Finding a job in the Salesforce ecosystem as a new admin, business analyst or developer is not impossible, despite the headlines and LinkedIn opinions. Andrea Mariani is now 90 days into her new job and described
her time as a “really rewarding 90 days.”
Watch the full video interview here as Andrea walks through the her process to success!
Life Before Salesforce
Andrea pursued a degree in mathematics because of her enjoyment in numbers and logic. She
accepted an offer for a tutoring position after graduation, and found herself surrounded by
conversations of retirement plans and pensions. Realizing she was decades apart from her
peers and this “end goal”, Andrea began researching other careers and found Salesforce. It
seemed like a great fit, finding a place for her passions for logic, data manipulation, and
continuous learning.
With an academic background, Andrea knew how to learn independently and how to study for
an exam, and after a year of Trailhead and practice exams she was able to pass the Salesforce
Certified Platform Administrator (commonly referred to as the Admin exam) on her first try.
Armed with her first cert, Andrea began job searching and networking.
Follow Andrea’s Process | Take Practice Exams
6 Months of Effort – Still No Salesforce Job
In her first 6 months, Andrea saw a post from someone in her LinkedIn network about joining
the Talent Stacker Entry Level Careers Program. Andrea reached out to this person, wanting to learn more about the program and its offering, and kept this as an option in case her own efforts in job searching were not fruitful.
After 6 months of applications and job interviews without offers, Andrea gave herself another 6
months to land a job because she was intelligent, a go-getter, and newly certified – clearly a
qualified candidate. But those additional 6 months had the same outcome as the first 6 months
for Andrea while her LinkedIn connection landed a job in the same timeframe. After a year of job
searching she decided it was time to join Talent Stacker.
Follow Andrea’s Process | Prepare for Interviews
3 Months Later – Job Landed 🎉 What Made The Difference?
Andrea gives credit to Talent Stacker for providing her a clear path forward to a job compared to
her aimless searching and applying. She gained the most value from the experience projects,
which helped build her confidence in her foundational Salesforce skills and develop her ability to
gather requirements.
Follow Andrea’s Process | Get Hands-On Experience
3 months after joining Talent Stacker, Andrea found the courage to post on LinkedIn about her
new endeavor. 2 months later, a stranger-turned-boss commented on that post because he was
familiar with the program. It took 3 interviews, including a technical proficiency test and a face-
to-face meeting with the LinkedIn commenter, across 1 month for Andrea to receive her first
official Salesforce job offer.
Follow Andrea’s Process | Follow the LinkedIn Ultimate Guide
After 90 Days on The Job – How’s It Going?
Now, 90 days into her new job, Andrea says Salesforce has “truly changed my life.” Not only did
the job offer come with a 35% salary increase from her tutoring position, she is able to embrace
her passion for problem-solving and explore creativity through solution design. Most importantly,
though, she now has the flexibility to prioritize showing up in her kid’s life, not just the job.
About the Author & Video Editor – Amy Zeller
Amy Zeller is currently a Senior Salesforce Consultant at Canvas Cloud (www.canvascloud.com). She joined the Salesforce ecosystem in 2020, using the Covid-19 lockdown to explore Trailhead and learn about Salesforce. Since then, Amy has split her time across implementation projects and managed services and loves to make Salesforce easier for users through flow and a well-organized Lightning Record Page. Amy also discovered Talent Stacker through a LinkedIn post from someone in her network and now volunteers her time to edit the occassional interview video. You can connect with her on LinkedIn to ask questions about her Salesforce career or view her recent company blog post about document lifecycle management tools.
