Day in the Life: Jen. A new role encouraged me to learn more about Salesforce

Jen is a mum of 2 and based in Vermont, USA. When her role changed overnight, a new opportunity to become a Salesforce Admin encouraged her to take the next step and commit to a training programme.

Jen

Course: Salesforce Admin Course

Region: USA

Sector: Business Services

Job Title: Salesforce Consultant

Works: Idealist Consulting

Lives: Burlington, Vermont, United States

Jen decided to upskill and accelerate her Salesforce career because..

I had spent 15 years working in non-profits and higher education, predominantly in fundraising and operations. There was always an element of data management in those roles. I’d known about Salesforce for a number of years but found it difficult to learn at a good pace on my own; I knew I needed something more hands-on and contextual than Trailhead.

Three years ago, I took a role focused on operations oversight which included serving as their Salesforce Administrator. It was a great match: I got to learn by doing, and help a great organisation improve their workflows and staff capacity. Two years into the role, I knew I wanted to supercharge my Salesforce career through a guided programme. That’s when I learned about the Supermums programme.

Jen decided to upskill in Salesforce Admin Course with Supermums because..

The programme is great, it had so many things I’m looking for in terms of the training and the context-based questions. I loved that they also added the mentorship and the work experience on top and then you got to work with alumni afterwards, and the Recruitment Team supported you with job placement and job readiness. I felt like I hadn’t seen another program that had all of those pieces across the board.

I came into the programme with some Salesforce knowledge but continued to learn and grow each week. My mentor was really phenomenal and such an important part of my Supermums journey. Outside of our weekly homework review call, he was also a great resource for questions I had about the Salesforce ecosystem and the overall job search process. The mentor component is definitely something that sets Supermums apart.  

I found my work experience project really helpful, to take the learnings of the past several months and draw on them to solve a clients’ Salesforce issues. It was also a nice confidence booster to see that I was able to make those connections, do the research and info gathering, and implement an appropriate solution.

I really enjoyed the community that sprang up from the Supermums Admin course. You emerge with this great network of individuals who are supporting you, who you’re also cheering on and supporting. I can definitely see how it forms the base of your Salesforce network for years to come.  

Jen was able to launch her new Salesforce career successfully because….

Having the Supermums programme behind me definitely helped propel me into my next job. That process was slowed down by Covid-19, but I was able to utilize the team to have some consistent check-ins and reviews of my resume, or to get thoughts on the interview prep, and I think that was really helpful along the way.

The work experience was something that interviewers were really keen to hear about. They expressed more interest in knowing what type of solutions you’d built in ‘real world’ Salesforce instances, so that was a really important experience. 

I think it’s just really important for technology to be a more inclusive space and am really appreciative of organizations like Supermums who are working toward this goal.

Jen has now successfully achieved a Salesforce career that offers her…

I’m working as an independent Salesforce Consultant contractor with Idealist Consulting. Sometimes I serve as a Project Manager and sometimes as an Administrator.

They’re remote-friendly, and have consultants based all throughout the US. Their clients are predominantly non-profits so, given my past non-profit experience, I was able to transfer a lot of that industry knowledge to this new role.

I work remotely 100% of the time. I have flexibility to say yes or no to projects as an independent contractor, which ultimately means I am able to set how many hours a week I am working. Virtual client meetings generally take place during standard office hours. I have complete flexibility over non-client facing work; I can do that any time of the day, on weekends, or whenever works for me and my family’s needs.  

One of the best things about my job is probably one of the most challenging as well: no two clients are the same, so no two solutions are the same. There will be times when the bounds of your knowledge are tested. In those moments, it’s so important to make use of your network and the greater Salesforce community.

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