foreign [Music] the company you're with and your current role hi I'm Rachel Collins and I'm with Apex systems and I am an agile and project management solution leader as an agile and project manager Solutions leader tell me a little bit about the type of work you do day to day so my role is really to work with our clients and help them design engagements that will best suit their needs to meet their objectives whether it be to transform into an agile way of working or to perhaps build out their project management office or even augment their existing teams tell me about some of the biggest problems your customers are facing when it comes to adopting agile I think one of the biggest challenges that we often see is a disconnect between the leadership or the Enterprise level and the team level a lot of times we have big expectations for transformation to happen overnight but the truth is it does take work and it takes effort and it takes a lot of practice and patience and so aligning expectations between all levels of the organization is critical and to do that we like to implement customized agile coaching for both teams and leaders and we also love to use tools to help us enable this way of working for those who don't know about what agile is agile is really a mindset it's a mindset of continuous Improvement of failing fast of finding different ways to work together creatively to deliver value faster now as a woman in Tech I'm always excited to see other women and I want to know a little bit about your journey how did you get into the space so I actually started my career in marketing and I sort of fell into project management by chance I saw an opportunity and I said to my former manager at the time I think you need a project manager and so I got into it that way I found a lot of great mentors along the way and then similar to how I fell into project management I also fell into agile because I had a wonderful coach and Mentor at the time who saw that potential in me and so I learned more about the practices the methodology the mindset and ultimately I ended up with Apex through an engagement that I was working on as a contractor and now I'm a full-time employee and I love to not only practice as a consultant but bring solutions to my customers I like what you said about the importance mentors have had in your Career Success tell me a little bit about maybe some advice you can give to people who are breaking into the ecosystem perhaps other women who are looking to enter the ecosystem or enter Tech either fresh out of college or the military or maybe their career pivoting into Tech are there any words that you can offer I would say definitely look around within your community there are probably various meetups or professional organizations that would love to have your participation and involvement they're oftentimes free or at very low cost and usually you can find some great people who are willing to provide mentorship opportunities or even just a listening ear if you've got a problem that you're trying to solve for and other than that lean in do your research look at what's out there take any courses if you're able to and if you see something that interests you say so because you never know who's listening and they just might have an opportunity for you Rachel Collins final question what is your superpower oh that's a really good one I would say that my superpower is this is maybe not the best one to give but I'm a great multitasker that's a really good one to have especially for what you do look you heard it here I'm Kylie Alexander we're at knowledge 2023 in Las Vegas Nevada what happens in Vegas leaves Vegas you're here with Rachel the greatest multitasker Of All Times Collins let's go