How to Start a Career in Salesforce

I was owner of one of Training institute in Nagpur (India) named “Shivasoft” for almost 3 years. This is the reason few of you know me as a “Shivasoft”, some of you know me by my previous twitter handler “@ilovenagpur” as well. I was lucky enough that I had many bright and hard working students. They were kind enough to share lots of stuff happening around them and other problems. One of the major issue is getting job after graduation and even harder problem is when students does not get selected in “campus recruitment” drive. Freshers needs job and employer needs experience, if you are not coming from campus, this is catch 22 situation. As fresh graduates doesn’t get a job , they either go with MBA (MBA is prestigious course but CAT ranking plays a huge role), advance programming courses like SAP or Oracle by paying hefty amounts , post graduation in IT itself, BPO jobs or some other profession.

This post is solely my opinion where I think, you could overcome this situation. However please do not consider this as a base, take a judgement of your own.

Why Salesforce

I would not say its only Salesforce but also its strong and diversified community. Thousands of professionals are there to help and guide globally. You would get a great platform to show your talent, hard work and involvement. Once you get an attention, many recruiters will approach you.

Sagar Pareek is shining example of what I am going to discuss. He got involved in Salesforce community during college days, traveled hundreds of miles to attend Salesforce developer group meet and author of two Salesforce books. He was also highlighted directly by Salesforce in one of their Webinar.

If this is not sufficient then here another reason to consider. Cloud computing and its concepts are not only limited to Salesforce. You would be learning lots of about integration, considerations for mobile and web development, latest technology trend, JavaScript libraries which will help you to change career any time in future. Salesforce developers vacancies in MNC, perks and salaries are also very high.

What would it take

Not a single penny, in fact you may earn in process of getting job. Don’t worry, its not advertisement or I will not be getting paid directly or indirectly by anyone on suggestions.

All it takes is dedication, hard work and belief in your self. And more than everything , your “Patience”. Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. You might get frustrated that your friends are getting job and earning good salary. Believe on your self, keep searching jobs and try below game plan.

In my opinion, joining classes to learn Salesforce is not going to help you. Employers doesn’t give a damn about which courses you have completed, coaching classes “Certificate of Completion” are worthless.

Actual game plan

Get familiar with any OOP language and its concept (Preferably Java).

Learn HTML5, CSS and JavaScript basics and best resource is W3Schools.

Not mandatory, but it will give you some advantage by learning one of JavaScript framework like JQuery.

Trailhead

This product is reason, I said that we don’t need any paid training to understand basics of Salesforce. Trailhead is innovative platform from Salesforce, where user can learn about different modules at self pace. Why its different? At end of modules there are hands-on exercises which needs to be completed in your developer org and it will be validated by trailhead. If there is any error then will be displayed. Once you earn any badge, share it on twitter, your linked in profile and show your expertise. There are different trails (route) to learn Salesforce like Admin, Advance Admin, Developer etc…

Topcoder

Now, next step is to join “Topcoder” community. Topcoder community is one of known platform to work on Salesforce projects. Project will be posted in Topcoder and members can submit their solution. If your solution is selected then will be awarded by amount in dollars. Before winning your first project, you may need to compete for many projects without winning however you will be learning during that time. Don’t think its hoax, read it yourself. My friend and Salesforce MVP Kartik is also very well known and winner of multiple submissions. I am not saying its piece of cake but not impossible. Your aim is not winning but learning. Initially for freshers it is very tough but you can see code of other submitters and learn from them if you are not able to come up with solution.

Stackexchange, #Askforce, IRC, Community and Developer forum

Visit Stackexchange, Salesforce community and developer forum daily and try to answer questions. If you don’t know answer then learn from other’s answer. You would be amazed by speed and detail of answers by contributors. Its like getting premium support service free of cost.

If you can try to keep monitoring #askforce hashtag in twitter. You can help and get answer from here as well. There is IRC channel available as well if you want to use it.

Salesforce Developer and User groups

There are weekly, fortnightly and monthly meetings in User groups and Developer groups globally. Try to find nearest one and start collaborating and contributing if possible.

Motivation factor

Earning points and status by answering questions on developer forum, stack-exchange and completing trailhead badges you can measure yourself daily or weekly basis. More you work, more points, respect and visibility will be earned.

Certifications

Once you get enough experience and expertise in Salesforce, go for Salesforce Certifications. Start with Admin and then Developer certification.

Update Curriculum Vitae

Once you are known in community, put reference of your Stack exchange, developer forum. trailhead public profiles, developer or user group name where you are member and contributor.

Expected timeline

“There is no shortcut to success”. It’s not very easy but certainly good shot to try. If you already have a programming background then it would take around 7–8 months or 9–10 months without any prior programming knowledge.

What if this doesn’t work

“Knowledge is power”. You will still learn HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, OOP and that knowledge can be used in any other technology, job or even in website designings. Remember, “No Pain, No Gain”. You need to put all your efforts, to get a dreamjob.

Let me know your thoughts and experience !!!