Pay it forward
I’ve noticed that I tend to write a lot about the Salesforce.com Community here on my blog. It was never intentional, but I think that it’s really telling in what using this product so rewarding. Even many of my more product-focus posts have been either suggestions from other Salesforce junkies, or were produced with their assistance. While this isn’t what I meant to start my post off this week, it is a nice segue…
At Dreamforce this year, I was lucky enough to present in two sessions that dealt with being a Salesforce admin and how to make that your career, not just your job. One of the questions I got in both sessions (and very glad that people asked), was about how to develop skills that you may not be using in your current role. For example, using service cloud if all your company cares about is SFA functionality.
While the Salesforce Workbooks are phenomenal resources and I recommend them to everyone, nothing beats hands-on experience when it comes to something like Salesforce. So what do you do? Volunteer! It’s something that I do (and got a fancy press release one time), and is rewarding for both parties.
“But Salesforce.com volunteering? How would I even find a place to volunteer?”
Well readers, that’s why you have me! There are two really fantastic websites that pair volunteers with non-profits who are specifically looking for Salesforce.com experts – and that’s you!
First, CatchAFire.org. CatchAFire’s mission is to provide talented individuals with meaningful pro bono experiences in order to build capacity for social good organizations. All you need to do is navigate to their Find A Project page and use the search to search for “Salesforce”. There are currently 7 projects looking for Salesforce help right now.
The other site is The Community Corps, and their site is even built on force.com. Woo! Their site has a bit more robust searching, and a large selection of projects to choose from (69 currently for Salesforce.com). They also offer the option of getting notified when new projects that match your profile come in.
Search on The Community Corps
So what are you waiting for? Go out there & do some good! Not just for a non-profit, but to help yourself grow into a more well-rounded Salesforce admin.
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