When I accepted my internship in October of 2018, I really had no idea what I was getting into. I knew that I would be working with some type of system, but other than this, the team I was working with, and the location, I didn't know much else. The first few weeks of working in "Fusion", I didn't see much potential for my role in Business Continuity, although I was excited about it and happy to be there, and technically speaking, I didn't have much to offer as I was just learning the ropes.
The job description that I applied for may have been the most generic job posting I have ever seen in my life. Requirements: communication, business skills. It mentioned nothing about a computer system, nothing about what I actually am doing now.
What happened in the next few months opened my eyes to how much I can grow in a space that allows me to seek out solutions and opportunities. Here is a list of some of my favorite things about spending time in the corporate spectrum of business continuity.
First, I thought of myself as a "System Administrator". Now, I'm proud to say I'm a Salesforce Administrator!
GiphyOur Business Continuity software is hosted on the Salesforce Platform! Starting out, I sat in on meetings with other administrators to try and get a grasp of everything that goes on in the system. Now, I'm our primary technical admin. I handle most back end issues- and often offer new innovations for myself to build to create a more user friendly, or useful interface.
I get experience studying for what I want to do when I graduate!
I love working with Salesforce so much, that I've made it my goal to achieve both the Administrator certification, and App Builder certification while in this position. I'm roughly half way done with each of the "trailmixes" (collections of lessons) associated with these exams in Salesforce's online tutorial library. What's great about these lessons is that they provide me information on how to solve issues in my own system organization currently, and in the meantime, I get to track my knowledge progress in "Trailhead Badges" on the tutorial website, which I currently have over 50 of! I'm the head person in charge of configuring our mobile app, and have actually created a platform app that helps us keep track of some of our approval processes as admin. I've redone our home page, by displaying reports that I've created that track our biggest, most significant data points, and soon will be creating custom home pages for different user profiles. I get to be helpful to my department, my company, and my future career in Salesforce simultaneously.
I get to meet with practically anyone in the company and learn from them.
So far I've been mentored one on one by members of our LEAN team in order to become a LEAN facilitator with the ability to map processes functionally, and have had great meetings with the Vice President of Marketing, one of our Enterprise Architects, our Chief Administrative Officer, the head of Robotics and Automation, our Director of the Architectural Review Board, and more. I am truly trying to understand the ins and outs of the company structure and am lucky that I'm in a place that is willing to teach me the ropes. I truly have the freedom in this position to seek out whatever knowledge and guidance I think would make my skills stronger, as well as the freedom to seek out solutions that make our Salesforce org as exceptional as possible. I think how well I've thrived in this type of environment proves that I am a self-starter. I do best in environments where I have the freedom and responsibility to do things on my own, because I deliver the best results by listening and learning from others, and making executive, creative decisions to meet consecutively larger needs of my organization.
