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By now you have heard of the Accidental Admin - you know, the diligent, intelligent worker whose worth was recognized by their employer and was tasked with being in charge of Salesforce. Many Salesforce MVPs and community leaders have taken this path, which is fine. Unfortunately, not everyone has this opportunity. How likely is it that the company where you work will switch to Salesforce and select you as the admin? What if you don't have a job at all?
The below is a list of some of the advice I have been given since the beginning of my Salesforce journey and my personal experience resulting from that advice. Your mileage may vary.
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advice - Volunteer to get work experience.
result - Recruiters didn't consider this to be professional experience.
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advice - Get certified to demonstrate your skills and ability to learn.
result - This one is too broad, but note that my Computer Science degree so far has been worthless. Let me break it down a bit.
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advice - Recruiter said developers need Force.com certification.
result - After Force.com certification, recruiter said their developers need Admin certification. Attained Certified Administrator.
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advice - Recruiter said developers need Platform Developer I certification and 7 years of Java experience.
result - Concentrated on becoming an Admin. Attained Certified Platform App Builder.
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advice - Admins need Advanced Administrator, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud certification and 5 years of project management experience.
result - Attained Certified Advanced Administrator. Began working on developer skills, created a Developer Trailmix on Trailhead.
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advice - A CEO of a Salesforce partner told me Getting Platform Developer I certification would be a mistake. Salesforce is too big to know it all and I can"t be good at administration and development.
result - Got ticked off and attained Platform Developer I certification. Salesforce retired my Force.com cert. Bugger.
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advice - Start your own business.
result - All information I could find on the subject said you need to build your client base while in your current job before going independent. What job?
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advice - Network, present, and write a blog.
result - Became active in local and online user groups and gave a number of presentations about Process Automation. Began building some Salesforce street cred. This is the blog.
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advice - Recruiter said I needed to be an LLC to work with his client.
result - Against my better judgement, started an LLC. Now I have my own business, hence the Accidental Entrepreneur, but I was rejected by the recruiter's client.
It hasn't been all bad. I picked up several extremely part-time paid gigs over the last 18 months and over the years have met and worked with some great people in the Salesforce Ohana. I believe everything happens for a reason and at least I am finally doing work I love. The financial piece will catch up eventually.
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