We are presently alive in a time where the chance to progress your career, your life and yourself has never been greater, and the majority of the tools to get there are free. Technology is like a positive feedback cyclone, enabling us to better ourselves, whilst giving us a vessel in to use these new skills we have acquired. And Salesforce fits into this archetype like a glove. The opportunities are endless to extend your learning and become whoever you want to be.
So, if you’re looking to progress your career, these three traits will certainly help you climb the career ladder as fast as possible. The most successful Salesforce professionals live and breathe these traits.
Technical Knowledge
Technical Knowledge is the ability to demonstrate how well you know the Salesforce platform. Are you aware of all the declarative functionality of Salesforce? How about the programmatic functionality? When should one be used over the other?
But it’s not just about Salesforce, to be a true master you need to understand the surrounding technologies as well. Very rarely in organizations will Salesforce be a standalone system. One of the platforms’ greatest achievements is its ability to interact with anything. Do you know Salesforce’s integration capabilities? How about Marketing Automation tools that plugin? Now of course if you are reading this you are most likely wanting to become a Salesforce expert, you don’t need to be a master of everything, but most definitely need to be aware.
Salesforce Certifications are a fantastic way to prove your technical Salesforce knowledge to your peers. If you’ve passed, you can prove to yourself and others you know what you’re talking about. However, on their own, Salesforce certifications mean very little. Imagine that you’ve passed 5 Salesforce certifications in a few months and you feel like an absolute platform master, but you’ve just been using online materials with no real-world exposure, do you think you are best qualified to help real-world clients problems? This is why this trait isolated on its own, means very little.
Experience
Experience in Salesforce means being exposed to all kinds of situations, problems and solutions. What options can you offer your users for their current problems? What worked last time? What are some common pitfalls you should avoid this time around?
The following questions can only be answered by yourself through one method, experience and exposure. Companies don’t pay over $1000 a day just for technical skills, they pay for the huge wealth of experience professionals have built up through working with lots of clients. They want to know what you have done for others, what results have you seen, what has worked, and what hasn’t worked.
Experience and exposure come with years of working with different clients, industries, solutions, workarounds and other software systems. It can be beneficial to speak with a specialist Salesforce recruiter in order to get help with gaining experience and looking for the next step up in your career.
Personable
If you want to get to the top of your game, become someone who is respected and a leader in the Salesforce community and beyond, then being personable is definitely the most important trait of the three. But possibly the hardest to learn. In fact, being personable almost becomes more important the higher you wish to move up the ladder.
Take Marc Benioff for example, Marc was a superstar computer programmer when he was younger and became the youngest VP in Oracle history. Since then he founded Salesforce and has taken it to become a record-breaking innovation machine. Do you think his development skills are as good as 25 years ago? Probably not, but he is one of the most respected and influential people on the planet.
Learning how to connect with people cannot be learned with Trailhead or certifications, you must get out in the real world and push yourself out of your comfort zone. Although for some people this may seem daunting, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences. Attending Salesforce meetups and events is a great way to start networking and building relationships in the ecosystem.
Conclusion
These three traits may rise and fall in skill level as your career progresses, or diverges onto another path but each of them are important throughout all stages of your career. They all require completely different tools, learning paths and milestones to become a master, but that’s just the fun of levelling up your career.
Do you agree with these three traits? Is there a particular trait you think is by far the most important? We would love to hear your thoughts.
source: https://www.salesforceben.com/3-traits-need-successful-salesforce-career/
