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Member of the Month: Sofya Dallakyan

Member of the Month

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We are kicking off PMI Toronto’s fiscal year by continuing our monthly series: Member of the Month. This month we celebrate the contributions of Sofya Dallakyan, who has been an active volunteer with the Canadian Online Event (CoE) Committee in 2022. Sofya’s work and dedication into making the CoE a success during PMIT’s last fiscal year is certainly worth highlighting. Nominated by Karthik Srinivasan, Lead, Canadian Online Events, who has said Sofya’s work in bringing the various events to PMIT led to high registration and participation and made it a great event series for the Chapter. Please help me in congratulating Sofya Dallakyan for being recognized as PMI Toronto’s Member of the Month for July.

A Project Management Career

Sofya is a newcomer to Canada who worked in multiple industries since graduating with a BA in Business Administration from the America University of Armenia. After her graduation Sofya worked as an Administrative/PM Assistant with Microsoft Armenia. Her scope of work included partner management to operations management. During her role she was “working with compliance, procurement, marketing, and payroll teams to ensure that the Microsoft Armenia subsidiary has all the needed resources to implement projects that were aimed to provide the right services to local private and public sectors.”

Her next career opportunity was a Project Manager Hayastan All Armenian Fund NGO. In this role, Sofya coordinated projects in construction, education, IT, and healthcare that “aimed to make an impact on the social welfare in the regions.” She also worked with the marketing team to create content for social media, newsletters, and other platforms. Sofya explains that it was in this role where she was able to practice her communication skills since she worked with various donor organizations. She explains, “the NGO has different donor communities in 19 countries and my role as PM was to keep each stakeholder updated on the progress of the projects and submit new project proposal requests.”

Over the last five years she has worked in project management related roles in the NGO, consulting, and IT sectors. Now working in Canada Sofya is working as a co-op student with a consulting company where she covers the implementation of various projects for clients in the IT, e-commerce, and medical sectors. She is “applying agile methodologies to manage work internally with a team of 20, as well as communicating with the clients to help translate their requirements into action items.” She is also currently enrolled in the Master’s Project Management program at Northeastern University.

As project management professionals there are always lessoned learned that can create improvements and efficiencies. Sofya shares this:

Consistency over intensity. It’s better to take one step at a time and ensure all the processes are properly aligned within the organization. Results may not be visible all at once, but the long-term benefits will outweigh the possible short-term gains.

Sofya keeps herself busy with her work and studies but project management is the career she sees herself in and is currently studying to obtain her PMP. She says “my PMP certification will help me learn new skills, demonstrate my dedication, and be recognized as an experienced professional.” As time goes on she will look into a PMI-ACP since she’s working and using agile methodologies.

 

A Dedicated PMI Toronto Volunteer

In December 2021 Sofya started volunteering as a Training Specialist with the Canadian Online Events Committee. Her aspirations for volunteering meant she could learn from her PM peers and establishing herself in the PM community in Canada. In her role she helps to execute events that aim to bring high-profile business leaders within four themes:

1. Planet

2. People

3. Profits

4. Potentials (proof of concepts, innovation, etc.)

Sofya describes one of her favourite experiences with the CoE team so far:

My favourite PMI memory was the preparation and the event for the Bio Diversity Initiatives by CSTN. The event was so remarkable and relevant, both on a personal and professional level, that everyone from team members to the audience had the opportunity to sit back and think about things that truly mattered to all of us, as PMs and individuals.

Over the last year the CoE hosted five talks and events with prominent business leaders which encapsulated in-depth and thought-provoking discussions.

More About Sofya

Sofya Dallakyan is enthusiastic, considerate, and persistent. She’s willing to assist her fellow PMs where she can and has lent a hand a couple of times by writing articles for PMI Toronto. Her focus and dedication are highly regarded by her fellow volunteers and passion for project management and agile methodologies are evident when speaking to her.

Sofya has had a successful year in school, work, and volunteering but how does she define success overall:

For me, the definition of success is aligning your personal and career values that will allow you to remain with your true self and be able to contribute your maximum potential to have an impact on various global issues.

Favourite Quote: “I get inspiration from my everyday life.” —Hayao Miyazaki

Work Passions: I am passionate about implementing projects in the sector of IT, sustainability, and social welfare projects.

Personal Passions: I love animation, theatre, and archeology. As a hobby, I am currently trying to learn various animation techniques.

 

Nominate a Fellow PMIT Member

We are always looking for ways to showcase our dedicated and invaluable members. Take some time and nominate a fellow PMI Toronto Chapter member to be featured in our Member of the Month series. Please send your nomination suggestions to communications@pmitoronto.ca and tell us why the member should be featured.

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