Skills for Tomorrow: Crafting Admin Expertise

I personally pride myself on being open , honest and transparent , and so I can say honestly , the month of March has kicked my butt .

There's been a lot of work to do , there's been a lot of events going on in the ecosystem , and when there's a lot going on , it's really easy to let stress , anxiety , workload just completely beat you down and you get , as I've said on the show before , horrible analysis , paralysis and there's just so much going on and you just kind of freeze .

So , after taking some time to step back and get the schedule reorganized , I'm excited to say that we're back in action . We're here to stay for our weekly schedule going forward and also I can't say too much more , but we have a lot of really cool guests lined up and a few surprises to come over the next few weeks .

So be on the lookout on social for some really cool announcements . So enough talk about the last two weeks . Let's talk about today . We're going to sit down with Rochelle Rawls , a diversity talent attraction partner for Salesforce . So back to the theme of open and honest .

I've been waiting for the right time to bring on someone who works for Salesforce and I'm so excited for that person to be Rochelle . It's going to be a blast this week while we sit down to share Rochelle's background and knowledge for new admins .

So , like I said , I've been waiting for the right time to bring on a Salesforce staff member because I want this show to be about highlighting new admin stories , but also to bring on guests who can give new admins insights and knowledge to help them get a leg up in the ecosystem , which is why , this week , rochelle and I had the pleasure of sitting down to

talk through what it's like being a recruiter for Salesforce , what she looks for when finding candidates and what are some ways that new admins can stand out against the competition in the ecosystem . So , without further ado , let's meet Rochelle . Well , thank you so much for joining .

I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to kind of talk with us today about skills for new admins , whether they want to find their first admin job or whether they are wanting to work for Salesforce itself . We want to have those opportunities and have that discussion about what new admins can be thinking about .

So I've been putting off having a Salesforce employee on the show just because I , in my own way , I feel like there's a little bit of a stigma of like having someone from the mothership on the show instead of hearing from admins .

But your story is a little more unique just because you and correct me if I'm wrong but you haven't really been an admin in the ecosystem prior to working for Salesforce . Is that correct ?

in hiring not only just the right talent but making sure that the talent is diverse . There is inclusion involved , and that's such a big initiative for Salesforce over the last five or six years , and so I'm very excited to talk to you about this today . So , before we dive into everything I always start to show off of , I want to talk about you .

I want to learn your background and kind of understand a little bit how you got started . Ultimately , how did you go from healthcare recruiting to being a recruiter for one of the largest tech companies in the world , as well as going on to then speak at conferences about being a recruiter for one of the biggest tech companies in the world ?

So the program that they have , they pretty much train you how to be a recruiter . So before then came in with no experience , it was a lot of cold calling early on , so definitely not my favorite thing to do , but I think it's definitely made me more agile and be able to pivot . So when I got the opportunity , I was actually a referral .

My uncle , he first started working at Salesforce on the sales side and he was like , hey , like this is a great company , like a very young company , like you should consider it . And I was like , sure , so I applied . You know Salesforce . I'm like , yeah , it's the beginning of callback .

But they actually did interview me and actually initially I interviewed for a tech recruiter and they told me that I did not have the experience needed for it . But , long story short , I pretty much do that now . But they actually extended to me . They were like , hey , we have this new team that we're hiring for within diversity .

So of course this is at the height of George Floyd and everything going on in the world at that time . So they were looking to create this diversity team . So the sole focus initially was like underrepresented minorities and groups . We kind of sense expanded from that . So we went from a team of four to now we're actually a team of 14 and we're internationally .

So if that just speaks volume about Salesforce as a company , what they're really trying to do when it comes to equality and driving those numbers , because if anyone's been paying attention , you know the Supreme Court overruled like affirmative action and things like that within DEI .

So a lot of companies are actually getting rid of their DEI teams and all the efforts that they're doing . So long story short , they are like , hey , we have this great opportunity . So I came onto the team , had no tech recruiting experience whatsoever . I will say I think what really aided me was when I was in healthcare recruiting .

I pretty much built , like I did sub specialties , so I did like neonatologist , cardiologist , so all those allergy specialties and I actually focused on one within hyperbaric wound care . So like I built that from the ground up like anyone that reached out to anyone at AMN healthcare , they knew that I was a recruiter that focused on that .

So I think me pivoting to then supporting CSG , which I came in after someone but she wasn't really at the company long . I kind of had to start from the ground up again . So that's why I found it really important for me to , to your point , getting within the community . So that's why I think it's very important in what I do to show people my face .

Yes , I'm fully remote but I have the capabilities . I do local conferences . I go to local networking events . I've been to the North Dallas user group events , the snowflake events and , to your point , I'm now kind of branching into talking at conferences .

So I'll be speaking at the upcoming dreaming and color conference and actually got the opportunity to attend last year and I was like wow , like this is a conference , like so many people that look like me talking about different things and , to your point , like everyone who's involved and maybe one day wants to come work for the mothership as everyone refers to it .

We call it SWIN . So I do . I'm actually helping to plan the event that's later this month that we're having and I'm actually having Abby , who you've actually had on your show . She'll be coming to speak at our event . And then I'm a part of bold force , which is our African American ally group , and several other ones .

But I think it's always important in anything that you do , like you have your kind of nine to five , but if you have the opportunity to fill your cup in other ways , that's why I'm a big advocate for being involved in your company at that level . I'm really finding your community as well .

It's so cool that again brand new to the ecosystem as a whole and immediately , not only just to better yourself for your role , because obviously this is benefiting you as a recruiter , but it's also just a really cool way to give back and find new , meet new people in general and also just find ways to do good in this ecosystem .

I always find it very cliche when we talk about it's an Ohana and I've said this before on the show and that it's just so weird to me that all these random strangers are like , no , you're a part of my Ohana , but it really does ring true at the end of the day of so many people wanting to give back to others .

What took you from international business to just recruiting in general ? Those two things in my mind don't line up . So I'm curious what got you from point A to like G ?

So if you think about recruiting , we actually do do kind of a lot of marketing , a lot of content , especially on LinkedIn . So I think that's why it really worked for me and I honestly would have never thought to get into recruiting , but I think someone just took a chance on me and then I just kind of hit the ground running with

it .

What's kind of been your driver , though , to have that mentality , because a lot of people just kind of say , cool , nine to five , five o'clock's done , where's happy , are going , and so I'm curious , what is giving you that motivation to say no , I need more .

If COVID taught us anything and especially tech layoffs unfortunately they're still happening you can never really rely on one source of income and inflation is so bad Even just that one source isn't going to cover everything that you need or all the goals that you want .

So for me , really , if you want to get a job nowadays , especially at Salesforce , you need a referral . If you've got 100% of referrals going to get you in the dorm from someone , versus you just applying . I have people that come up to me at conferences .

They're like I've applied to Salesforce 10 times and I'm like , ok , great , did you reach out to a recruiter ? Did you have a referral ? Because the thing is we had some jobs that I've had over 1300 applications and , yes , you can use the functionalities of AI , but you still need that people aspect to it .

So it may filter it for us , but we're still going through each and every resume and I might get some hate for this , but this is just my personal opinion . Working at a big corporation , I'm not going to read your cover letter . I don't think hiring managers are going to read your cover letter .

The first thing we're going to look at , especially myself as a recruiter , because I've linked in recruiter . I'm in that all day , every day , even outside of some of my work hours . I'll still check messages if I need to , and things like that . So you need to make sure your LinkedIn is up to date , because it's great you have that .

You worked you might have worked at Cognizant , you might have worked at Deloitte , but what did you do there ? Because each company , that title and what you do differs . So , if you don't have like , just give me five bullet points so I can know a little bit about what you did . If you work in sales , you need to have your numbers , just things like that .

I'm a shoe in for so many different places where I used to work for . Insert company name here . That's just not the case . I'm seeing , at least from my conversations with others who are in the recruiting space Again , kiro being one of the people I've had plenty of conversations with .

So I am curious , though , for admins and again bringing it back to the premise of the show for the admin of tomorrow , thinking about whether it's finding your first admin job or trying to again work for the mothership itself . I'm curious your take on . You mentioned referrals .

Why do you think a referral specifically from someone , even outside of just having your LinkedIn update , why is a referral really important ?

That's why partly going to these network in a group because I've seen fellow Salesforce employees there Maybe they work as some of their partners and everyone gets involved in some capacity within the ecosystem .

So maybe this person works at a partner but they have a great friend that works at Salesforce and the two of you get connected and they're like wow , like I heard , one of my colleagues has this great opening . Let me send your resume over to her . Things like that .

You never know the power of connecting and creating those networks because the reality is when you apply for large companies , you are just another number . Essentially , you can be the top of your company and that's great , but when it comes down to it , it's just they're pickier . Now I've been saying this a lot on calls .

Sometimes I do take calls like 15 , 20 minutes where I'll connect with people to your point . Maybe they're looking to try to break into tech , so I kind of give them some tips and tricks . I always recommend that they take on trailhead . They have a career quiz .

So some people they're like , hey , I'm new to the Salesforce ecosystem , I'm not sure what I want to do . I always suggest that quiz and then finding those user groups because yes , I work at Salesforce as a recruiter but I'm not going to know the ins and outs of someone . That's more technical and , to your point , like an admin .

When you have that admin cert and you come from that background , you can go different routes . So I've talked to these past couple quarters I've been hiring for technical support engineers . So sometimes some of those admin can kind of pivot to that role because , to be honest , I don't ever see any admin roles at Salesforce . They are renaming roles all the time .

So maybe there was one but some people kind of get into that role . Or sometimes if you come from an admin background , you could look into like a technical account manager , depending on , like , what other certifications that you get and how technical you want to be .

In addition , I just feel like there's a lot of different routes you can go to be honest , and you might be able to speak to that a little bit more based on your background .

And it kind of makes sense in that the role and we talked about this on the show before , but like the role of the admin used to be very black and white . It would used to be very , very defined .

And now with the introduction of customer 360 and so many of the different clouds we mentioned it on one of the last episodes it's kind of like you are now an unofficial full stack admin , so you have to know a little bit of every single cloud to be considered what you're needed for your company , because a CEO of a small mom and pop or a medium sized

company isn't going to be able to say , cool , you're an admin , you only focus on sales cloud , you only focus on , like , the people management side of Salesforce . They're going to come in and say , cool , you know how to code , you know how to build this really cool automation , you know how to do all this stuff .

Awesome , bring it , let's , let's go , let's have a conversation , and you may not have that insight . So , to the point , though , of like referrals , I love that recommendation of meeting with people in the community . The referral doesn't have to be just your former boss or former colleague . It can be someone who can vouch for your work .

I feel like , though and this is just my own kind of perception on it please correct me if you think I'm being off based but a lot of times referrals can be such a double edged sword , especially for the situation you're describing of hey , I just met you at an event . You work for Salesforce . Can you give me a referral ?

When you are asking people and I say you , as in the general , you of like I'm a new admin looking for a job , if I'm asking someone , say , hey , could you give me a referral , could you vouch for me ? What are some of the things I should look for in that person to to vouch for me ? I mean , I don't want someone to be .

I want people to be honest , obviously , but I worry that . Do they really know me ? What are they going to say about me ? There's probably a little bit of a voice in your back , in the back of your head , saying can you trust the referral will be good , and I can't to that point .

What is something you should look for when finding the right person for referral ?

I mean , yes , I could chat GBT , but at the end of the day , I also work in HR , so I'm very particular about who I give referrals to . Just because then , if you don't do well and they're looking at me like you refer this person .

What should they be looking at when they're going to community events to build that network ? Because , to your point , and I've said on the show as well , learning the technical is hard , sure , but there are bajillion resources out there to get good at the technical , get certified and have that knowledge to get ahead .

The people management side of it , the networking side of it , the finding the people for your referrals , to find that even opportunities exist , in my opinion , is the hard part . Knowing you are so passionate about growing in the community , what would your recommendation be for some new admins trying to build that network ?

Try to find the new opportunities , find those referrals .

Sometimes I don't even say that I'm a recruiter because I mean they can click on my LinkedIn and see that if they're really interested and I'm always just hey , I'm looking to expand my network or always happy to connect . Actually , someone from one of the recent meetups , her and I briefly connected because , to your point , she just got her Salesforce admin .

She's been in teaching for a while . I see so many teachers looking to pivot into tech and I get where they're coming from .

It's just so hard because you need to have working experience in addition to that certification and I think there's so many false narratives out there where they're saying you just need a certification and that's not the case because there's so many people just looking .

And I think that some people don't realize , even if you can get volunteer experience , like any pro bono work , someone can speak that , hey , this person came in and they implemented the system for me . That's working experience . Still , we accept that because that's volunteer experience and even like apprenticeships sometimes when you're newer .

I love Salesforce , but I don't think we have enough like entry level opportunities unless you're a new grad . So my suggestion is always to people to go work for one of our partners . There's so many Salesforce partners out there . There's so many that have apprenticeships and more of those entry level roles .

I actually just hired someone he this was last year and he'll probably I'll have to send him this episode , but he was actually . I think he did like an apprenticeship at YPRO . They had him come in for like six months . He got like three certifications .

He started with the admin , I think the platform one , and maybe one other one I can't remember the name right now but then he was given a contract role . So he got about like six or nine months of experience that I think doing that . And then , unfortunately , who's affected by the layoffs due to COVID ?

So when I called him he was actually a like a plasma screener . So I'm not doing anything in tech , but he was keeping up on trailhead . He said he was keeping up his studies and what really got me he . He did , of course , fall within like an underrepresented minority category , so that's why I love what I do , because I can look at LinkedIn .

No one had reached out to him . He didn't have a lot to go on with LinkedIn , but you know the companies , I recognize that and I reached out to him , he interviewed and he was actually like a top candidate and he started working for us like later last year . And it just goes to show that you just can't take someone's experience at face value either .

So that's why a lot of times I'll still connect with people and sometimes I'll just let him know upfront like hey , like I'd love to connect , but I'm not quite sure where I can put you . But I'm always happy to connect to see if there's other opportunities .

But to date , like that is one of my top success stories Because I was like no one else from the company had ever reached out to him and this was an Indianapolis , indiana , so like a hard fill type of role , because it was a hybrid technical support engineer . And , yeah , I told him I was like I'm gonna have to come out there and meet you .

I love what you said and that there's really not a whole lot of entry level positions outside of like if you're fresh out of college . I completely agree . I mean , I say all this and that I was one of the lucky ones and that I got a fresh out of college .

I was still in college and I got an internship and it turned into a automation manager and it just kind of snowballed from there and I got very lucky in my situation . To be fair , that was also 10 years ago in Salesforce was not what it is today . But I love hearing that this is still prominently happening . It's also interesting .

I'd love for you to talk about your role at Salesforce now , a little bit more of finding folks who are in like designated unrepresented minorities , and so I'd love for you to talk a little bit about your role , specifically being I didn't want to have your LinkedIn up , just so I say the title right diversity , talent , attraction , partner around customer success .

So can you ? We've said that you're a recruiter . Can you talk a little bit more about this facet of recruiting that you are in ?

So that was African American , latinx , hispanic and indigenous population , and some of those populations are really hard to target just because they don't have representation , unfortunately . But now it's since opened a little bit

. So if you've seen , like Salesforce published numbers about around women , we want to be 40% women as a company , I think by next year 2026 I forgot the year . And then I'm also focusing on like veterans as well . We partner with hiring our heroes and then people with disabilities .

So those are disabilities you can see and ones that you can't see , so PTSD and other disabilities like that . And then I think we also kind of branch into like the LGBTQIA . But you know , that's not something that someone always discloses , it's kind of up to them .

But a lot of times on interviews that I've been on , people do just kind of disclose on their own and that's why I try to also have I do put on there . I put out there a lot that I focus on diversity because I think people feel comfortable .

They're like , hey , I see the content that you put out on social media , like you keep it real essentially and I feel like I can actually talk to you as a person , because I think sometimes Incorporate America , when you're an underrepresented minority or group , you don't feel comfortable if someone doesn't look like you , and I think that's something that a lot of

companies still struggle with , especially at the leadership level . There's not a lot of women in leadership Anyone that's black or Hispanic indigenous so we still have a ways to go there . But that's why I really I'm gonna reach out to anyone that I can .

I will say a lot of people do reach out to me , especially when I kind of announce different conferences that I'm going to and kind of .

If you follow me on LinkedIn , I created my own hashtag row , the DEI pro , so people love that and that's a great way that I've kind of just spiked conversation with with people that way and I'm just authentic and what I do . I think Sometimes people put on a show , but I try to show that I'm really authentic and that's why I take time .

Hey , I worked nine to five , but then I go to this networking event .

It might be from like five to nine , you know , and I'm still giving my time and I Mean to a point I can put that kind of as volunteer time because you know , salesforce , we're big on philanthropy , so so if you don't know that we actually each employee gets 56 hours of volunteer time off a year and I love that because we cool benefit exactly and it's a

great way to get involved in the community and not enough people utilize it . I think Nowadays everyone's stressed out they need to hit their numbers , especially if you're salesperson .

That is helping you out , even though there can be red tape at times and there can be things that you're kind of my hands are tied . I can't really go crazy , so I think that's absolutely fantastic .

With that being said , you mentioned your hashtag , dei pro again , going to your background reference a lot healthcare to tech and then also doing so much to give back in tech . You also mentioned , with some of the kind of I and I want to word this right it was a Supreme Court , it was a Supreme Court case ruling that just happened .

volunteer hours for the year . I'm done . You've created a hashtag . You are so active on social media . Why is diversity and inclusion so important to you and to the point where you want to give back as much as you are ?

And it's not even the fact about affirmative action , it's just getting these people in the room , having these people be able to at least interview and and coach them along , really advocate for them , because the sad reality is that People will overlook them , sometimes just based on their name , and I think that's why some people , even on LinkedIn I say this all

the time like Some people still don't put their profile picture because they feel like they're gonna be profiled essentially , and that's why I always put my picture on there . Even when I did I recruited doctors , I came into some situations where I I'm definitely a relationship builder .

So when I was doing health care recruiting , a lot of the times I got very close with the doctors that I worked with .

We would talk about Social things a couple times and brought up some things that I didn't agree on , so I did start to put my picture in my signature , so they knew like , hey , yeah , just making you aware , cuz I don't want to have to pass you off to someone else cuz you're talking a little bit crazy .

Yeah yeah , um and Just I Feel like if there's not someone that is available to them , a lot of times people that reach out to me , they're like I love that you look like me .

I reached out to you , I've reached out to other recruiters . They just don't give me the time of day and , to their point , I some weeks I get a hundred messages or more a week and I Try I do try to respond to everyone . Don't get me wrong . I've had to scale back a little bit because I've come to terms . You know , and you get to a certain point .

You really can't . But if I can pass along someone's information to a colleague , I do always do that . Sometimes I'm just extremely overwhelmed . So I know people get frustrated . It does frustrate me when people just continue to message me .

But it's also like a full-time job at times . I mean , I know , even for me , just with the podcast at times feels like it's a full-time job that I'm having to do After five o'clock all the time , and so , yeah , it's , it's never fun .

It's because you also are a passionate person , so you don't want to let other people down , especially because the people you are working with are Underrepresented and you want to give back to them . But there's levels to it , yes . So with that kind of pivoting a little bit we teased it already I want to talk a little bit about this upcoming event .

So if you're in the DFW area I've talked about before one of our guests , kiro Was is Helps lead this group . They have been so wildly successful with their networking of Getting groups together and they've been doing this now for a couple years and they're partnering with Rochelle To put on an event at the DFW Salesforce Tower .

So , rochelle , I'd love for you to kind of explain what this event is , what people can expect from this event and why you should get on the wait list as soon as possible .

So if anyone was able to go to , like the snowflake and Salesforce Group event , that was done by two other like user groups , obese , similar , but this particular one , kiro actually just released our panelists so we will have a panel of Four people .

That I think one of the guys he used to be at Salesforce but he still works at a partner and then the rest are active Salesforce employees . They're actually all heavily involved in some of our business resource groups so They'll be able to talk a little bit about that . But just their experience .

And Actually , to your point , one of the guys he's actually spoken at one of the events before . Marcus Actually helped hire him . So he was someone that I reached out to and to this day he actually didn't really initially take me seriously and I was just like serious , like , and If you ever get the chance to get him on the show he'll just be up front .

I actually appeared on one of his podcasts , but it will be a panel . So , consumer to some of the events , still the happy hour aspect . They'll just be at the Salesforce Tower . We'll have a panel where , if you are able to come , you can actually submit questions beforehand that you know you want answered from the panel .

Why should new admins think this is going to be a different experience from the other kind of third Republic meetup groups that we there out there , as well ? As why is it important for them to try to get on this wait list as soon as possible ?

So we want to make sure we can get really those questions that might be repeatable answered and then you'll have the chance after to kind of network with some of these individuals and they might be people maybe you've you've maybe seen or heard about them but haven't gotten the chance to talk with them in person and they can kind of give you their perspective

because they come from all different types of backgrounds and just really giving it advice on how to get your foot in the door , because I feel like it's one thing to hear it from a recruiter but to hear it from someone that is living that and showing , because each of them come from different tenures .

I think I think Daniel might have been at Salesforce the longest , and then it's kind of Kim and the Marcus , so they can kind of speak to their tenure and kind of what they're doing . Maybe they move from one side of the business to the other because Salesforce is so large . I mean , that's not uncommon .

Or maybe they came on when they were acquired from another company .

So I think that's really good feedback , because the hardest part for a lie these new admins , I think , is getting the courage to just put their foot in the door and just try to get a seat at the table and , as we both know , getting a seat at the table is one of the hardest things that people can do to get ahead .

So you definitely get on this wait list To your point . About the networking side of it , I guess you mentioned earlier like finding people like you're whenever you try to attend at one of these meetups or user groups . If you can get access or see all the people who registered , you're going to reach out .

What are some other things that folks can be doing , especially knowing your event is going to be coming up you and Kiro and the groups event is going to come up in early April .

Knowing that , what are some things that new admins can be doing or people wanting to attend this event should be doing to come a little bit more prepared than just winging it when they come in the door .

. The career marketplace I haven't exported enough , but I've heard really great things to really exploring it there . If you're a woman , there's Abby is in charge . She co-leads the women in tech one of their groups . I know they do some monthly meetups as well and just kind of researching .

I want to say this , and some people might have a different reaction , but the way that you are prepared on a date is how you should be on an interview . You should be asking me some questions , even if it's just one question how do I know that you did your research ? you know , similar to when you're going to a networking event .

It should be kind of a two way street and then maybe after that networking event , I recently , when I talk to people on interviews , they're always and as a recruiter , I don't get this enough and I feel like you don't understand . Sometimes we go through it but people ask me what can they do for me ?

If you have five seconds , maybe you connected with someone you're like wow , they're really knowledgeable on this one thing . Look on their LinkedIn . Maybe that's something they have on their LinkedIn . Endorse that skill .

That takes five seconds and Kira and I talked about that recently that we love to see endorsements as a recruiter because , again , someone's vouching for you there , someone's vouching for your experience , because the sad reality is with AI , chat , gbt , people are lying , they are reading from a script . They're saying they know how to do something .

I think there's ways you can cheat that , because I know when I used to hire developers , in order to get to that like first initial stage of the interview process , you had to go through that coding assessment so we can make sure you had that basic fundamental knowledge .

Remember when the day when we poke someone or give us like a quick thumbs up to something , so I was . I've never been thinking that endorsements should be something that we're actively like , looking for and seeking out . So I love that call out for new admins , because I feel like a lot of people might have a same misconception on that . I have .

But pivoting off of the event real quick and just kind of thinking again for the next generation admin . We've talked about the importance of these events . We've talked about the importance of referrals and just in general , networking when it comes to finding that first job we've again also talked about there's not a lot of entry level jobs for new admins .

With that likely comes a ton of rejection for , for and this can go across the board , regardless of if you like or are part of the Salesforce ecosystem or not , when you're trying to find that new career opportunity , you busted your bud , you've Try to get some volunteer experience just to have something on the resume , but you're just getting turned down at every

single turn . What should people be thinking or trying to do to not let that just completely demoralize them ?

Maybe you need to take a break from trailhead or just need to get Find that drive again . So that's why I say sometimes , with those networking groups , those user groups , I know people form community study groups from that . So that would be a great way . And I've talked to someone actually she's Kim , and I have had this discussion .

She's a customer success manager , used to be called a technical account manager . She has said before she was like you know , if I really wanted to , I feel like I could go into sales . So I feel like at the end of the day , maybe this now is you pivot to somewhere else . Because I actually have a colleague .

He started out as Salesforce in sales and what's funny now is he recruits salespeople but he's able to talk about it and speak to his knowledge and I think that's important because then people trust you .

They're like , wow , like this guy used to be in sales like if anyone's going to know it's going to be him , and it can be really disheartening in today's job market . So you really just have to lose faith , or maybe keep up that faith not lose it , sorry , and we're done . But maybe it's something you take a step back from .

I know there's the tie , the talent Alliance cohort . They do some things where you can actually apply to be part of a cohort and that's where you get some of that experience . I don't believe you get paid for it . I think it's kind of like an apprenticeship , but sometimes at the end of it you do have the opportunity to kind of apply or get in that way .

And if you're in the military , I know Salesforce also has great opportunities for military . I've talked to so many military spouses that have taken advantage of that . I will say right now some of the most companies . Return to work is a huge thing . So you might have seen that there's not a ton of openings in areas we don't have hubs .

So if you really want to be at Salesforce and I tell people that I'm like , look , if you really want to be at Salesforce , you might have to move somewhere where we actually have a hub . So Dallas is a smaller hub and some of the hubs are more specific in like the different roles that they have .

But any of our huge hubs San Francisco , new York , chicago .

I see a lot of big companies are opening headquarters , moved here without a job , and I was like , hey , you know , we're going to make it work , so just keep your faith . If you're religious , I'm pretty religious , so I keep my faith . Don't take everything at face value and just always be open to new opportunities .

Maybe that no was for a reason to get to your next yes .

As actors you get rejectional a lot . So I will say I feel like my thick I've got a lot of thick skin from that to kind of handle that . But I mean that , all being said , it's so easy to just let the nose completely detract you from moving forward and letting the anxiety and imposter syndrome overwhelm you .

So I think it is really important to have faith to whoever you may believe in , to kind of keep that moving forward .

One of the we're nearing the end of our time , so one of the last questions I have before we kind of go back and kind of promote the event where people can sign up for and everything specifically around for new admins , we talked a little bit about the difference between search versus work experience and it's such a kind of heated one side or the other debate

in the ecosystem . I have my own opinions , but I can keep them to myself for now . But I guess your your opinion on the value of experience or search you hinted to it a little bit earlier about search are great , but you have to get the experience .

I'm curious though and maybe this is different for recruiting for Salesforce as opposed to the admin side but why do you think , even working for Salesforce , it's important to have that technical knowledge about the product or to have the search or to have experience like such a heavy amount of experience ?

And I'm talking about this more like in a customer success type role where you're kind of helping out clients as opposed to being in the developer , because it makes obvious sense why you need that knowledge for a developer standpoint but say we're customer success , I'm just helping out other companies who want to purchase Salesforce grow .

Why is it so important that I have Salesforce experience and knowledge going into that role ?

So that's why it's helpful to have some of that working experience , because maybe there's this customer comes to you with an unique thing and you're like wow , like I actually have experienced this myself and you're able to speak to that

knowledge . I know we have so at Salesforce there's going to be different kind of levels within the roles that we have , so sometimes you don't necessarily need to have . I'll use , for example , like an associate technical support engineer . I know within one of the ones that I've hired they like to have like a developer background but also customer success .

So it's kind of a mesh . So maybe they got the certs and they worked at Starbucks that's customer success right there and then they're able to show maybe they just did a bootcamp . So if they're fresh out of a bootcamp , they kind of already got that working experience .

Maybe they step into a contract role , but you know , if this is their certified bootcamp , they were able to get that experience .

And I think sometimes that's where , when it comes to customer success versus like maybe just a product or tech or opening on like the tech team , where it differentiates because you need to be able to hit the ground running and help customers .

And I have this debate sometimes with people when I'm a Bayer , transparent recruiter , I'm going to look at your experience and I'm going to let you know . Hey , I appreciate you reaching out , but this level that you're wanting you need at least like five years minimum experience and you just don't have that right now .

And sometimes people like to argue with me and I'm like , hey , you can still apply . But I'm just telling you I've done this for a little while . I'm never going to say I'm the one source of truth , but it's very hard to get a yes when I've just heard somebody knows , kind of with some of that background .

The reason I asked a question is because it's more and more I'm saying that even to work at Salesforce you need experience with Salesforce , even outside of certs . But I have a friend and I haven't reached out to them in quite some time , but they worked for Salesforce as a customer success manager .

They had account executive experience and they had inside sales experience but they didn't really have any Salesforce background outside of just like adding a lead to the sales cloud or like updating an opportunity , just like the bare bones , like inside sales work .

So to go in from like that bare minimum but like being a customer success manager to then being one for a company , that's where I was kind of going with the value of do you need to have all this knowledge or have these certs ? Or kind of like where can you find that ?

In between and I love the Starbucks example just because you're right it's that is a customer success person . If you're , you have to deal with some really , really crotchety people at times when you work for Starbucks or in the customer service like industry retail . So I like that kind of breakdown of it all .

Following up on that just before we go to the last two questions when you're trying to get a job at Salesforce , flip side , now to it with a search what's where the conversations that people are having from a recruiting side or just an internal side about ? Do employees need to get search ?

I will say one time we did have a program last year . I don't know if they're going to bring it back . It was kind of like a pilot program so a lot of people didn't know about it unless I reached out to them . But we had a some openings where you came in with limited or no Salesforce experience .

So part of that onboarding process it was a little bit longer onboarding process but sure those first like six months I think was focusing around getting those certifications , getting that experience . I'm not sure if they're going to bring it back just because so many things are going on .

It's basically how you're planning your year and goals and if you're a Salesforce employee , you stick to that . If you don't hit it , that is .

That is a not good thing , but I mean that is it's to also make sure you're planning effectively , which is also another good trait to work for Salesforce , because they care about your growth enough to really be strategic and putting a plan together for how you perform in that year 100% and then so , within that to your point , you want to make sure you're

hitting those .

So me myself , for example , I really want to get the AI associate certification . I think everyone should get that or really pushing for that . There's an organization I'm a part of called the Black Women Experience at Salesforce . It's another one of our business resource groups and we're pushing for everyone in that group to get that AI associate certification Also .

Of course , with AI there's biases , so it is a people like generate a thing with AI , but that's why we need more people from diverse backgrounds to be involved , because there are some biases .

If you've seen some of those commercials , there was one with Barbies where it was like they inputted certain things of like countries and it brought up these Barbies and some of them are very bias . I would say so I think that's important .

I know Kiro has a ton of certifications , but sometimes it just comes down to the business justification because , again , return on investment when it comes to companies , it's all about making money . So what are you going to do with that certification Like for me ?

As you know , I really have a passion for like events and things like that , so I've been looking into potentially like some of the marketing certifications , things like that . But if you time it correctly , if you go to Dreamforce , they always give vouchers . Or if you go to other like connections , sometimes they do .

Or maybe if you go to specific sessions , you know , maybe a data cloud one . I know data cloud is huge right now . I work closely with one of our developer advocates and I know sometimes like she'll go to different events . I don't think she necessarily advertises for like the vouchers , but I know they're out there .

You can sign up for , just like being able to again network and reach out so that , even if you're not ready for the exam , you can get trial work , learn how to go in the system .

There's a handful of different things you can do to get that hands on experience , without necessarily being in a client org or being in an Oregon building in it every single day . So but yeah , definitely agree , get vouchers , find as many opportunities .

So this was like a super hard find . But you know , I had a guy who I recently had gotten through the interview process , like later last year . I was able to get him quickly back in the process , but he had all that listed on his LinkedIn . He was able to speak to it . I also when you're getting these certifications , you can't just dump it .

You can't test and dump , because if we're , if we're reaching out to you specifically for this type of experience that you're having , you need to be able to speak to it .

And I think sometimes people get so caught up with getting all these certifications they're not retaining the information and you really need to be able to do this , especially in any type of customer facing role , because they will point that out . They will let you know . They will let your manager know that you do not know what you're talking about .

And again , there is a huge value of retention which I feel like it just has gotten so overlooked , because , even to your point about super badges super badges , while very difficult like anyone can get them so there is also a level of this weird competition of like who has the most badges and being able to like fluff up your resume without actually being able to

retain it . So I do think that's a good call out to so many new admins who are just looking to say hey , I'm a four time certified super triple ranger , give me that six figure paycheck .

But someone said this to me recently I think the thing is when , yes , we're out of school , but you always want to continuously growing , to grow as a person , so maybe you don't want to go back to schooling , but maybe the certifications is a way to go , like , how are you upscaling yourself ?

Because the thing is , if you're not upscaling yourself , why are you gonna get promoted ? Totally , what ? What additional value are you're bringing ? If , if Sam and Bob can both do the same job , but Sam decides , hey , I want to get the certification , who do you think's gonna get that promotion ? And at the end of the day , that's just how it is . Totally .

At least , that mentality is not gonna be changing anytime soon , if anything is going to get significantly more aggressive , which is also , again , full circle moment , why I love having you on the show , love to hear what you're doing to again , so that , if it's just a bunch of Sam and Bob's , you have other individuals who have that same Hustle , that same

passion and drive , but they don't get the opportunity so they can be in the same conversation as Sam and Bob . So I love that . That was that's what you're doing . We yes , we we are , at time , just keeping an eye on everything . So , with that being said , I love for us to get to the final question .

I always ended on this question because I feel like , regardless of your role in the ecosystem , this is something that's really prominent and it's what is one thing that you would say throughout your journey of going from healthcare recruiter , orange theory sales associate to being so prominent in the ecosystem , doing so many good things .

What is one regret you have throughout your journey that you wish you could go back to Young Rochelle and say let's pivot this , let's do this a little bit differently ?

I feel like the more good you put out in the world , the more that comes back to you tenfold . As I said before , I'm religious , so that's part of it as well . If I can be a blessing in someone's life , I feel like God brings it kind of back to me tenfold .

It's not trying to do that just just generally , because there's there's a lot of things going on today's world and life can get you down .

So I think , early on just realizing that and just kind of backing away from people , people will smile on your face but kind of do things behind your back that aren't for you and I I Feel like to a certain point Sometimes people will say they're happy for you but they're really not .

I think for me I have kind of gotten to the point where I yes , I represent Salesforce , but at the end of the day too , like I know my worth and I'm creating kind of my own branding in a way .

I'm just gonna trust you and tell you everything I want to do with my life , all my career aspirations , and then realize , oh , I said the wrong thing , didn't realize they were in HR , I just shot my foot off , yada , yada , and so I get where you're coming from on that front , and you just have to own it , though you can't look back and you can't

second-guess the decisions you make , but you can Be very conscientious about who you tell stuff to . So I love , I love that , that kind of overview at all . We are at time .

So , before we wrap up , I'd love if you could share with everyone how they can register for the event when is it , where is it going to be , and just Kind of let people know how it gets signed up .

If don't , even if there's a long wait list , I would say , still sign up , because the day of people will not come . If the weather is bad , a lot of people be communing from North Dallas . I'm one of them , so I get it , but you definitely don't want to miss this opportunity . But you can definitely follow along for any updates .

I think when you sign up It'll include a link . I will say get to the office ahead of time because you will need to find parking and then you'll have to get a visitors badge .

Everyone has to have a visitors badge In order to go , and part of signing up early is doing part of that process ahead of time , or you , if you show up late and you still have to do that . I'm just letting you know .

It was a wait list after probably a couple days after and people didn't show . People showed up . It was absolutely packed , but they were able to have people who signed up day of and guide to the wait list be put on . So again , don't feel that if there's already a wait list you can't sign up . Definitely sign up .

Make sure you get there early for parking , because it is In downtown Dallas , across the way from the American Airlines Center , so it is a little bit of a kind of downtown traffic to get through , but it's very much going to be worth the experience .

It'll be at the Irving Convention Center April 9th through the 11th . More info that on that to come . But again , thank you so much , rochelle , for joining us today . Loved your story , loved everything that you're doing for the ecosystem and we'll definitely be having you on the show again in the near future to talk more about all the great things .

It was an absolute blast to talk through ways new admins can find opportunities working for Salesforce but honestly , a lot of what we talked about can be used across the board for any job in the ecosystem . So thank you again , rochelle , for being a part of the show and sharing your knowledge .

So we mentioned it towards the end of the episode , but we do want to take the time to plug two upcoming events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area . The first is the Salesforce North Dallas meetup group , which will take place on April 4th .

So this is a special event for those in the North Dallas area , as the Meetup team has coordinated with Rochelle to have the location be at the Dallas Salesforce Tower . So if you're interested in a fun night of networking , rsvp to the event in the link in the episode description .

Additionally , if you're based in Dallas , the inaugural event we dream in will take place April 9th through 11th at the Irving Convention Center . This is a can't miss event that combines the knowledge from Salesforce admins and architects With the knowledge of those from Snowflake user groups and Microsoft user groups in the area .

The event will have a ton of great content around data cloud , so you won't want to miss out . Also , to note , I'll be speaking at this event , so if you're in the area or would like to make the trip to Dallas , you can register for the event in the link in the episode description .

As always , thank you again for taking the time to listen and support our podcast . If you have any feedback , questions or topic suggestions , we'd love to hear from you , so don't hesitate to connect with us on LinkedIn , twitter or email us at info at admins of tomorrow comm .

Also , if you or someone you know would like to be on the podcast or would like to give someone a shout out , please go to our website . Admins of tomorrow comm . Forward slash , share your thoughts and fill out our form . If you enjoyed this episode , don't forget to subscribe , leave a review or share it with your fellow trailblazers .

Once again , I'm Jacob Catalano , your host , signing off . We appreciate you for listening to admins of tomorrow trailblazing next generation .