Meet Ransom

Let’s start off by learning a bit more about your life prior to Pega. Where are you from originally and what is your educational background?
I am currently based out of the Virtusa office in downtown Indianapolis, but have lived around the Midwest throughout my life.  My degree and bulk of professional experience are actually rooted in the field of biotechnology. Prior to joining Virtusa, I spent seven years working at one of the leading life sciences companies here in Indianapolis.  While working there and being exposed to many emerging technologies, I found that my passion rested in process automation.

What motivated you to learn how to use Pega?
I knew at some point I wanted to make the migration from biotechnology into the tech/IT field so I dedicated a lot of my free time to learning various CRM/BPM platforms from training materials available online.

One day I stumbled across a job posting for a position as a business process analyst which I applied to (and was offered the role), which turned out to be my doorway into the Pega ecosystem. I haven’t looked back since.

"At the moment, I have six out of the eight available Pega certificates, and hopefully will be acquiring another one relatively soon.”

How has Pega shaped or impacted your career?
I feel confident saying that learning Pega has easily been the best thing to happen to my career.  There are just so many avenues that a person can choose to take with Pega development (RPA, data science, marketing, etc…), all of which are equally fascinating and rewarding. At the moment, I have six out of the eight available Pega certificates, and hopefully will be acquiring another one relatively soon.

What message or advice would you give to anyone who is considering a career as a Pega Developer?
My advice would be 100% to go for it.  Pega has opened so many doors for me that I never thought possible, and in such a relatively short amount of time.

Also, to anyone who doesn’t have a computer science background, don’t let that fact deter you; if I can do it you absolutely can.  Plus, there is such an amazing compendium of knowledge on Pega Community and PDN if you ever find yourself having a hard time with something.