In our most recent #SalesforceQA, we caught up with Narender Singh, Salesforce MVP and Developer at Salesfive Consulting GmbH, to talk about the career benefits of getting involved with the Salesforce community.
Narender also mentions his top 5 tips for other aspiring developers looking to navigate a career in the ecosystem.
Salesforce Republic (SR): To start, could you begin by telling us a bit about your background and how you ended up in a career in the ecosystem?
Narender Singh (NS): I’ve a Bachelor’s in Electronics & Communication. Fortunately, after college I knew my interests were in coding, which had nothing to do with what I studied in my Bachelor’s (I know). So I started with learning C & C++ and eventually in early 2018, I was able to crack my first interview. It was a consulting firm selling services across multiple platforms (Salesforce, AWS, Sharepoint etc.) and I was fortunately picked up as a trainee for their Salesforce team. After getting introduced to Salesforce, I was totally into it and never looked back ever since.
SR: What are your top 5 tips for others looking to succeed as a Salesforce Developer?
NS:
- For those starting new, do a lot of hands-on. The more you code, the better you get.
- Follow best practices and focus on your code quality.
- Use GitHub to store some of your finest work and side projects.
- Learn to evaluate fast solutions versus quality solutions.
- Be curious and keep experimenting.
SR: You are also a Salesforce MVP, what inspired you to give back to the community and get involved?
NS: When I started learning Salesforce, I realized that there was very little to do hands-on for practice. So I was hunting for use cases everywhere on the internet and I came across the Dev forum and Success/Trailblazer community. I started answering questions for my own practice and in the process I got hooked to it. That joy when you help someone solve their problem is something you can only experience by trying it. It surely is one of the best feelings. And that’s how I got involved.
SR: In your opinion, what are the career benefits of getting involved in the Salesforce community?
NS: I’m a product of the Trailblazer Community. This community is truly a blessing.
Specifically speaking of career benefits:
- You can connect and engage with people all across the globe, to explore all kinds of opportunities, from mentorship to employment.
- Enormous potential to build your personal brand and leadership skills.
- Engaging with the Community will help improve your Salesforce knowledge so you can be more effective at work.
There are an infinite number of ways that one can benefit from their community involvement. Best part: it’s a lot of FUN!
SR: You also have your own blog, could you tell us a bit about that?
NS: Initially the idea was to create some kind of repository for commonly asked questions with not so easily found answers so I can easily share links, because I was answering a LOT of questions on the community which were quite similar. And that’s how the idea came out in the form of a blog.
The only motto behind ‘ForcePanda’ is to share everything that I have to offer that might be helpful to anyone within the community.
SR: Do you think running your own blog has helped your career success in Salesforce?
NS: Yes, it certainly has helped in my career success. Sharing good content has not only helped me gain some visibility in the community but also my own knowledge enriches with every post that I share.
SR: Finally, what is the best piece of advice you have received throughout your career?
NS: Thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve received any great advice so far.
Mostly it has been self evaluation and learning directly/indirectly from some great of the most amazing trailblazers like Deepak Anand, Gaurav Kheterpal, Amnon Kruvi, Keir Bowden and Manish Choudhari.
If you’re a Salesforce professional and would like to join Narender in our Q&A series, please get in touch with us today!
