How to Start your Salesforce Career!

At SFDC Panther I understand the power of certifications in helping you to improve your Salesforce career and understanding of the Salesforce platform. These certifications can lead to raises, promotions, and more leverage in salary negotiation. However, early on in your Salesforce journey, it can be difficult to translate these certifications into paychecks by landing your first Salesforce job. With that in mind, we want to help you better understand the obstacles standing in your way and how to overcome these hurdles. In the following sections, we will cover Certifications, Personal Branding, Real World Experience, and how the free 5 Day Salesforce Challenge can give you step-by-step guidance on easily overcoming each barrier!

Obstacle #1 – Salesforce Certification 

For this obstacle, we’ve got you covered! With tools like Focus on Force and the use of Trailhead and free content on YouTube, you have great content you need to get certified. The certification process can be a challenge but is typically the most straightforward obstacle to overcome given the materials available through SFDC Panther and community groups like Salesforce For Everyone.

Your first certification or two will show your commitment to a Salesforce career, and indicates to potential employers that you have a credible foundation of Salesforce knowledge. For your first Salesforce job, you may be surprised to find out you really only need one certification! If you already have a few certifications, that’s even better, it can certainly give you an edge when competing in the job market. 

Obstacle #2 – Personal Branding

There are so many jobs available in the Salesforce ecosystem, but you still have to earn your spot as the top candidate for any given role. Common knowledge is to have a great resume, but here is a quick insider tip – your LinkedIn profile is 100x more important when getting traction with recruiters and employers! This is the single most valuable way to show employers exactly why you are not only a good candidate, but the best candidate for them!

Did you know that your resume will likely never be looked at until you are sitting down for an interview? So how do you think employers determine if they should even call you for the interview? You guessed it, your LinkedIn profile! 

So how can you make your LinkedIn a powerful personal branding tool? It’s all broken down for you step by step in Day 3 of the free 5 Day Challenge. You’ll get a step-by-step guide and a video walkthrough of exactly what to do, not to mention great resources like this LinkedIn Weekly Checklist.

So how can you make your LinkedIn a powerful personal branding tool?

1. LinkedIn is more than just a list of your skills, and experience. It’s a living, breathing profile. This means that potential employers can see what you post about, what you comment on, and what articles you write. So it’s important to be engaged and show employers how immersed you are in the Salesforce space.
2. It’s also inherently a social media platform, which in my opinion is underutilized. This means that a well-crafted post and some LinkedIn content strategy can have your posts trending. This has the potential for your post to be seen by 1000’s, even if you don’t have many connections! This is a fantastic way to get hiring managers and recruiters to view your profile.
3. Sending and receiving recommendations is a key part of building up your LinkedIn profile. This is a fast way to build trust with employers who are hiring, by potentially removing a need for references. 
4. You can also feature content on your profile. This could be anything from a real-world project you have worked on, to an article you have written about passing a Salesforce exam.

Obstacle #3 – Real World Experience

If you’ve seen Salesforce job postings or been in an interview for a Salesforce position you will know that having experience is absolutely necessary to stand out. Immediately there is an issue though, employers want experience, but you can’t get experience if no one’s willing to give you a chance. The good news is there are a few ways to get “real-world experience”, we will list some of these below.  

1. A common suggestion is to utilize Trailhead Superbadges as your experience. While this can be beneficial and does carry some rapport it also feels cheap at the end of the day. It’s one of those things that sounds good in your head, but when you share it in an interview you instantly start feeling 2 feet tall.
2. The next most common strategy is to build “real” scenarios out in your Salesforce Playground org, the typical advice is to build a Job Searching app, or a My Salesforce Activities app. Generally these are fairly narrow minded and thinking entirely inside the box. Be different, try ideas that your potential employers might value more than seeing how many jobs you’ve applied for. 
   • Consider topics like building a Hiring and Recruiting application. This is something you know your potential employers are dealing with right now and they might like to see how you’ve used Salesforce to tackle the problem. 
   • Or given the global pandemic we’ve all experienced, try creating a Covid Tracing application that would help the CDC better understand who has been exposed and give them a way to mass contact those that might be at risk.
3. The BEST way to get experience is to complete volunteer projects for real companies that have real needs. Once again the free 5 Day Salesforce Challenge is a great resource as on Day 4 it will show you exactly how to find these projects so that you can get busy in real Salesforce orgs helping real companies in need!

Get Started Today!

What are you waiting for? Get out there and get busy attaining certifications, building your brand, getting certifications, and diving into the free 5 Day Salesforce Challenge! The Salesforce market is hiring more new employees than ever before and is showing no signs of slowing down. Differentiate yourself and claim your spot as a Salesforce professional now!

Watch the complete video here

For more support and a community of like-minded individuals on their Salesforce journeys be sure to join the Salesforce For Everyone Facebook Group and dive into the Ohana!