How They Did It | Kimberly Barnes From IT helpdesk specialist to Salesforce Consultant

This post has the key topics and resources mentioned in this episode. The original interview is published on Work In Progress Podcast. Transcript can be found at the bottom of this page.

We talked to Kimberly about the experience in switching her career from an IT Helpdesk Specialist to a Salesforce Consultant. She is a big advocate for self development and she went after the dream do MORE like her life depended on it.

In this episode, Kimberly told us about her journey and exactly what she did to achieve those dreams. She shared the lessons she learned and a plethora of tools that were instrumental to her success. On top of that, she told us what she plans to do next — because life is a never-ending journey of work in progress.

“Four years ago I never thought I’d be able to work remotely and use my technical skills in the way that [I do] today”

IN A NUTSHELL

• What she did in the past IT helpdesk specialist
• What she does now Salesforce consultant and career coach
• Where to find her online Website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter
• Salesforce resources here is a list of resources Kimberly recommends if you are interested in Salesforce

TOPICS

01:25 Guest Introduction
03:14 Experiences from her previous IT Helpdesk job
06:08 Realizing an IT specialist job wasn’t for her
10:58 Explanation on what a sales force job is
14:39 Steps in transitioning from IT to sales
18:50 What does a sales force job entail/tools of the job
20:19 Departure from the previous company
24:06 How to look for a remote job/What to look out for?
29:20 How did everything lead up to her current situation
35:14 Current endeavours
38:21 Acknowledging the value in career coaching and self employment 40:36 Possible future ventures
42:25 Searching for a job mid-pandemic
45:53 Closing words

THE DEEP DIVE

The Importance of Personal Branding

Why personal brand? It is a more effective way to communicate who you are as an individual and companies can decide easier if you are a good cultural fit. One benefit of hiring someone with a personal brand and following is that it could potentially make hiring easier if they have followers with similar interest and skillset.

Experience of job hunting during COVID

During the pandemic, she was let go from her job just like many other Americans. One precious lesson she took away from this experience was that self worth shouldn’t be tied to your career. While job hunting during this difficult time, she built a spreadsheet to help keep track of things and she realized it would be a very helpful tool for anyone who is looking for a job and wants to have more organization around it. This Job Search Template is available on her website.

Kimberly is a Work In Progress

When asked about what she thinks she might do in the future, she already had a couple ideas lined up. She is thinking about scaling up her consulting business and/or starting a consultancy, she is even planning to create online courses so she can reach more people at once.

TRANSCRIPT

Kimberly 0:00
Even though Salesforce was like 20% of my job, but because I, you know, I enjoyed it so much. That’s when I really had the epiphany of you know what I want to do this full time.

Angela 1:02
The Morning, Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are. Welcome back to another episode of the work in progress podcast. Today, we’re talking to Kimberly Barnes, who made a career transition from IT help desk specialist to Salesforce consultant, and career coach. And I have to just get it out of the way that I have actually been falling Kim on her journey for quite some time now. But for those of you who don’t know her yet, so we’ll have Kim do a little bit of an introduction.

Kimberly 1:30
Sure, definitely. So I have been a Salesforce professional for about four years now. Certified, and one of the reasons that I kind of got started on this journey was because when I was a helpdesk associate, I had a really great boss of a boss, who thought of me for an implementation of Salesforce in their company. And that’s what really got me on my path to pursuing, you know, as a Salesforce professional career. And now I want to show others how to do the same that as I did, the average Salesforce professional makes about 62,000 in the US. But a lot of numbers show even closer to 80, I managed to successfully navigate my way to a six figure career. And I know in a time where tech is like the newest and hottest thing, I wanted to be able to help others get into the space. It’s really important for me, as a black woman in tech to show how inclusive the tech industry is. And so on top of the consulting side where I really do the administration and training for businesses, both small and large. I also spend a lot of time reviewing resumes, and offering career coaching for people who do the same as I did. And as the podcast, very well mentioned, I’m still working progress.

Dana 3:14
So before you were at Help Desk specialist, and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that job, like what was the like, what would your day to day like?

Kimberly 3:29
Definitely. So I got that helped us draw straight out of college. I happen to have an IT background, but it certainly wasn’t necessary to get the job. At the time. I would help with the setup of computers. Occasionally, they would have me fix like security tapes, a lot of what you imagine as like the helpdesk associate when you contact it at a company. That’s precisely what I what I was doing. I believe at the time I went to work with more than 100 people at the organization. And it was really a great learning experience for me and I always I almost recommend it to anybody trying to get into it, who is really unsure of what they want. I got a computer information tech degree from Purdue. And while I had done some, you know, help desk work at my college. That was really the only work experience I had had. I’d never done an internship primarily one because of money too. I don’t think I had the grades really to match up with it. So there is hope for us all. And the thing that really pushed me to at least start on that front, straight out of college was the fact that I got to put my hands on a lot of things I think because my job and learned that I You really do not like networking. I commend any other, you know, any of those people out there who are really good at cybersecurity and networking. It’s not my calling, not even. The lesson I also got out of it, obviously, it was that I’m a very fast learner. And I think, in our industry, because that’s so crucial. That’s, of course, like something that I think was the first kind of skill that I felt like I, I had. And it made me feel better about the path that I was going on. I wasn’t, you know, and in some cases, I had to make sure that any career that I went to next, when still some sort of some sort of like boredom. And to this day, I am never bored as a Salesforce professional. Most people in the space that I’m in, would say the same thing that like, there’s never a dull day, and it’s almost like you will never do the same thing over and over again.

Angela 6:08
Awesome. So, so I have so many questions for you. But first of all, I think that it’s very cool that you kind of got to learn about Salesforce, because you had this project going on at work, and you had to figure out how to do it. But at that moment, did you already start to realize that you didn’t really want to specialize in that working within the whole it round. And then you have a buddy wanted to do something different, or it was more of the other way around, where you realize you started to enjoy something else, way more than what you were doing.

Kimberly 6:41
Probably the first choice. And I say that because I got I took the healthiness job. Because you know, of course, money, I know how that is coming out of college and you freaking out that you don’t have, you know, lined up work. I was overwhelmed by the fear of the fact that I didn’t want to choose programming as a career, I was overwhelmed by the fact that I didn’t have any skills under my belt. And but except for the helpless job, I thought I was just going to get a coding job. And that would take me straight to the six figure salary. And boy was I disappointed to kind of come out of school and realize, Oh, wait a minute. That’s not the real life. And I am very grateful that I didn’t have student loans. But I could only imagine knowing me now, the amount of anxiety, I would have had to just really like, I thought I thought my career was over. Like, I don’t know what it was about that time where I was just so I think at the time, I was really disappointed in myself, I thought oh, really big, you know, I got this nice, like, pamphlet, as far as I’m concerned saying that, you know, I learned all these skills. And then I just wasn’t applying, you know, maybe I wasn’t qualified or, um, but like I, I took a hit in my confidence at that time. And I think help desk job knowing that maybe it’s time for me to kind of build up my confidence, the offer of getting the Salesforce. The Salesforce project, was the first time that I’d been given a project that I’ve felt like really passionate about. And it’s not to say like not most people, or at least, there has to be a healthy balance of people who feel passionate and work and like are happy to just go home every day. I you know, when people describe like miserable nine to five, I think after like the second month of that job. I was like, Okay, I’m miserable. Like, I need a new job. I just gotta push through this. And you don’t want that for yourself. And nobody wants from themselves. And so I knew that I needed the next big thing. I didn’t know I was coming there. There’s something to be said about the stars aligning, when that Salesforce came. Because once I learned saw the attack, I was like, this is really my moment to shine at the office. This is my moment, prove to them that by them letting me step up that I would deliver. And so even though Salesforce was like 20% of my job, which by the way is a very overwhelming amount of things to take on. So only 20 30% but because I you know, I enjoyed it so much. I think that’s when I really had the epiphany of like, you know what I want to do this full time. And I think that’s one of the other things, the biggest takeaways that I got from that experience and what I tell my clients You know what, just because I’m telling you Salesforce is like the newest hottest thing. And don’t get me wrong, I do have some evidence behind it because it’s the world’s number one CRM, don’t get me wrong, but the thing you can do for yourself is to read about other people’s experiences. I am not the only women, woman in tech out there, learn from other people. You know, can’t hurt to, you know, grab a $15 ebook from someone, you’re supporting small business, and you might also learn something new. And then go from there, I think I felt so alone, even to when I started. And then now that I’m getting older, I realize about all these other resources that I actually had accessible to me at the time. Um, and that drove me crazy. It was like I spent all this time trying to figure out where things were, like, mess. It was scattered, but it was there.

Angela 10:57
I think it’s important to know, like, especially having you on here sharing your story is to tell people to have an open mind. And you’re telling us that you know, so many other people with vastly different backgrounds can still get into tech, through this being a kind of a cloud computing professional, whether you have Salesforce certification or not. I think that’s just wonderful to hear. But for some people, I would, I’m guessing that you know, like, maybe they’re not too familiar with what Salesforce is. I’ve used it myself on work, but only briefly. So could you maybe go over what Salesforce is, and what does a Salesforce admin do? And I’m sure it’s one of the most frequently asked questions that you get all the time.

Kimberly 11:38
Yeah, no, it’s definitely a common question. And so Salesforce is a, like I said, world’s number one CRM, CRM being customer relationship management system. And so while I, I really describe it as a CRM, it’s definitely more than that. It most of the time, the words that you hear tied together with it is like a customer relationship management system, and an entity relationship. The total, you know, of all the products that they sell, and the sweets that they sell, their primary focus is in providing a kind of a 360 experience for the business user, in creating sell sales, creating profits, saving time and creating efficiencies for their users. And so, as a system administrator, kind of my responsibility is, you know, at least that’s where most people start. It’s very similar, you know, there are different career paths that you get, depending on, you know, whether you want to be in a functional standpoint, or the really, really technical standpoint, when you get certified, you’re essentially qualifying your knowledge of like specific suites, and specific, you know, specific portions of it. And so I compare Salesforce administration to just system administrators, they’ll work a lot of like the day to day troubleshooting, and support of the employees working there. So if I was working at a company, you mentioned that you worked on, like your company uses Salesforce, because they’re storing rather customer information, and they’re recording the activities of like, their names, and quotes and the opportunities. And they’re documenting the leads and their lead progress with those with those customers. Or, again, leads then maybe like, the way that I would work with you is if you were looking and you notice you couldn’t like change the status of something, or frankly, if you didn’t even have access to Salesforce in the first place. Or you’re having trouble, like locating a record that another colleague has access to. And so that’s like the way that I would support you in just being another member of the helpdesk, but I just happened to be a more specialized version of it. But I also happen to focus on a lot of like the internals of creating better workflows, you know, for one business unit, their focus and the way that they define their stages or define like certain portions of information may be different from another. Salesforce is great because I’ve been able to build my six figures career without coding.

Dana 14:39
So Kim, I’m curious on how you made your transition. So you said that when you’re working as IT specialist, IT help desk specialist you were given this opportunity to work on a project that involves Salesforce and was that what got you started or did you actually go maybe take some more classes or More training.

Kimberly 15:02
Great question. So when I took on that project, and a lot of what I think made me successful were the transferable skills I’d gotten from college, I had taken a lot of, you know, the project management courses and the requirements gathering courses, which are, of course, transferable when you’re implementing Salesforce, because you have to gather a lot of the business knowledge of like, how do I convert their workflows into this tech. And so with that being said, when I was learning this tool, I really was hands on, my company did offer me the opportunity to go get some, like, unique training from them. However, after seeing the price tag of about $4,000, I didn’t feel that it you know, and maybe in some instances, I regret not taking not generally littering I guess, I was so confident in the fact that I needed to self study that I rejected that I just said, Hey, we’ll pay for all these other things. can do that. And of course, they were more than happy it was, who was like less than half of the cost of this course, that I may or may not pass. So they were perfectly pleased to do that. Salesforce is really, the barrier to entry for Salesforce is fantastic. They have free tools that you can use. So you can get acquainted with the Salesforce ecosystem without having to pay for a license for anything without, you know, without having to pay for additional resources. But they are, of course, optional. trailhead.com is their learning platform. And I and I attest that, as well as a combination of having already, I’m coordinating with consultants overseas, who took my, you know, took a lot of the business requirements documents that I created, and they were slowly building it out, along with me. And so I have that to attest for, how I was able to kind of speed through that. The best thing that I got out of that is really just the experience of learning how to do in the first place I’m very hands on, I need somebody to occasionally ask questions for me. And so what I in addition to leveraging, you know, the people kind of building it and me going into trailhead, and essentially poking around, that’s really how I learned Salesforce was to poke around. Salesforce has a lot of there. Like I said, on trailhead, they have an entire Academy, as I mentioned, so you can take these workshops. In some cases, if you go to their conferences, you can even just make sure you study and then they’ll try and push you to get certified as soon as I can. I’m happy to say that I while I got certified after I got my first full time job, I think the experience that I had, and being able to communicate those transferable skills actually got me my first job. And I was not certified when I received the offer, at my first full time, Salesforce admin job. And I think that’s why I talk about the power of that resume is because if you can gain that experience, and communicate why you’re qualified to do the job, that also can take you far along in it.

Dana 18:50
So the way I understand it, and I’m not in tech, so I don’t really you know, this is me like learning things online. And also, when I was preparing for this earlier, my husband was looking over my shoulder and he said that he used to be a Salesforce and as well so so he kind of gave me some like intro to it. And the way I understand it is that you guys use Salesforce as a tool and you can create, like an internal say database or or some kind of tracking system, just some examples. And then that can be used within your organization. Am I understanding that correctly?

Kimberly 19:26
Absolutely. No, it’s perfect. It’s it’s really a database. And actually, at the, you know, the start of it, it was it was really a glorified spreadsheet at the beginning of the Salesforce world, but as you know, with the power of, you know, different API’s, so you know, those apps that kind of integrate together, wherever we’re in a world now where Yes, you won’t just use like one tool. And so while Yes, I’m a Salesforce administrator. We do use you know, every company will use Additional integrations that work with Salesforce and so you’ll be surprised how often the combination of my job is also seeing how a lot of these other tools plug into the system. And if there are, you know, configuration issues, I might occasionally have to go in and fix those

Angela 20:19
And throughout this whole time of you trying to, you know, study and learn more about Salesforce and getting certified. Did you eventually leave the first company or the company you mentioned, where you worked as an IT professional?

Kimberly 20:33
I did, I’m fine. Again, primarily because when I found this portion of my job that I decided I really wanted to do. I was also kind of like, in a crossroads with. with finding work, I was really ready to move out of state, my partner was in California at the time. And you know, granted, it wasn’t the final decision, obviously, but I didn’t like the fact that I work remotely. For me, that was a real draw of remote work, looking for that flexibility to come visit my family more than the there were enough downsides at that original job, where once I realized I was I was studying that maybe I should find another job, or at the very least find work in the Salesforce space. And so I did end up leaving that job primarily for the other things, and also because I knew they didn’t have the room for a full time Salesforce administrator. That’s primarily why it was why I knew that was going to be my next step. And once again, very, I don’t recommend it to everyone, but everyone in my life told me that if I wanted to move somewhere, I had to just move, I couldn’t move there with a job. And, and because I’m a I’m also a bay area, but I’m the Bay Area transplant. Everyone told me that, you know, if you want to move to California is really competitive, or the Bay Area is really competitive, you’re gonna have to just move there and then find work. And I was so stubborn. You know, I know very well that the Bay Area, least from my experience, it’s very hard to find work. You know, when you’re outside of the Bay Area. And the stubborn person that I am I my job hunt was, could have literally been cut in half, if I had just moved, take, you know, bet on myself and gotten the job. Not the case, I’m very happy I stuck through it, because I knew how much of money was a strain for me, sucked it up, really. Which I mean, look, if it’s if it affects your mental health, don’t suck it up. But I really thought I do it. Um, I ended up finding that remote job, I work, I got the remote job and then work from home for like a month, as I was preparing for my official moved to the Bay Area. And that was really, really a testament to me seeing, you know, you have to take these victories. And the downsides. Like I that’s kind of the way I like to see life I, when I’m down, I’m really down. And to be perfectly honest, but, but I also choose to take lessons out of it. And I think that was the first time I can find maybe the second time that I really proven to myself that you know, yeah, I’m not a Salesforce professional. And no, I don’t know how to code. But I can do this. That first time was really just Hey, you know, they give me the Salesforce time and work level to do it. And they gave me an offer. Like That was so cool to me.

Angela 24:06
And like that you brought up the fact that you know, you wanted a remote job. And it sounded like you wanted that before it became a more acceptable thing, because now with COVID you know, since March, a lot of people who are able to do their job from home has been working remotely. And I think it really makes a lot of people reconsider what it’s like to work remotely. And I think even myself who like you know, I work in a company where we have pretty flexible like remote work policy, but it’s so important for you to show up and, you know, be very engaged in various ways with your coworkers. I am now also looking at no working remotely slightly differently. Do you have any tips on looking for a remote job and as an applicant, how do you make yourself stand out and also make yourself kind of do the same kind of informational gathering that you should be doing anyway but could be a little more challenging. If You’re looking for a remote job.

Kimberly 25:00
Definitely. So one of the things that I learned really quickly is the the industry matters. So that’s kind of where I joke like your results may vary. As far as finding remote work, because I know there are a lot of scams out there. Um, I actually fell for one of them. When I was job hunting, I think this was before I even got the help desk job, I kind of fell for one of these scams and was going through the interview process and was like, Oh, this is this is fishy. Um, just know that when you first of all, when you look at any job, any of these job descriptions, go with the fine, you know, fine comb, go through the Glassdoor link, that really, really, really valuable thing to, to check out as well. And so when I looked, I knew how first of all how important that resume was, that was going to be even more crucial. I think for if I had had the sense, I would have gotten my resume reviewed or my you know, God, no career coach at the time, least for a month to kind of help me talk through the conversations of what was a priority for me. And then, but again, obviously, since this was one of the perks, that was really important to me, I also had to look at the where I was going you like the right keywords to research. So and also to make sure my LinkedIn was up to date. I put in all the settings make sure that my employer didn’t see that I was hunting. But I was like, at least marking in the back end of LinkedIn that I was open for opportunities. I also made sure that when I was looking the, in addition to LinkedIn, I was at least reaching out to all of the, my, you know, my old colleagues and my old employers and my old friends. And I say old, but I mean like reaching out to my network and letting them know that I am looking for opportunities. If they happen to have any connections in Bay Area, if you’re moving anywhere, and you have connections in some sort of way. definitely reach out to people and let them know that if you hear about anything, please let me know, be kind be courteous, be respectful of their time, even if somebody says oh, I knew somebody or be respectful of that. And if they don’t know anybody really thank them. This is the you know, if you’re looking for an opportunity to leverage Savers, you have to make people feel like that favor is you know, is worth their time. And, you know, be gracious. Um, on top of that, I guess, like the biggest thing that really helped me once again, um, LinkedIn was like the number one resource I think so far to date. Um, LinkedIn has gotten me all the jobs that I’ve gotten. And not and not necessarily because of the application side, I think half of the time I filled, you know, I guess in my five, five years as an employed person, um, I said, but I’d say about half of the jobs that like I, you know, I spoke to recruiters and stuff like that was because of my actual application. But LinkedIn is like the number one resource for recruiters. And so making sure like even that up to date, resume and LinkedIn are like the number one things that I recommend. There’s always other sites that I actually have over on my blog, too. But sites like angellist, being very careful about indeed, and to be honest, I know a lot of people who have success, but in my niche, I haven’t seen a lot of success just because they they definitely under deliver on the salary. And Google obviously pulls from Google jobs pulls from other resources. So occasionally, even that’s super helpful.

Dana 29:19
You made a very good point that some platforms may work better or may not work well for your industry. So it all kind of depends, but I think it’s very important that you it is really good that you mentioned that some platforms didn’t work so well, for your industry in particular. And I’m wondering, so after you left the it job and you got to remote work, and how did that lead you to where you are today? I know you have a couple things going on today.

Kimberly 29:49
Definitely. So I kind of had this route, you know, refined passion. Very excited about my new job prospects. Considering the fact that I had just gotten out of this miserable job, and now I really, you know, enjoyed what I was doing, I would end up finding out later that maybe I wasn’t paid as much as I should have. But I think I can get to that, because another day or later in our conversation, but I decided that I did not have a personal brand at that time. So one of the things that, you know, despite me having like the lipstick and tech brand, I also have, like my own professional website, which I had kind of put, like, some effort into it, because I knew how important it was to at least have like, that presence online. But I was really keen on starting a blog, I think the blog is like one of the best ways that you can really put yourself out there, you know, people talk about personal brand personal brand. But you have to wonder sometimes as a professional, you know, professional, like, I’m not trying to be an influencer, I’m not trying to start a business, why do I need a personal brand, I think personal brand is the best way to communicate who you are as, like, as an individual. And it’s one of the first and like the best signs of showing people how you can be a cultural fit for their company. So, you know, one, and that’s part of the reason what motivated me at first, like, I thought I was just gonna run this blog. But I also wanted to talk about like, topics that matter to me, which was primarily women in tech topics. So when I started blogging really was, was nice, it was just me talking about how, and again, I think, over the years, I’ve been really influenced by a lot of women in tech, when really made me feel like I can make a difference in the space. And that’s why I also spoke about topics like that. I also talked about, I had a segment on my, on my blog for a while, which I’ll have to figure out how to repurpose, but I talked about, you know, I would spend all of February researching new researching black people in in STEM, you know, the the contribution contributions that they made in the US and so that’s really what kind of started just me writing and practicing this, like, how to how to be a better communicator, I think that’s really what took me took me out there. And I know that from kind of leveraging that it made me a better professional, I was not very confident in myself and wasn’t very comfortable. And after that whole journey of going and finding this job that I want, you know, that I wanted and really liked. Um, I had, you know, I’d finally given myself a little bit of space like, okay, now it’s time to like, grow and like start start writing, from the writing and learning how to, and really, going outside of the office. And learning something is also an incredible experience. I’ve really loved talking to people about all the tools and things that I’ve learned outside of work. And I that’s really what’s made me stand out in my own like professional hunt.

And I’m into this day shifting from like administrator to consultant because I’ve worked at several companies now. And and now I’m in, you know, making room for myself where I would like to provide, you know, professional, Salesforce advice for companies and kind of let them reap the benefits of like my years of experience as Salesforce administrator has given me. But in addition to that, I know there’s some value in me, providing a career coaching for other professionals who really want to become like Salesforce admins. And it’s really hard to kind of leverage that out. Like if you are not somebody who has access to profit organization, you know, like nonprofit organizations, or you find the value in having to, you know, working with somebody one on one to be in your corner. Um, I wanted to be able to fill that gap for people to provide that value and that service. Salesforce was very overwhelming for me to navigate. And I know there’s lots of really great people in my space, that do the same thing. Because they also know how challenging it can be to navigate those types of careers on their own. And so that need and that realization of how I can contribute was really what provided me my shift from Salesforce administrator to Salesforce consultant, and career coach, and of course, I’m a work in progress. I have helped people, you know, I had one client who, just with a resume review, they got their first job in the space and that felt so good That felt really good for me knowing that it’s amazing how like sometimes these tiny things, it just takes one thing to click in somebody, and that’s so rewarding to be able to do that.

Dana 35:14
And so I’m curious, what do you currently do? You mentioned that you are now a consultant, and you also are a coach, among other things, so tell me about what you currently do.

Kimberly 35:28
What do I currently do, I am a Salesforce consultant, for the most part, and those truly employers that I work for, are they they they have hired me on an administrative capacity and business analyst capacity? And so that means is, I you know, I will focus on like, maybe the point and click versions, and then, in general, like user configurations of their ecosystems, I will kind of assess different question, you know, different projects and make kind of timelines for them about whether this is something that we can, you know, that I can do for them, have a combination of like collaboration with developers, where and if necessary, and then just kind of similar to, like I said, the Salesforce admin job. That’s where a lot of my like my consultant work falls. But I, you know, I am actually still available to consult with small businesses. But I’m currently like, strapped for time. As far as that goes. Now, the career coaching is something that I kind of sprinkle around through my week, generally working most of the time, but I’m also taking a lot of breaks in between. and my focus, as far as career coaching and resume reviews is I really primarily focus on cloud computing professionals, most especially Salesforce professionals, people who are trying to pivot in the Salesforce space, or people who are already, like at the beginning of their Salesforce professional careers, and the kind of work through like the ambitions of like, what they’re looking for, in their careers. I always hop on, I’m always I’m always open to hop on calls, for people, with people for consultations, to kind of discuss anything from just like general certification advice. Questions about like how to pivot into the career, adding, you know, like, what skills they think that are transferable to them, they can include on their resume. A lot of the coaching in general I’m really going through is like, kind of discussing their current experience and the gaps and what’s, what they’re finding overwhelming or like difficult to really approach, creating a, you know, a job search plan, if that’s something that, you know, when they’re hunting, they’re trying to look for, like, a general strategy of how to get there. Um, you know, my goal, obviously, in the end is get somebody a Salesforce admin job, or sales, professional job,

Dana 38:21
I’ve talked to a number of different people. And what I’m hearing is that people are actually thinking about making career changes or pivots. Because of this, I guess, just new way of working. And I feel that it’s, I think that it’s, although, you know, some lots of businesses are closed and economy is not great. But in a way, it’s kind of encouraging, because we’re seeing a different trend coming up, and people are becoming self employed, because companies are closed. So they are, they have to find a way to generate income for themselves. And lots of coaches are coming out and because there’s a need, and I just feel like, although it’s a pretty crappy period, to be in, but there are, it’s, it’s bringing out different changes that I really wasn’t expecting to see. And I feel like career coaches like yourself, and like the other ones we’ve talked to, and I do I really do see the value that they bring in. Thank you, you know, what

Kimberly 39:22
I you know, and that’s another thing too, I kind of like I didn’t get into the space, you’re like, Oh, I’m gonna just gonna become a career coach. Like that’s not how it was really just me again, very similarly looking inward and being like, you know what, I want to help people do this like this is no I can’t believe that I navigated this all on my own. And I think it’s and I joke about it, but I have two younger sisters. They happen to not be in tech. But anytime I go through an experience, I have like that big sister syndrome of like, teaching my sisters to not be like What to do. So they don’t have to go through what I went through. But I really do you know, I’m doing my best every day to create resources for people, whether they want to hire me as a coach or not, I was laid off on my full time job. This year, during a pandemic, I had gotten a new job, and it didn’t work out. But you know, I made myself indispensable, they were able to just hire me, at least as a consultant. Because I created that value. There’s so many resources out there, free and paid, that you can use to leverage that experience.

Dana 40:36
Exactly. And so I’m curious, what do you think you could do? You could venture into in the future? Because it seems like you are so you’re a consultant? And you are you’re just doing multiple, multiple different things? And do you think that you could, where do you see yourself and say, let’s say, one year or two years?

Kimberly 40:59
You know, I have made this big pivot to consulting in the past just a year or so. And so, career coaching, and the consultancy, are definitely something that are still very new to my business. So a year or two from now, I’m seeking an opportunity to kind of scale that I don’t work for myself full time. At the moment, I am a consultant, but I’m not a consulting agency. So, um, you know, kind of my goals for the future are having opportunity to scale and potentially, to be able to manage my time. And kind of build that for myself. And I know a lot of people who kind of have that same vision, you know, I like I don’t have a family yet. I figure I’m, you know, if there’s ever an opportunity to kind of build that up for myself, it’s know, even then, like the next year or so. Or actually, in a couple months, I’m working really hard to potentially push back maybe some of the career coaching a little bit, too, kind of an online course format, because I know it’ll help people more. And, you know, because I value my time, and I know that I can’t dedicate one on one time with everyone.

Dana 42:24
So you said that you were let go, because of doing this temp pandemic? What has been your experience in navigating career search? During this time?

Kimberly 42:36
I think what the endemic did was really helped me reminded me that my self worth isn’t tied to my job, I think the biggest wake up call that I got, because for me, I tied my confidence. And, you know, like the respect that I had for myself and my career so much into my job, that when I lost that job, I didn’t feel like I was so qualified to do what I’m doing now. So if there’s any lesson I get, give people that your self worth is not tied in with your career. As far as navigating it on my own. Once again, that job search template was surprisingly helpful, because that was like, I basically just posted what I used, or like what I created for myself. Um, and what I really was was, I had to treat job hunting, like it was my job. I gave myself, you know, a couple of days, to frankly, mourn, because that’s how I felt I was mourning the loss of a job. I was panicking about the fact that, you know, my savings wasn’t, you know, good enough. Um, obviously, in the end, I should have realized how lucky I was that my company was still gonna pay for my health insurance for like, the next three months. You know, I was getting paid out, you know, what, the fact that I was let go, the you know, that I still had family and friends and some money in reserve, but I felt so doomed. And I don’t know why, you know, to this day, I don’t know why I felt so doomed. Granted, even now, I’m like, why do I still kind of feel like that even though I’m not, you know, when I’m not full time, but at least I’m working full time hours. So like, money is not the issue. There’s clearly something going on with me internally. And so this is the perfect time for anybody I think, who gets let go during this time is to balance their mental health with this, you know, with their job hunting, and so, you know, at the time I set goals for myself to apply to like three jobs a day. And you know, for some people, it’s like, well, that doesn’t sound like a lot. I’m like, well, it’s a lot over the course of like three months, at best. You know, take breaks over the weekends. I’m very grateful that I had this personal brand, because then technically I had two personal brands that I was leveraging to find work. That’s not the case for everyone, which is why I’ve always mentioned why personal brands are important. Having an online presence is important. I was writing more and more on my topics, you know, like on the topics that interest me, I was sharing the content that I created prior to me letting go, because I knew I wanted to drive value. And if I can drive value to people to strangers, they will see that it can drive value for them, you know, I got a lot of like, dm or like direct messages on LinkedIn, primarily because of that by LinkedIn was pretty much up to date, up to like a couple months ago, primarily because of the fact that I was openly looking.

Dana 45:52
Thank you, Kim, for spending the time today with us, I really enjoy our chat. I think that it’s really, really inspirational to hear you talk about your transition all the way from the IT Helpdesk specialist to now where you are getting to flex all those different muscles. And you’re not just being a consultant, but you have also like diversified your skill set. And now you have all these services and products that people can basically get your help on. And I think that’s really amazing. That is such a good transformation in such a short amount of time. And I’m really excited to see what you can accomplish in the future. I really look forward to learn more about your online courses that it’s going to come out and the other projects that you have in the works. So I’m really, really happy that we’re able to chat for about an hour today. Thank you so much for your time.

Kimberly 46:46
Now. I’m very flattered, thank you so much. And like I said, I want this for everyone. You know, I would like you know, I know that. It’s discouraging sometimes, but you know, everyone gets to deserve. You know, like, there’s space for everyone here, so. So definitely on that.

Dana 47:07
And I really love that you’re an advocate for women of color in the tech industry, and just adding diversity into this huge pool of talent that can really use more diversity. And I already see a lot of changes. That has happened in the past few years. So you guys have been doing amazing work and I’m just really, really happy for you guys and for the for the success that you have achieved. And it will just there will be more you know, diversity in the future, I’m sure so really, really excited for that.

Kimberly 47:40
Well, thank you so much.

Dana 47:41
Thank you.