in our database, based on fundamental NLP concepts, Python, and SQL queries.

The issue is distantly trivial, but to automate the "human touch", a lot of work is needed.

What are the three most important things for you in your work at EPICO NextGen?

1. That I get work experience in the field I want to develop in.

2. That I can decide my own working hours. In this way, I can adapt it to school, or be allowed to sit for longer periods and develop.

3. Having an organization that helps me with expectations and the practicalities of starting an IT career.

A more practical example was that for a period of time I had not registered my salary in time, which meant that I was close to having a payslip postponed. It doesn't sound like much, but as a student, it can really punch a hole in your finances. I have never before experienced an employer going to such lengths for me to get my salary. I was contacted by email, work mobile, private mobile, call, LinkedIn and Facebook. I ended up getting my salary on time, even though the circumstances were self-inflicted.

Why is EPICO NextGen an attractive company for you to work for?

EPICO NextGen treats its consultants in a very special way. I feel like I'm part of the team and not just a resource.

I have not had that experience with other companies, or heard of others who have had the experience and sparring that I have received. Contracts at NextGen are competitive, which makes it even more attractive to be with them. In addition, I am a huge fan of how eager my personal agent has been in relation to my future career and my opportunities at NextGen. Overall, I have received a lot of inspiration and great pleasure from becoming part of NextGen at EPICO-IT.