Day in the Life of a Superdad: Simon

Simon’s background was working for Charities and his newfound Salesforce qualification enabled him to bring something new to an industry he already knew.

Simon

Course: Salesforce Admin Course

Region: EMEA

Sector: Health Services

Job Title: Salesforce Manager

Works: Education and Employers

Lives: Welwyn Garden City, England, United Kingdom

Simon decided to upskill and accelerate his Salesforce career because..

I used to work for a small mental health charity which commissioned Economic Change to map out and build an org for us. I was the internal lead and I worked closely with the consultant Kate Bowe on drafting the specifications and the building process.

I’m inquisitive and a hands-on-learner, and as I started learning how Salesforce worked, I just loved it; I enjoyed it. It just seemed so good, and the Salesforce pathway looked good. It seemed that if I was going to move into a new career, this is the one that I would do. What was key for me was that I can use it to help show the impact of charities.

Simon decided to upskill in Salesforce Consultancy Skills Course with Supermums because..

The course structure worked well for me as I was doing my day job as a mental health worker and was able to fit the learning around those hours. The tutors were always available to offer support on areas where I struggled, and our cohort made good use of the Chatter group to share ideas or ask for help.

The work experience was my favourite part of the Supermums course as I was able to put all the learning into practice in a real-life situation, and that is a skill you want to develop as an Admin. I was helping out on a project for the charity Storybook Dads and the project manager involved me in the mapping process so I could start to learn how to turn business requirements into objects, fields and processes.

The training was scary, but it was quite interesting to see how I was able to access stuff that I’d learnt when they asked questions. It seemed that maybe the length of the course, having all that time to do my extra learning, really helped to embed it into my brain, and I was able to answer most of the questions. 

Simon was able to launch his new Salesforce career successfully because….

Having that work experience, I think it really is key, and I’d say it helped me in the interview because I was definitely able to reference back to it. When you say to people ‘yes I’ve helped build an org for this charity’, that’s pretty powerful. You’re showing them that you’ve got some real-life experience of it. My knowledge increased quite significantly during that part of the course because I’d learned a lot, but putting it into real life definitely solidified it.

During my first job interview, I looked at the other skills I had with my old job. A lot of what I did was about listening to people, working with them to find out what they really wanted to say and what they were looking for, and that is absolutely transferable into Salesforce. You do have the technical side, and you can obviously develop that as far as you want, but you have to be able to listen and work with people as well.

It was fed back to us after our interviews that the candidates that came from Salesforce Supermums were by far above the other candidates that they had interviewed. It was scary going into my first interview in a whole new career, but it worked; first interview, and I got the job! I started the course in February 2018 and nine months later I was qualified and employed as a Salesforce manager.

Simon has now successfully achieved a Salesforce career that offers him…

I am a Salesforce Manager for the charity ‘Education and Employers’ in the City of London.

The charity has been very positive about giving me flexible working. I choose to work four days a week, starting very early and finishing before 3pm so I can get home and cook dinner for the family. I can work remotely from home if needed, and they focus on work done rather than where I am sitting at a particular time. It seems to work well for both of us and certainly strengthens my loyalty to the organisation. 

The course has made a massive change in my life. It has enabled me to change my career and has put me in a better position financially with a real pathway ahead for development.

This has opened up to me – at 40 years old – a whole new variety of different routes I can go down. I wouldn’t have done it without the course.

Are you looking for a change?

We’ve helped over 400 trainees find flexible, well paid roles in the Salesforce ecosystem, just like Simon. Have a look at the different Salesforce courses we offer, we’re sure there is one that’s right for you.

Find your course