Elevate Your Career with Salesforce

In today's dynamic job market, staying relevant and competitive is essential for career growth. As technology continues to shape the business landscape, professionals across various industries are seeking opportunities to enhance their skill sets and secure their future. One such game-changing career move is getting into the Salesforce platform workforce. In this blog post, we will explore why joining the Salesforce ecosystem can be a fantastic step in your career development.

The Powerhouse of CRM

Salesforce, often touted as the world's #1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, is more than just a software application. It's an entire ecosystem that connects businesses with their customers like never before. By gaining proficiency in Salesforce, you position yourself at the forefront of a revolution in how businesses manage their customer relationships.

A Growing Ecosystem

The Salesforce ecosystem is thriving and continually expanding. With over 150,000 companies using Salesforce, the demand for skilled professionals is at an all-time high. Whether you are an aspiring developer, administrator, consultant, or sales and marketing professional, there's a niche for you within the Salesforce universe. This growing job market presents a plethora of opportunities for those willing to invest in their Salesforce skills.

Job Security and High Earning Potential

One of the most compelling reasons to venture into the Salesforce platform workforce is job security and lucrative earning potential. Companies are willing to pay top dollar for skilled Salesforce professionals who can help them leverage the platform to drive growth and innovation. As a Salesforce expert, you'll find yourself in a position of job security and potentially earning a substantial income.

A Path to Continuous Learning

Salesforce is an ever-evolving platform. It releases three major updates per year, ensuring that it stays at the cutting edge of technology. This constant evolution means that professionals in the Salesforce ecosystem are continually learning and growing. Salesforce offers a range of training resources, certifications, and community support to help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies.

A Network of Like-Minded Professionals

When you become part of the Salesforce community, you gain access to a vast network of like-minded professionals. The Salesforce Trailblazer Community is a hub of knowledge sharing, collaboration, and mentorship opportunities. Being a part of this community not only enhances your skills but also broadens your horizons through exposure to diverse perspectives and experiences.

Making a Positive Impact

Salesforce is not just about profit; it's also about making a positive impact on the world. The Salesforce 1-1-1 model of philanthropy donates 1% of Salesforce's product, 1% of equity, and 1% of employees' time to improve communities and support nonprofit organizations. By working in the Salesforce ecosystem, you have the opportunity to contribute to these efforts and be part of something bigger than yourself.

In conclusion, embarking on a career in the Salesforce platform workforce is a smart move in today's fast-paced, technology-driven world. It offers job security, financial rewards, continuous learning, a supportive community, and the chance to make a meaningful impact. So, if you're looking for a career development step that opens doors to a world of opportunities, consider becoming a Salesforce professional, and prepare to soar to new heights in your career journey.

Recommended Trailhead Trails

These recommended Trailhead trails cover a wide spectrum of Salesforce topics and skills, making them an excellent resource for anyone looking to enter the Salesforce platform workforce or advance their career within it. Happy learning!

1. Salesforce Basics

Trail: Salesforce Platform Basics

This is the ideal starting point for beginners. It covers the fundamental concepts of Salesforce, including navigation, data modeling, and customization.

2. Admin Beginner

Trail: Admin Beginner

If you're interested in becoming a Salesforce Administrator, this trail is essential. It takes you through the basics of configuring and customizing Salesforce.

3. Developer Beginner

Trail: Developer Beginner

Aspiring Salesforce Developers should start here. This trail introduces you to the world of Apex, Lightning components, and Salesforce development.

4. Sales Cloud Basics

Trail: Sales Cloud Basics

For those looking to explore Salesforce's capabilities in sales and marketing, this trail covers key topics in customer relationship management (CRM).

5. Service Cloud Basics

Trail: Service Cloud Basics

If you're interested in customer support and service, this trail focuses on using Salesforce Service Cloud to provide excellent customer service.

6. Prepare for Your Salesforce Certification

Trail: Prepare for Your Salesforce Certification

If you're aiming to get certified in Salesforce, this trail provides resources and guidance to help you succeed in your certification journey.

 

Green tree frog - Hyla Cinerea

While I was in Atlanta, my friend Matt Refghi spotted this little frog in one of the plants in the backyard. I then jumped to my camera and started taking some photos.

This little specimen turned out to be quite cooperative as a subject.

 Take a look at the pictures on my Flickr: flickr.com/jpereira_ca

Unexpected Landing...

The E-Flite Apprentice 15E

As a collective birthday gift from my girlfriend and my brothers, I got an electric RC airplane, the Apprentice 15E RTF with the Spektrum DX5e Radio included. A pretty big one, I should say. I had to wait for about two weeks before receiving it, and then an extra week and a half before being able to fly it outside due to winds in excess of 12 km/h. These are pretty calm winds, although when starting to pilot RC planes, it is highly recommended to do so in absence of winds.

The Spektrum Dx5e 5-channel Radio Controller

So I did some homework. I purchased a model airplane flight simulator and practiced controlling the simulated plane for a few hours...aka all night long! I was so excited about piloting it perfectly the first time. The only inconvenient was that the controls were routed to keys on the keyboard, as I did not have a dual stick gaming pad, nor any USB transmitter dummy. I recently found out that the DX5e could actually be plugged to the computer through the microphone port. Yes, the microphone audio jack! This was a bit of a shock to me at first, but come to think of it, what the transmitter sends to the plane is nothing but a signal. You see,  the only difference between the signal it actually emits to the plane (high-frequency signal like wifi devices use) and the one it outputs to the computer is that one is probably down-sampled to a frequency within the human audible spectrum (low-frequency signal under 22 kHz). This "scaling down" allows the signal to be audible to a microphone. The higher frequency signal will allow a longer range of transmission and facilitate some common issues with radio telecommunications (thus using a 2.4GHz frequency spread spectrum technology). This is how I understand it and I may be wrong, in which case I would gladly appreciate being corrected, as I prefer knowing facts as they are, and not simply as I believe them to be.

Anyhow, back to the main point.

As soon as the winds got below 6 km/h, I headed out to the closest baseball park I could find. Was I ever excited to make it takeoff and get it up in the air! And so it was, I was able to pull off a perfect takeoff and get it to fly over the baseball field a couple of times, and even make some loops and rolls. But then came the moment where I was starting to get stressed about the landing part of this adventure.

The wind was calm, without any gusts to worry about. The baseball field was pretty small after all, I'd have to fly in pretty low over the park adjacent to the baseball field, but not too low since I'd have to fly over the fence surrounding the field. At the same time I had to make sure that the plane was facing the wind straight on while landing, reducing the throttle to a minimum, shutting it off and just gliding to touch down. Everything went great, a little bumpy yes, but great for a first landing. My first flight was a success!

Having gained some confidence with this first flight, I decided I should take it on a second flight.

It went pretty much the same way the first flight did. Good takeoff, a few tricks, a couple laps around the neighborhood, going high up in the air, lining up for landing, reducing speed...

And then... a gust of wind followed by a counter-wind or something of the sort. Basically, there must have been a gap of wind that made the plane drop in altitude very rapidly. My reflex was to make the plane go up to gain a bit of altitude because it was still going too fast to touch down. Big mistake, I pushed UP on the elevator stick, thus making the plane peak down towards the ground. Fortunately, this is a foam plane and the foam absorbed most of the impact without breaking. The only casualties were the spinner cone, the motor mount and a few plastic clevises that were holding on to the ailerons and the wheel pivot. Gladly, it cost me only about 20$ to order a new set of the damaged parts. The battery itself, a LiPo battery, got bent slightly, therefore requiring to be quarantined for a while, as this type of battery is extremely delicate and is known to explode and burst into flames quite easily.

Lithium Polymer battery on fire

 It has now been a couple of weeks since this incident and I have finally received the replacement parts. In the meanwhile I have been practicing piloting the a similar model on the computer with my DX5e controller plugged into my sound card. The software I am using to accomplish this is SmartPropoPlus with PPJoy joystick driver and ClearView RC Flight Simulator. SmartPropoPlus is a driver that will listen to an audio port and decode the signal that a radio controller is sending to it. It then converts that signal to an emulated multi-axis parallel port joystick. The PPJoy (parallel port joystick) driver then takes the signal on the emulated parallel port and interfaces in windows, allowing to specify which channel controls which axis on the virtual joystick in windows. The RC Flight Simulator is then able to use the virtual joystick as a controller. Keep in mind that this so-called virtual joystick is being commanded by the external radio controller through the audio signal. I reckon this might not have been the best explanation ever, but when you understand the complexity of what is going on behind the scenes... it is simply fascinating! (I will soon post the links to the sites with instructions for installation)

ClearView RC Flight Simulator - Very good RFS

I can't wait for the next calm, windless day!