New role through automation: Markus' growth as a Business Analyst at Accountor
Markus Virtanen's career is an excellent example of how versatile work experience and continuous development can open new career opportunities. Virtanen has a strong background in financial management tasks, and he has been involved in sales and developing financial management automation. Along the way, Markus has worked in companies, was a co-founder in a company where he worked full-time and then moved to Accountor through a business acquisition. This has provided him with a broad perspective on different aspects of business.
"I have worked in various financial management positions all my life, and also sold accounting services and Netvisor. For the past four years, I have been employed purely by financial administration automation."
In his current role as Business Analyst, Markus works as the leader of automation projects and as a link between Accountor's various stakeholders. Stakeholders can be for example accountants and customer representatives. Tasks consist of analyzing processes, improving them, testing automations and training end users. Automation speeds up for example the processing of purchase invoices and account statements.
Move to Citizen Developer role
In the fall of 2023, Markus was asked if he was interested in getting to know the role of Citizen Developer. As a Citizen Developer, Markus develops automations that do not require extensive programming experience. Although there were challenges in the beginning, eventually things started to get easier: Markus has successfully published the automation he made himself in the spring. Daily cooperation with Accountor colleagues goes well, according to Markus – help is available when needed.
"My Teams app is buzzing every day. I have found the work community to be fun and solution oriented. Not looking for problems, but solutions."
Markus' career shows that even though you may encounter big changes and new roles on your career path, each step can also be a valuable learning experience that opens doors to future opportunities. What advice would he give to others who are considering a career in similar positions?
"A good start is when from time to time you get into a “mental helicopter” and think about your current job, what you are doing and why. Could this be done in a more agile way? If you don't like the answer: "that's how it's always been done", you're on the right track. In addition to substance, there must be a will to change things for the better," advises Markus.
