Introverts for Salesforce: 3-5 Years Experience For Entry-Level? I Am Groot!

Newsflash! I have a Brand New Strategy for interviewing. Yay!

Newsflash2! Bradley Rice has been saying this all along.

Want to know what this great secret is?

Let’s rewind.

Yes, I Suck at Interviewing. Most of us do.

“I Am Groot!” is usually what sputters from my mouth. (FYI – Groot is a Marvel Comics character who can only say “I Am Groot!”.)

Unlike Rocket Raccoon, recruiters and interviewers are left scratching their heads.

In my defense, my catatonia triggers when I’m told this:

3-5 years experience as a Salesforce Administrator is required for an entry-level Salesforce job. Huh?

This happened to me just last week.

My pathetic response was “Oh. I don’t have that.”

This train wreck between my imposter syndrome and an unrealistic job description left me a bit broken.

Thankfully due to the Salesforce Ohana, the very kind Shaniqua Fields, CSM 🏳️‍🌈 picked me up, and the equally kind Christopher Shainin gave me great advice on how to move forward. So now I’m studying for my Business Analyst certification. (And thanks to Andy Hartfield for checking up on me!)

However, I still needed to face my dread of failing another interview.

Lo and behold, Bradley Rice and Anita Smith came to the rescue.

I listened to their “Salesforce For Everyone” podcast – as everyone should – and got this great advice:

·      You are qualified. If you’ve been asked to interview, they’ve seen your resume/profile and think you are qualified.

·      The 3-5 years (or whatever they’re asking) of experience requirement is unrealistic. Anyone that experienced is obviously not entry-level and would be demanding a much higher salary than what the company has budgeted. Ignore and move onto the next point.

·      Address each bullet in the job description. Can you manage security via profiles, permission sets, roles, OWDs, sharing rules etc? Yes. Can you create reports and dashboards? Yes. Can you create customized objects, record types, page layouts, fields? Yes. Can you troubleshoot, reset passwords, learn the business, train people, do all the daily things Salesforce Administrators handle day-to-day? Yes!

I’d heard this from Bradley before, but only now is it registering. He is, after all, the introvert-whisperer.

So, armed with this knowledge and my branding https://bit.ly/3RdY05G, I feel hugely much more confident about going into my next interview. Try it out.

Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash