August 2, 2023 • 39 mins
Are you yearning to make a significant leap in your Salesforce career, but not quite sure where to start? Get ready to unearth the secrets of Salesforce certifications with our distinguished guests; Vanessa Grant, Steven Greger, Jason Zeikwitz, Anthony Rodriguez and Fred Cadena. We spearhead a conversation on the most sought-after Salesforce certifications and how they can remarkably boost your job market standing. We dive into the nitty-gritty of each certification and its potential, arming you with information that will give you an upper hand when making your next career move.
Switching the tone to a more sensitive topic, we share insights about the disclosure of disabilities during job applications. Using the real-life experiences of our guests, we dissect the hurdles that persons with disabilities grapple with during job applications, and subsequent integration into the workforce. Our candid discussion underlines the importance of transparency, institutional bias, and the need for adequate resources to facilitate equal employment opportunities for all.
The last segment of our podcast probes the intriguing world of consulting. Vanessa and Fred, with their vast experience in the field, share nuggets of wisdom on breaking into consulting, even with nil experience. They shed light on how you can successfully articulate your transferable skills and technical prowess to potential employers, and the crucial role a consulting certification holds. The conversation takes a twist to soft skills, stakeholder communication, and staying abreast with Salesforce trends and resources. Whether you're a Salesforce novice or an expert eyeing higher ranks, this episode is a goldmine of insights you wouldn't want to miss out on!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:02):
And now the number one audio program that helps you
to hire, get hired and soarhigher in the Salesforce
ecosystem.
It's the Salesforce career showwith Josh Matthews and Vanessa
Grant.
Josh Matthews (00:20):
Okay, everybody, well, welcome back.
We are in part two of our liveTwitter show and part two of our
podcast, which is going to beon the show.
If you're listening to this,it's already been released.
If you're on the live show,well then you already know
what's going on.
But what we've got is someamazing folks here.
We've got Vanessa Grant, ourco-host.
We've got Steven Greger, who wetried to talk to earlier, but I
(00:43):
think there was some strugglethere.
We've got Jason Zeikwitz, ourwonderful friend and sound
effects person.
Anthony Rodriguez Casey, we'vegot Fernando, we've got Sarah on
here.
We've got some wonderful folks,and what we're going to do in
this segment of our show isanswer some listener questions,
(01:04):
and we've had a number of themover the past week, so I'm
looking forward to diving rightin and getting right after it.
But first let's do a quickintro.
Vanessa, who are you, where areyou and what are you all?
Vanessa Grant (01:19):
about.
What am I all about is probablya larger question.
Today, I'm all about being withthe Salesforce community at
Tahoe Dreaming.
Tahoe Dreaming takes placewhat's yours?
It's on the smaller side of theconference.
It's about, I would say, under300 people, but it's a really
great way to meet folks that arein the California community, so
(01:39):
a lot of Salesforce folks comehere.
Since it's in California,that's what I'm doing today, but
I've been in the Salesforceecosystem for 13 years.
I'm a consultant and also myheart is business analysis and I
love supporting people in theircareer journey.
That's why I'm here.
Josh Matthews (01:56):
Always great to have you here, especially when
you're busy at an event.
So thanks for making time forthis show.
Anyway, we've got Fred Kedena.
Fred, go ahead and give us yourquick bio.
Fred Cadena (02:07):
Sure.
Thank you, fred Kedena.
I am a longtime Salesforceprofessional six years on the
customer side.
It's a customer Salesforce, 10years in consulting and I've got
a podcast Baking on Disruption.
Check us out atbakingondisruptioncom.
Josh Matthews (02:22):
Yeah, absolutely will.
Thanks for being here and myname is Josh Matthews.
I run theSalesforcerecruitercom, aka
Salesforce staffing.
I'll just give everybody aquick heads up.
Right now we do have some newpositions.
We have a sales role, for it'sa sales slash, sales leadership
role with a very reputable butsmallish Salesforce partner
(02:44):
wonderful team.
I love these guys.
In fact, I talked to someonethat we placed a few months ago
and you know what he said.
I'll just say this forStephen's sake.
But he said I got to tell you,josh, I think about you and
Stephen every single day of theweek because this job has
changed my life, and I know that.
He also said I know that therewas someone who got the offer
(03:06):
and didn't make it but a daybecause of some issues.
He said I really hope he'shappy, but I'm really glad he
didn't take the job.
That's what we heard from oneof our candidates.
So a great opportunity.
We also have a CPQ developerposition, also with a reputable
client.
This is a publicly tradedcompany.
It is not a Salesforce partner,it's a customer, and the person
(03:27):
that you would be reporting tois one of my favorite people
that I've ever placed.
He's actually the hiringmanager and runs everything
Salesforce for this organization, so you will be taken care of
with wonderful leadership.
So now that that plugs over,what we're doing in this segment
is answering some listener mail, and so let's go ahead and dive
(03:49):
into it.
Nobody raise your hand, justpipe up.
Okay, this is a free for allhere.
We want to hear everyone'sperspective if we can.
So this is one, and we get thisa lot.
It's pretty straightforward.
Is there a specificcertification that's in demand
in the market right now?
Let me throw that to Fred orVanessa.
(04:11):
What do you guys?
Fred Cadena (04:13):
think Omni Studio Consultant is being baked into
all the industry clouds, fromfinancial services to nonprofit
to whatever.
It's a lot of the technologythat was from the velocity
acquisition.
I have to get it Hard tounderstand that right now.
So if you want to learn that, Iwould definitely learn that.
Josh Matthews (04:32):
Great recommendation.
Thank you, Fred.
Vanessa, what's yourperspective?
Vanessa Grant (04:37):
I was totally going to agree with Fred on Omni
Studio.
I also think CPQ is still ashot as ever.
Revenue Cloud Janine is overhere.
She says revenue cloud.
I also see there aren't a wholelot of people that do field
service, but I know that anybodywho gets field service tends to
be fairly in demand.
Anybody else here?
Any other thoughts or what dowe cover them all?
(04:58):
What do you think?
Janeen Marquardt (04:59):
about Genie or data cloud?
Vanessa Grant (05:03):
Is there a data cloud certification, though?
No, there are a lot ofspecialties there is a data
cloud accreditation.
Fred Cadena (05:10):
So if you're a partner, work for a partner in
the partner community, there isa data cloud accreditation and
that is also in demand.
Josh Matthews (05:19):
I know for a fact that it's in demand because we
had a data cloud candidateinterview today and I think it
went quite well.
So not with us, but with ourclients.
So a really solid guy I'veknown a few years.
I think those are greatrecommendations.
I think we leave it at that.
I mean, there's going to beyour no brainers, your PD-1 and
(05:40):
your admin and some of your morelike get your foot in the door,
unlock the door, get a toe inthere and wedge it open.
But if you're really trying tothink about where you might
specialize and where is thedemand, those are some
absolutely awesome suggestions.
And the sooner you knock it out, the sooner you're going to be
viable and the sooner you getonto the train before the sort
(06:02):
of bandwagon changes.
Right, because it does likecertification needs and
technical needs.
There can be fads, if thatmakes sense.
Trends trends is probably thebetter word.
So, okay, we've got anotherquestion here and it says is it
helpful to note on the resumethat one identifies as someone
(06:28):
with a disability?
And I think that's worded oddly, because we either have a
disability or we don't.
I don't know if we can't be aperfectly 100% able-bodied
person and then identify assomeone with a disability, and I
think you guys know what I'mtalking about.
I'm talking to you guys now,don't make me say it.
(06:48):
You know what I'm talking about, okay?
So no laughs, no smiles.
Everyone's sensitive today,okay?
So look, I actually haveexperience with this.
I don't think it's actually agood idea to necessarily notify
someone about that on a resume,because you may be screened out
(07:08):
because of whatever, because ofbias, right, and I don't think
that you should do that.
I can tell you that you should.
Whoever you're talking to,before you come in, before you
have a face-to-face interview,once you've been invited to the
interview, I think you shouldtell someone and I think that
(07:29):
you should say something as soonas you actually got the
invitation right.
They're never going to turn youdown Once they find out that
maybe you're hearing impaired,or maybe you're a vision
impaired, or maybe you're in awheelchair or whatever.
To a great extent, these thingsdon't matter anymore.
Some matter more than others,but there's so much technology
(07:51):
now that is overwhelminglyfreaking awesome.
Like I've seen it.
It's amazing, and I'll tell youa quick story.
So when I was in Australia, Iwas working for I only spent
about six months for thiscompany.
It was a very large global firmand I was doing some sort of
(08:13):
technical recruitment.
It's just like sort of thislittle thing.
I did for six months out thereand we were working with an
airline I think it was VirginAirlines out in Brisbane,
australia, and it was atechnical role and we'd done an
interview Back then.
We weren't doing face-to-faceinterviews at this company.
(08:34):
It was real quick.
It was like get them on thephone, talk to them.
Are they decent?
Great, get them across to thecandidate.
That's not how we operate inour business anymore.
We actually never have, I sayanymore, we never have operated
that way.
But in this organization allyou needed was a phone screen
and then you could submit thecandidate.
So the candidate did a greatjob in the interview.
(08:56):
I presented them to the clientAgain, I think it was Virgin
Airlines and then they scheduledan interview and their offices,
by the way, were about twoblocks from me.
We were right on the water in abig high rise right down on the
river in Brisbane and I get aphone call from a very nervous
(09:17):
and confused I think she waslike an administrator and said
that the person had shown up forthe interview but that they
were blind and it was a bigkefuffle and I get over here
right now and they made a realbig deal about it.
Now I love me some Australia.
But in Brisbane at that timewhich actually wasn't that long
(09:40):
ago I'm talking 12 years agomaybe at that time it sure felt
like often I was living in 1985,right, some of the stuff there
felt a little backwards again.
Don't be offended.
If you're Australian and you'relistening to this, if you're
even listening to this, youprobably know what I'm talking
about and go oh yeah, mate,that's right.
(10:01):
But I ran over there and theymade a big deal about it and I
told them what the laws were,because I actually happened to
read some of the laws for hiringan Australian.
I was like you got to interviewhim and if he can do the job
and he can do it well, then youshould hire him.
And he showed me this softwarethat he used and he brought it
all with him, probably like twoor three different computers
(10:22):
with him.
And he brought it all with himand he can listen like I'm a
fast audio guy, I can listen tomost of my podcasts about 1.7 or
2X speed and I can digest it,it's fine.
Nothing's lost on me at thatspeed.
For the most part, this guy'slistening to stuff something
like 10X speed.
They have all of these screenreaders and all this stuff.
(10:43):
Long story short, I had thisexperience.
The only mistake that this youngman made was not telling me
once he got the interview, tojust kind of give them a heads
up.
Just give them a heads up sothat they know what they're
walking into, and I think it'sfair.
I don't think people shouldnecessarily be expected to adapt
(11:08):
and bend over backwards oneverything emotionally, even if
they'll do it physically.
You need to give people time toadapt and think like okay, do
we have the resources that cansupport this disability?
If not, what does it take forus to acquire those?
How do we get familiar with it?
How do we understand that thisis actually possible?
So give them some time to justsort of emotionally adapt to
(11:31):
that.
I hope everybody who'slistening to this if you do have
a disability, I hope you'retaking it in the right way,
which is one, don't put yourselfout there to be discriminated
against, either purposefully oraccidentally.
But then, two, make sure thatyou're being communicative and
transparent, and if you're not,then it's not fair.
So that's kind of myperspective.
(11:53):
I'm curious if anybody else hassome thoughts on this.
Fred Cadena (11:56):
I mean I'll say I think you're spot on.
I mean, from my perspective,usually by the time somebody
gets to me in the review process, it's not their first
conversation, but I don't thinkthere's a lot of reason to put
that on an application upfront.
People shouldn't discriminate,people shouldn't be filtering
for that.
But you never can tell.
And then to your point, justmake sure people understand,
(12:20):
especially with a personinterview any accommodations
that you need.
Right, like you want to makesure you're able to get in and
put your best foot forward.
But I would hope in this dayand age nobody is screening out
that kind of stuff.
But just like the same way Iwould recommend anybody putting
a picture on their application.
You just never know wherepeople's biases lie.
Josh Matthews (12:44):
Yeah, we don't, and so we don't do that here in
the United States.
In other countries it'srequired to.
You have to put your picture on, and I get it because there's a
lot of grift going on in otherplaces, right.
So I mean, I know tons ofpeople and it's happened to me
where you interview one personand the different person shows
up for work, so that's why theydo that, and there's a lot of
(13:06):
information out there about whathappens with the picture.
Stephen and I had an experiencewith one of our hiring managers.
We sent them a candidate.
They didn't like the person'sLinkedIn picture, right, and it
was like are you freaking,kidding me?
Like that's the problem here.
He doesn't look friendly in thepicture, I mean.
(13:27):
So anyway, I addressed that ina very direct and specific and
serious way, because that's notacceptable to us.
We are equal opportunityemployers and we only work with
those that are right.
So how you look should notaffect whether or not you can do
the job Period and yourdisabilities, if you have any
(13:50):
and some people there'sdisabilities coming, a wide
range of things.
I have disabilities, I have CRS,right, and I've had it for a
long time.
So if you don't know what thatmeans it stands for Can't
Remember Shit.
So you know, I think a lot ofpeople have CRS too, but the
reality is is like you've got togive everybody a chance.
I love it.
(14:10):
I love it when someone has adisability and they can overcome
it.
And I love it when people givethose people a chance because
they're no different thananybody else, right, and in many
times they have a lot moregumption and a lot more
stick-to-it-ness because of whatthey've had to overcome.
(14:31):
So there's some wonderfulqualities when someone's had to
face that.
So everybody, give everybody achance.
I think that's it.
That's the smart move.
Shall we move on to anotherquestion.
It's a little bit lesssensitive.
Anthony Rodriguez (14:43):
Thanks.
Thank you, josh, for removingus.
Want to jump in there.
Thank you for bringing this up.
You know disabilities andfeeling like you look different,
you know that can just bereally soul-crushing and it can
get in your head.
You know I personally, before Iwas in the tech industry, I had
some negative experiences beingHispanic and not always looking
(15:06):
like everyone else on the team.
And you know, at the end of theday you have to come around
that self-realization that I gotto do the best that I can do,
you know, and I have to hope andbelieve that they're not going
to look at the shade of my skinbut see that I'm capable and I'm
a viable team member.
But you know it can like crushyou even before you apply.
Josh Matthews (15:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for sharing that,anthony, and just so you know,
so that it's on the record herepermanently you are a beautiful
man, especially with the cigars.
Vanessa Grant (15:44):
Yeah, that's right, I actually have Janine
here who has a perspective onthis.
Josh Matthews (15:52):
All right hey.
Vanessa Grant (15:53):
Janine, do you want to introduce yourself?
Janeen Marquardt (15:55):
Hi everyone.
Let's hear it.
Hi, this is Janine Marquardt,long time listener, first time
call.
Josh Matthews (16:01):
No wait not quite You've been on.
Janeen Marquardt (16:04):
I've been here a couple of times.
Yeah, I mean I didn't hear theoriginal context of the question
.
I don't know if it's worthrepeating.
Vanessa Grant (16:11):
It's.
Do you think that somebodyshould disclose a disability on
a resume, or if not, then atwhat point should they disclose
it?
Janeen Marquardt (16:19):
I guess it depends on the type of
disability and the type of jobyou're applying to.
Josh Matthews (16:25):
I don't know if that matters or not, but if the
job Well, okay, but so in whatsituation would it make sense to
do that?
Janeen Marquardt (16:34):
So if the job requires you to lift 40 pounds
on a regular basis and you can'tlift 40 pounds, you might want
to disclose that because you'dprobably be incapable of
actually doing the job right.
Or you might need special.
If you need specialaccommodations to actually do
the job and you can do the jobwith those special
accommodations, you probablywould want to disclose that.
(16:54):
But I've got a case where Idon't disclose my disability
because it doesn't impact myability to actually do the job
at all, but it does impactpeople's ability to interact
with me sometimes and I don'twant it to be one of those
(17:16):
factors that people will judgeme on unfairly.
That's right.
Josh Matthews (17:23):
You and I have spoken about this before.
Yeah.
Janeen Marquardt (17:25):
We have.
So there are different kinds ofdisabilities, and mine's kind
of one of those.
It's an invisible one, but ithas bias associated with it, and
so that's what we want to bereally, really careful and you
are under no obligation todisclose a disability, really,
(17:46):
in any case, as long as it's notsomething that's going to
actually prevent you from doingthe job to which you're applying
, or if you can do the job withsome minor accommodations or
reasons, it's called reasonableaccommodations.
So, for example, if you need ascreen reader to help you
because you're losing youreyesight, that's a reasonable
accommodation and you don'tactually have to disclose that
(18:08):
during the Definitely not inyour resume and definitely not
even really during the process,because you're not being hired
for your ability to read.
You're probably being hired foryour ability to think or
provide some sort of knowledgeor information.
Josh Matthews (18:27):
Right.
Or to be able to read 10 pointfont when you can read 18 point.
Fine, sure, right, yeah, yeah.
Well, it's the AmericanDisabilities Act, right.
Jason Ziekowitz (18:35):
Exactly.
Josh Matthews (18:38):
It's been around for a very long time and it is
what we would call in theindustry a protected class.
100%, right, yeah, thanks forcoming on the show, sure, and
keep going.
You've got a perspective, socontinue to share, if you like,
please.
Janeen Marquardt (18:53):
Oh yeah Again, I'm not sure who asked the
question, but certainly find meon LinkedIn If you wanted to ask
something more specific aboutyour case.
I'm really happy to talk aboutit in depth and certainly share
more in depth about mine.
I don't want to take over theconversation as I have a
tendency to do.
Josh Matthews (19:09):
Janine, do us all a favor.
Tell your very complicatedspelling of your last name so
people can find you.
Janeen Marquardt (19:15):
Are you kidding?
I should spell the first nametoo.
Josh Matthews (19:17):
Yeah, probably.
Janeen Marquardt (19:18):
Yeah, because I'm not here myself.
J-a-n-e-e-n is the first nameand the last name is
M-A-R-Q-U-A-R.
E-d is in David, t is in Tom,but I am friends with Vanessa
and with Josh on the socials, soyou might be able to find me
that way as well.
Josh Matthews (19:36):
Fantastic and, yeah, you and I have had some
cool sessions before, so thanksfor making time and I hope you
and Vanessa crush it on yourpresentation this week.
Vanessa Grant (19:47):
Oh, we always do.
We're going to go practice soon.
Josh Matthews (19:50):
Very good.
Vanessa Grant (19:51):
Practice.
Josh Matthews (19:52):
Very good, jason, you had your hand up OK.
Jason Ziekowitz (19:55):
Yeah, I wanted to say how this reminds me of
the question tell me about aweakness.
I wouldn't even say disability.
I think that it does come tomind about a strength, about if
you have a disability that youhave strategically overcome and
(20:16):
that comes to mind as a strengththat could be played up
appropriately.
There's appropriate time for itduring the interview.
That is something to show offwhen, if it's appropriate to
show off those strategic skills.
So for me, a disability wouldbe ADHD.
I think I have ADHD.
I didn't actually finish thetest, but I'm fine.
Josh Matthews (20:38):
Good one buddy, Good one Thank you, thank you.
Jason Ziekowitz (20:43):
But I think in this day and age, with social
media and everything trying tograb your attention, attention
is shortened.
So for that I try to be veryintentional.
I'm not to multitask and tomake sure I make lists, make
sure I have a schedule, so Ijust try to organize the animal
(21:06):
that I am, the human being.
I try to attain this humanbeing.
So I find that as a greatstrength.
Josh Matthews (21:14):
Listen, guys.
My name is Josh, in case you'rejust tuned in.
I run the Salesforcerecruitercom along with our
friend Steven Gregor here, whois actually having some
technical difficulties.
My co-host is Vanessa Grant,dreamforce speaker, tahoe dream
and speaker, london's call andspeaker.
It's extraordinary Floridadream and speaker,
(21:35):
extraordinaire and badass BA,plus a bunch of other things.
Thanks for joining the liveshow.
If this is your first timelistening, you can find past
episodes either here on Twitterspaces, but we recommend that
you visit the Salesforce careershow dot buzz proud or forward
slash buzz proudcom or somethinglike that, I can't remember.
Just go to your favoriteplatform type in Salesforce
(21:57):
career.
We'll probably be the firstthing that pops up on podcasts
and you just go ahead and clickon that, check out the past
episodes.
And, guys, I'm going to ask afavor here.
Seriously, do us a favor.
Would you do us a favor and notjust subscribe but also leave a
review?
Leave a review for our podcasts.
I think that you can do this onApple.
(22:18):
I'm pretty sure you can do iton Spotify and maybe even on
Google.
So whatever your favoriteplatform is, those reviews help.
What it does is?
It just kind of lifts us up inthe rankings a little bit and
lets us reach more people.
And when we reach more people,we do one thing and one thing
only, and that's help morepeople, and that's what we're
here to do.
So we appreciate you, weappreciate your listenership and
(22:42):
we appreciate you liking,subscribing, leaving comments
and leaving some good reviews aswell.
So thanks for that.
Let's get to another questionhere.
So we've answered some goodones.
How about this one?
Okay, how does one get into theconsulting space when almost
all consulting openings requireconsulting experience?
(23:03):
Vanessa, you work for aconsulting firm.
You said you were a leader in aconsulting firm.
I'd like to hear yourperspectives first.
Go for it.
Vanessa Grant (23:15):
Fred probably has as a leader, probably has a
really good perspective on this.
My perspective on this is thisis where transferable skills has
really.
You know, being able tocommunicate those has been
really helpful in my career andalso in the career of my mentees
.
There were so many people inhospitality and healthcare and
(23:36):
education that had to figure outa way to describe what they did
every day, but in a way thatwould make sense to a consultant
.
So if they were an educatorthey could adjust.
You know what they did on aday-to-day basis so that they
sounded more like trainers.
So they say oh, you know, Icreated curriculums and I worked
(24:01):
with some difficult folks totrain them on things Just.
However, I'm not doing it wellbecause I'm not an educator.
But I think focusing on thosetransferable skills, having some
confidence, having those softskills a lot of times,
especially at least in the lastfew years where we've had such a
(24:22):
gap in, there's been moreprojects for consultancies than
there were people working them.
It was a lot easier to get in,probably a little more difficult
now, but I still think having afocus on those soft skills,
those transferable skills, whenyou don't already have the
Salesforce experience, can getyou into consulting.
And if you do have thosetechnical skills if you've been
(24:45):
an admin then just make sureyou've got those soft skills in
there.
Have you been doing businessanalysis as an admin?
Can you say that you are thewhole package?
It's easier to get intoconsulting that way.
And then, lastly, getting aconsulting certification Show
that you actually understand howa project is delivered in your
desired cloud.
Josh Matthews (25:03):
Yeah, that's great.
Thank you, Vanessa.
Let me pipe it.
Fred, You're going to take mostof this.
I've just got one small thing tosay, which is, if you've ever
been hired by any company everbecause of the skill sets that
you already have, that first fewmonths on the job you are a
consultant, You're a full-timeemployee, but you're dealing
with people that you don'talready know.
(25:24):
You're figuring out the lay ofthe land.
You're having to communicatewhat your strategies are, the
reasons for why you thinkcertain things should be done in
a certain way.
Congratulations, you're aconsultant.
So it's not the same thing asmaybe balancing for clients at
the same time logging yourbillable hours into a platform.
All that stuff is a little bitdifferent.
(25:47):
But actually interacting withstakeholders.
I learned early on that CIOslook at internal departments as
clients.
If you're in IT, moving intoSalesforce, and you've already
been in IT, then you're alreadydealing with clients, which
(26:08):
means that you're consultingwith them.
So it's a big word that appliesto so many things, but I think
if you've ever been hired foryour expertise before you know
everybody congratulations,you're a consultant.
What do you think, Fred?
Fred Cadena (26:22):
Yeah, I could agree more with both you, avinathan,
on this topic.
First, no surprise here as thecontrarian, I'm going to
challenge the premise, which isI've been a leader now at five
different well-known consultingfirms.
In the Salesforce ecosystemthere is not a requirement to be
(26:44):
have been a consultant beforeyou get hired, so if that's on
the job list that you're lookingat.
I would certainly take the talktrack that Josh just laid out
and say look, here's the skillsthat I have based on what I've
done that apply to consulting,and let's have a conversation.
But what I think is difficultis you have to have something
(27:07):
that you can cross-apply.
We're not going to take.
It's going to be very difficultfor a consulting firm, a
consulting leader, to takesomebody that has this is their
first Salesforce job.
They really don't have businessexperience.
They maybe have worked inunrelated industries and now
your first job you want is in aconsulting firm doing Salesforce
(27:27):
limitations.
That's probably a path too far,unless you're going to some kind
of a consulting firm that haslike a Salesforce boot camp or
something along those lines.
But as long as you're bringingto the table hey, I know a lot
about this industry, a lot abouthow this business runs, and
maybe I haven't doneSalesforce's deeply, that's fine
, that's a great place to have aconversation.
(27:48):
Or I know a lot aboutSalesforce.
I've worked as an admin for ayear, two years, three years,
but I've never done consulting.
Okay, that's a great jumpingoff point.
But I think as long as you'rechecking some of those boxes and
you can show how what you'vedone really lines up, even if
the job title is not identical.
Go for it.
Vanessa Grant (28:11):
Yeah, I just want to add to that, like there is
no one perfect consultant,consulting generally happens in
team-.
Josh Matthews (28:20):
That's not true.
I placed them, I did.
Vanessa Grant (28:23):
But the perfect consultant.
Josh Matthews (28:26):
I did.
I'm just teasing.
Vanessa Grant (28:28):
It's definitely not me.
Josh Matthews (28:29):
You'll never know .
Vanessa Grant (28:31):
It's not me either, but generally speaking,
you are working on a team.
It tends to be the resourcingperson's problem at the
consulting company to make surethat they put the team together
that is going to be able to dothe job best.
Just like Fred's talking about,you are not necessarily going
(28:51):
to check all the boxes, but youdon't have to wait until you
check all the boxes before youcan become a consultant.
There is a team out there thatis probably missing your skill
sets.
You just have to be able tocommunicate what those skills
are and make sure that they'reuseful in a consulting capacity.
Josh Matthews (29:06):
Definitely.
One other thing I'd throw inhere, guys, is that every job
description you've ever lookedat, usually not always but
they're usually asking foreverything that they desire, not
everything that they need.
Now it might be listed underthe required competencies
section.
You get your summary at the top, your little byline the
(29:31):
absolutely required the nice tohave the day in the life of the
benefits.
They're pretty much the same,but most job descriptions will
list everything in the kitchensink.
A lot of hiring managers don'teven know what's on there.
It's produced by humanresources.
It gets pushed out by humanresources.
I've told the story on this showbefore about someone who had
(29:54):
never even read the jobdescription that they were using
to attract candidates to workfor her, for the team she was
hired to build.
I mean, talk about abdicatingresponsibility.
This woman should have beenfired because that's just the
stupidest thing.
I mean honestly, god, guys,it's the stupidest thing I've
ever heard of.
But this stuff happens and ithappens all the time.
(30:14):
So if you want a job at aconsultancy and you see a job
description that says you musthave consulting experience, yeah
, apply anyway, but be upfrontabout it.
Hey, listen, I'm applying forthis job.
I'm going to be straight up.
I don't have specificconsultancy experience working
(30:34):
at a Salesforce partner, however, and then fill in the blanks of
everything that Vanessa andFred just said.
So call it out.
This is called taking thebullets out of the gun, because
if you don't address it, theycan shoot that bullet right back
at you and say, hey, thanks forthe application, but you don't
have consulting experience.
But if you already said, hey, Iknow I don't have consulting
experience, but this is why youshould still look at me Now
(30:57):
you're making a case.
It's just an obstacle, soovercome it.
It's an objection.
Overcome the objection.
That's all you got to do.
Just overcome the objection.
Give them a reason that'scompelling and it doesn't have
to be mind-blowing.
You can just say, hey, look,here's the reality.
I'm extremely good technically.
I'm the guy that people come toon my team for when they have
(31:21):
questions and they're notcertain about things.
I support people in these areasand that area and this, that
the other thing.
I've also done a lot ofresearch about what it takes to
be a good consultant.
And guess what Lucky you, luckyme I happen to fit that profile
perfectly.
So let's please have aconversation.
You can say something like that, and that's just a first draft
right off the cuff, but youcould do something like that
(31:42):
that's a little bit morepolished and probably double or
triple your chances of getting ameeting.
Once you get the meeting, it'sall game over.
Then you just lay it all outand be awesome, be your super
awesome self, all right, sogreat question.
Let's do one more questionbefore we wrap up the show, but
let me kick it to Vanessa.
Vanessa, are there any morequestions coming from your live
(32:05):
experience out at Tahoe Dreamingright now?
Vanessa Grant (32:08):
So today is basically registration day.
It's just mostly people playingConnector and lots of hugs and
how you've been at theregistration desk.
So no questions today so far.
Josh Matthews (32:22):
Okay, so I'm going to ask this question that
was given to us by a candidatethis past week, which is are
there any resources or toolsavailable to help me stay
updated with the latest trendsand developments in Salesforce?
I'm going to kick that toVanessa and Fred.
Vanessa Grant (32:45):
I would recommend .
So this is a big thing that Iadvocate for which is finding
the MVPs.
They're usually the ones thatare the Salesforce.
Mvps tend to be the ones thatare really in touch with their
particular niche of Salesforceand speaking to it.
So, like Andy Utkin, he's goingto be able to speak about flow
(33:11):
stuff.
You follow Salesforce Ben.
You're going to get breakingSalesforce news all the time.
So if you follow those folks onLinkedIn, it'll help make your
LinkedIn feed serve you theindustry news.
But you have to be able to kindof cultivate your feed with the
right people so that that newsis reaching you.
And then, of course, I wouldsay you know, I mean the
standard.
You got to read the releasenotes, go to the webinars
(33:34):
explaining the releases, theproduct roadmaps.
I even connect with the I wouldsay, the product managers that
are within Salesforce too isalso a nice way to kind of keep
up with what the future is goingto bring as far as the products
that you're interested in.
Josh Matthews (33:51):
Excellent advice, Fred.
What about you?
Fred Cadena (33:53):
Hey guys, I don't know if I can add a whole lot
more to that, Other than thechallenge that I have is not
getting enough sources.
It's really curating thesources, so I'm getting the
information that I want.
I think Vanessa raised a lot ofgreat points there.
It's making sure that you'rereally focused in, you've
(34:16):
connected with people, you'refollowing people, you've got
alerts set on certain topicsbecause Salesforce generates a
lot of news.
Salesforce is a huge ecosystem.
It's way different than it waswhen I got involved 16 years ago
and there was Sales Cloud andService Cloud and Sassy was
walking around at the differentevents.
There's so many products nowthat you can't learn at all.
(34:39):
You can't do it all.
So really hone in on what youwant to do and learn and keep up
with those are all greatresources.
I know, John, you've got agreat resource that you've been
putting together on your site aswell, but I mean those are all
fantastic.
Josh Matthews (34:58):
Thanks, fred.
Yes, so you can visit theexpand exchange.
It's expandexchangecom.
Just about two hours ago, I waswrapping up a little Zoom
meeting with our marketing proand our UI UX web designer.
(35:19):
So that's all being redesignedand I got to look at the initial
drafts of it today.
It's going to be awesome.
It's going to be easy tonavigate, it's going to be
beautiful and it's going to bemuch faster loading than what we
have right now, but what wehave right now will still serve
you.
So go to expandexchangecom.
You can also go to thesalesforcerecretercom forward
(35:40):
slash resources or just clickresources when you're on the
site and that will take you toabout 50 or 60 curated links
that mostly Vanessa put togetherme too, but mostly Vanessa and
these are YouTube channels,slack channels, training
(36:01):
academies, influencers, bloggers, newsletter writers, all sorts
of different folks and these areresources that you can find off
of the salesforcecom platformor site.
So definitely check that out.
Some really great questionsthis week, I think, some really
(36:21):
amazing and insightful answersas well.
Thank you to everybody forjoining us on this live program.
Thank you to all of ourlisteners of the podcast.
We appreciate all of you.
We really do, I like for real.
We love you guys, so keepcoming back.
We'll be back next week.
Now, tomorrow, I'll be releasingpart two of our military show
(36:43):
conversation that we had withDave Nava Golden Hoodie, dave
Nava and Fast Roper, deloitteconsultant Philip Anderson.
So please check that out.
It should be available for you,I would think, by noon tomorrow
.
So that's part two.
What we've been covering so faris part two, and this is going
to be released on podcastsprobably two weeks from today,
(37:06):
and if you missed the first part, if you're just joining us now,
then next I believe Tuesday orWednesday it will be released on
Spotify, apple, google andiHeartRadio and every other
podcast platform that you canimagine, so you can listen to
the episode in full, and it'salso going to be immediately
(37:27):
available, unproduced, unedited,here on Twitter Spaces, because
it is a safe podcast, and I'llpost it on my.
I will post that on my personalprofile.
If you're not connected with me, please go ahead and connect.
It's at the JoshForce and makesure that you join our Twitter
(37:48):
community as well.
It's the largest, fastestgrowing Twitter community
dedicated to Salesforceprofessionals and it's got a
really unique name it's calledSalesforce Professionals, so you
can find it.
So if you see those littlepeople buttons.
They look like little peopleicons.
That stands for communities.
You can check us out and youcan also search for communities.
Just click communities type inSalesforce and we'll pop right
(38:09):
up to the top.
Thanks, everybody.
I hope that you have awonderful week.
Vanessa, good luck on theconference and to you and Janine
on your presentation, and I'mlooking forward to catching up
with everybody in two weeks fromtoday at 230 Western excuse me,
pacific and 530 Eastern.
(38:29):
Fred, it's been special to haveyou on the show again.
You're welcome every time.
Love having you on here andthanks for all of the insights
and for the interesting topics.
Also thanks to Jason and toAnthony as well, and I just want
to do a quick little shout outto my friend, larry Lee.
Hope you're doing great, larry.
That's Cheesecake, larry Lee.
Thanks for being on the show,buddy, good to see you, man.
(38:52):
Okay, guys, have a wonderfulweek.
Bye for now.
Vanessa Grant (38:56):
Bye, josh, thank you.
Josh Matthews (38:58):
You're welcome.
Anthony Rodriguez (38:59):
Great show.
Bro Loved it.
Josh Matthews (39:01):
All right guys, I'm going down.
And now the number one audio program that helps you
to hire, get hired and soarhigher in the Salesforce
ecosystem.
It's the Salesforce career showwith Josh Matthews and Vanessa
Grant.
Josh Matthews (00:20):
Okay, everybody, well, welcome back.
We are in part two of our liveTwitter show and part two of our
podcast, which is going to beon the show.
If you're listening to this,it's already been released.
If you're on the live show,well then you already know
what's going on.
But what we've got is someamazing folks here.
We've got Vanessa Grant, ourco-host.
We've got Steven Greger, who wetried to talk to earlier, but I
(00:43):
think there was some strugglethere.
We've got Jason Zeikwitz, ourwonderful friend and sound
effects person.
Anthony Rodriguez Casey, we'vegot Fernando, we've got Sarah on
here.
We've got some wonderful folks,and what we're going to do in
this segment of our show isanswer some listener questions,
(01:04):
and we've had a number of themover the past week, so I'm
looking forward to diving rightin and getting right after it.
But first let's do a quickintro.
Vanessa, who are you, where areyou and what are you all?
Vanessa Grant (01:19):
about.
What am I all about is probablya larger question.
Today, I'm all about being withthe Salesforce community at
Tahoe Dreaming.
Tahoe Dreaming takes placewhat's yours?
It's on the smaller side of theconference.
It's about, I would say, under300 people, but it's a really
great way to meet folks that arein the California community, so
(01:39):
a lot of Salesforce folks comehere.
Since it's in California,that's what I'm doing today, but
I've been in the Salesforceecosystem for 13 years.
I'm a consultant and also myheart is business analysis and I
love supporting people in theircareer journey.
That's why I'm here.
Josh Matthews (01:56):
Always great to have you here, especially when
you're busy at an event.
So thanks for making time forthis show.
Anyway, we've got Fred Kedena.
Fred, go ahead and give us yourquick bio.
Fred Cadena (02:07):
Sure.
Thank you, fred Kedena.
I am a longtime Salesforceprofessional six years on the
customer side.
It's a customer Salesforce, 10years in consulting and I've got
a podcast Baking on Disruption.
Check us out atbakingondisruptioncom.
Josh Matthews (02:22):
Yeah, absolutely will.
Thanks for being here and myname is Josh Matthews.
I run theSalesforcerecruitercom, aka
Salesforce staffing.
I'll just give everybody aquick heads up.
Right now we do have some newpositions.
We have a sales role, for it'sa sales slash, sales leadership
role with a very reputable butsmallish Salesforce partner
(02:44):
wonderful team.
I love these guys.
In fact, I talked to someonethat we placed a few months ago
and you know what he said.
I'll just say this forStephen's sake.
But he said I got to tell you,josh, I think about you and
Stephen every single day of theweek because this job has
changed my life, and I know that.
He also said I know that therewas someone who got the offer
(03:06):
and didn't make it but a daybecause of some issues.
He said I really hope he'shappy, but I'm really glad he
didn't take the job.
That's what we heard from oneof our candidates.
So a great opportunity.
We also have a CPQ developerposition, also with a reputable
client.
This is a publicly tradedcompany.
It is not a Salesforce partner,it's a customer, and the person
(03:27):
that you would be reporting tois one of my favorite people
that I've ever placed.
He's actually the hiringmanager and runs everything
Salesforce for this organization, so you will be taken care of
with wonderful leadership.
So now that that plugs over,what we're doing in this segment
is answering some listener mail, and so let's go ahead and dive
(03:49):
into it.
Nobody raise your hand, justpipe up.
Okay, this is a free for allhere.
We want to hear everyone'sperspective if we can.
So this is one, and we get thisa lot.
It's pretty straightforward.
Is there a specificcertification that's in demand
in the market right now?
Let me throw that to Fred orVanessa.
(04:11):
What do you guys?
Fred Cadena (04:13):
think Omni Studio Consultant is being baked into
all the industry clouds, fromfinancial services to nonprofit
to whatever.
It's a lot of the technologythat was from the velocity
acquisition.
I have to get it Hard tounderstand that right now.
So if you want to learn that, Iwould definitely learn that.
Josh Matthews (04:32):
Great recommendation.
Thank you, Fred.
Vanessa, what's yourperspective?
Vanessa Grant (04:37):
I was totally going to agree with Fred on Omni
Studio.
I also think CPQ is still ashot as ever.
Revenue Cloud Janine is overhere.
She says revenue cloud.
I also see there aren't a wholelot of people that do field
service, but I know that anybodywho gets field service tends to
be fairly in demand.
Anybody else here?
Any other thoughts or what dowe cover them all?
(04:58):
What do you think?
Janeen Marquardt (04:59):
about Genie or data cloud?
Vanessa Grant (05:03):
Is there a data cloud certification, though?
No, there are a lot ofspecialties there is a data
cloud accreditation.
Fred Cadena (05:10):
So if you're a partner, work for a partner in
the partner community, there isa data cloud accreditation and
that is also in demand.
Josh Matthews (05:19):
I know for a fact that it's in demand because we
had a data cloud candidateinterview today and I think it
went quite well.
So not with us, but with ourclients.
So a really solid guy I'veknown a few years.
I think those are greatrecommendations.
I think we leave it at that.
I mean, there's going to beyour no brainers, your PD-1 and
(05:40):
your admin and some of your morelike get your foot in the door,
unlock the door, get a toe inthere and wedge it open.
But if you're really trying tothink about where you might
specialize and where is thedemand, those are some
absolutely awesome suggestions.
And the sooner you knock it out, the sooner you're going to be
viable and the sooner you getonto the train before the sort
(06:02):
of bandwagon changes.
Right, because it does likecertification needs and
technical needs.
There can be fads, if thatmakes sense.
Trends trends is probably thebetter word.
So, okay, we've got anotherquestion here and it says is it
helpful to note on the resumethat one identifies as someone
(06:28):
with a disability?
And I think that's worded oddly, because we either have a
disability or we don't.
I don't know if we can't be aperfectly 100% able-bodied
person and then identify assomeone with a disability, and I
think you guys know what I'mtalking about.
I'm talking to you guys now,don't make me say it.
(06:48):
You know what I'm talking about, okay?
So no laughs, no smiles.
Everyone's sensitive today,okay?
So look, I actually haveexperience with this.
I don't think it's actually agood idea to necessarily notify
someone about that on a resume,because you may be screened out
(07:08):
because of whatever, because ofbias, right, and I don't think
that you should do that.
I can tell you that you should.
Whoever you're talking to,before you come in, before you
have a face-to-face interview,once you've been invited to the
interview, I think you shouldtell someone and I think that
(07:29):
you should say something as soonas you actually got the
invitation right.
They're never going to turn youdown Once they find out that
maybe you're hearing impaired,or maybe you're a vision
impaired, or maybe you're in awheelchair or whatever.
To a great extent, these thingsdon't matter anymore.
Some matter more than others,but there's so much technology
(07:51):
now that is overwhelminglyfreaking awesome.
Like I've seen it.
It's amazing, and I'll tell youa quick story.
So when I was in Australia, Iwas working for I only spent
about six months for thiscompany.
It was a very large global firmand I was doing some sort of
(08:13):
technical recruitment.
It's just like sort of thislittle thing.
I did for six months out thereand we were working with an
airline I think it was VirginAirlines out in Brisbane,
australia, and it was atechnical role and we'd done an
interview Back then.
We weren't doing face-to-faceinterviews at this company.
(08:34):
It was real quick.
It was like get them on thephone, talk to them.
Are they decent?
Great, get them across to thecandidate.
That's not how we operate inour business anymore.
We actually never have, I sayanymore, we never have operated
that way.
But in this organization allyou needed was a phone screen
and then you could submit thecandidate.
So the candidate did a greatjob in the interview.
(08:56):
I presented them to the clientAgain, I think it was Virgin
Airlines and then they scheduledan interview and their offices,
by the way, were about twoblocks from me.
We were right on the water in abig high rise right down on the
river in Brisbane and I get aphone call from a very nervous
(09:17):
and confused I think she waslike an administrator and said
that the person had shown up forthe interview but that they
were blind and it was a bigkefuffle and I get over here
right now and they made a realbig deal about it.
Now I love me some Australia.
But in Brisbane at that timewhich actually wasn't that long
(09:40):
ago I'm talking 12 years agomaybe at that time it sure felt
like often I was living in 1985,right, some of the stuff there
felt a little backwards again.
Don't be offended.
If you're Australian and you'relistening to this, if you're
even listening to this, youprobably know what I'm talking
about and go oh yeah, mate,that's right.
(10:01):
But I ran over there and theymade a big deal about it and I
told them what the laws were,because I actually happened to
read some of the laws for hiringan Australian.
I was like you got to interviewhim and if he can do the job
and he can do it well, then youshould hire him.
And he showed me this softwarethat he used and he brought it
all with him, probably like twoor three different computers
(10:22):
with him.
And he brought it all with himand he can listen like I'm a
fast audio guy, I can listen tomost of my podcasts about 1.7 or
2X speed and I can digest it,it's fine.
Nothing's lost on me at thatspeed.
For the most part, this guy'slistening to stuff something
like 10X speed.
They have all of these screenreaders and all this stuff.
(10:43):
Long story short, I had thisexperience.
The only mistake that this youngman made was not telling me
once he got the interview, tojust kind of give them a heads
up.
Just give them a heads up sothat they know what they're
walking into, and I think it'sfair.
I don't think people shouldnecessarily be expected to adapt
(11:08):
and bend over backwards oneverything emotionally, even if
they'll do it physically.
You need to give people time toadapt and think like okay, do
we have the resources that cansupport this disability?
If not, what does it take forus to acquire those?
How do we get familiar with it?
How do we understand that thisis actually possible?
So give them some time to justsort of emotionally adapt to
(11:31):
that.
I hope everybody who'slistening to this if you do have
a disability, I hope you'retaking it in the right way,
which is one, don't put yourselfout there to be discriminated
against, either purposefully oraccidentally.
But then, two, make sure thatyou're being communicative and
transparent, and if you're not,then it's not fair.
So that's kind of myperspective.
(11:53):
I'm curious if anybody else hassome thoughts on this.
Fred Cadena (11:56):
I mean I'll say I think you're spot on.
I mean, from my perspective,usually by the time somebody
gets to me in the review process, it's not their first
conversation, but I don't thinkthere's a lot of reason to put
that on an application upfront.
People shouldn't discriminate,people shouldn't be filtering
for that.
But you never can tell.
And then to your point, justmake sure people understand,
(12:20):
especially with a personinterview any accommodations
that you need.
Right, like you want to makesure you're able to get in and
put your best foot forward.
But I would hope in this dayand age nobody is screening out
that kind of stuff.
But just like the same way Iwould recommend anybody putting
a picture on their application.
You just never know wherepeople's biases lie.
Josh Matthews (12:44):
Yeah, we don't, and so we don't do that here in
the United States.
In other countries it'srequired to.
You have to put your picture on, and I get it because there's a
lot of grift going on in otherplaces, right.
So I mean, I know tons ofpeople and it's happened to me
where you interview one personand the different person shows
up for work, so that's why theydo that, and there's a lot of
(13:06):
information out there about whathappens with the picture.
Stephen and I had an experiencewith one of our hiring managers.
We sent them a candidate.
They didn't like the person'sLinkedIn picture, right, and it
was like are you freaking,kidding me?
Like that's the problem here.
He doesn't look friendly in thepicture, I mean.
(13:27):
So anyway, I addressed that ina very direct and specific and
serious way, because that's notacceptable to us.
We are equal opportunityemployers and we only work with
those that are right.
So how you look should notaffect whether or not you can do
the job Period and yourdisabilities, if you have any
(13:50):
and some people there'sdisabilities coming, a wide
range of things.
I have disabilities, I have CRS,right, and I've had it for a
long time.
So if you don't know what thatmeans it stands for Can't
Remember Shit.
So you know, I think a lot ofpeople have CRS too, but the
reality is is like you've got togive everybody a chance.
I love it.
(14:10):
I love it when someone has adisability and they can overcome
it.
And I love it when people givethose people a chance because
they're no different thananybody else, right, and in many
times they have a lot moregumption and a lot more
stick-to-it-ness because of whatthey've had to overcome.
(14:31):
So there's some wonderfulqualities when someone's had to
face that.
So everybody, give everybody achance.
I think that's it.
That's the smart move.
Shall we move on to anotherquestion.
It's a little bit lesssensitive.
Anthony Rodriguez (14:43):
Thanks.
Thank you, josh, for removingus.
Want to jump in there.
Thank you for bringing this up.
You know disabilities andfeeling like you look different,
you know that can just bereally soul-crushing and it can
get in your head.
You know I personally, before Iwas in the tech industry, I had
some negative experiences beingHispanic and not always looking
(15:06):
like everyone else on the team.
And you know, at the end of theday you have to come around
that self-realization that I gotto do the best that I can do,
you know, and I have to hope andbelieve that they're not going
to look at the shade of my skinbut see that I'm capable and I'm
a viable team member.
But you know it can like crushyou even before you apply.
Josh Matthews (15:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for sharing that,anthony, and just so you know,
so that it's on the record herepermanently you are a beautiful
man, especially with the cigars.
Vanessa Grant (15:44):
Yeah, that's right, I actually have Janine
here who has a perspective onthis.
Josh Matthews (15:52):
All right hey.
Vanessa Grant (15:53):
Janine, do you want to introduce yourself?
Janeen Marquardt (15:55):
Hi everyone.
Let's hear it.
Hi, this is Janine Marquardt,long time listener, first time
call.
Josh Matthews (16:01):
No wait not quite You've been on.
Janeen Marquardt (16:04):
I've been here a couple of times.
Yeah, I mean I didn't hear theoriginal context of the question
.
I don't know if it's worthrepeating.
Vanessa Grant (16:11):
It's.
Do you think that somebodyshould disclose a disability on
a resume, or if not, then atwhat point should they disclose
it?
Janeen Marquardt (16:19):
I guess it depends on the type of
disability and the type of jobyou're applying to.
Josh Matthews (16:25):
I don't know if that matters or not, but if the
job Well, okay, but so in whatsituation would it make sense to
do that?
Janeen Marquardt (16:34):
So if the job requires you to lift 40 pounds
on a regular basis and you can'tlift 40 pounds, you might want
to disclose that because you'dprobably be incapable of
actually doing the job right.
Or you might need special.
If you need specialaccommodations to actually do
the job and you can do the jobwith those special
accommodations, you probablywould want to disclose that.
(16:54):
But I've got a case where Idon't disclose my disability
because it doesn't impact myability to actually do the job
at all, but it does impactpeople's ability to interact
with me sometimes and I don'twant it to be one of those
(17:16):
factors that people will judgeme on unfairly.
That's right.
Josh Matthews (17:23):
You and I have spoken about this before.
Yeah.
Janeen Marquardt (17:25):
We have.
So there are different kinds ofdisabilities, and mine's kind
of one of those.
It's an invisible one, but ithas bias associated with it, and
so that's what we want to bereally, really careful and you
are under no obligation todisclose a disability, really,
(17:46):
in any case, as long as it's notsomething that's going to
actually prevent you from doingthe job to which you're applying
, or if you can do the job withsome minor accommodations or
reasons, it's called reasonableaccommodations.
So, for example, if you need ascreen reader to help you
because you're losing youreyesight, that's a reasonable
accommodation and you don'tactually have to disclose that
(18:08):
during the Definitely not inyour resume and definitely not
even really during the process,because you're not being hired
for your ability to read.
You're probably being hired foryour ability to think or
provide some sort of knowledgeor information.
Josh Matthews (18:27):
Right.
Or to be able to read 10 pointfont when you can read 18 point.
Fine, sure, right, yeah, yeah.
Well, it's the AmericanDisabilities Act, right.
Jason Ziekowitz (18:35):
Exactly.
Josh Matthews (18:38):
It's been around for a very long time and it is
what we would call in theindustry a protected class.
100%, right, yeah, thanks forcoming on the show, sure, and
keep going.
You've got a perspective, socontinue to share, if you like,
please.
Janeen Marquardt (18:53):
Oh yeah Again, I'm not sure who asked the
question, but certainly find meon LinkedIn If you wanted to ask
something more specific aboutyour case.
I'm really happy to talk aboutit in depth and certainly share
more in depth about mine.
I don't want to take over theconversation as I have a
tendency to do.
Josh Matthews (19:09):
Janine, do us all a favor.
Tell your very complicatedspelling of your last name so
people can find you.
Janeen Marquardt (19:15):
Are you kidding?
I should spell the first nametoo.
Josh Matthews (19:17):
Yeah, probably.
Janeen Marquardt (19:18):
Yeah, because I'm not here myself.
J-a-n-e-e-n is the first nameand the last name is
M-A-R-Q-U-A-R.
E-d is in David, t is in Tom,but I am friends with Vanessa
and with Josh on the socials, soyou might be able to find me
that way as well.
Josh Matthews (19:36):
Fantastic and, yeah, you and I have had some
cool sessions before, so thanksfor making time and I hope you
and Vanessa crush it on yourpresentation this week.
Vanessa Grant (19:47):
Oh, we always do.
We're going to go practice soon.
Josh Matthews (19:50):
Very good.
Vanessa Grant (19:51):
Practice.
Josh Matthews (19:52):
Very good, jason, you had your hand up OK.
Jason Ziekowitz (19:55):
Yeah, I wanted to say how this reminds me of
the question tell me about aweakness.
I wouldn't even say disability.
I think that it does come tomind about a strength, about if
you have a disability that youhave strategically overcome and
(20:16):
that comes to mind as a strengththat could be played up
appropriately.
There's appropriate time for itduring the interview.
That is something to show offwhen, if it's appropriate to
show off those strategic skills.
So for me, a disability wouldbe ADHD.
I think I have ADHD.
I didn't actually finish thetest, but I'm fine.
Josh Matthews (20:38):
Good one buddy, Good one Thank you, thank you.
Jason Ziekowitz (20:43):
But I think in this day and age, with social
media and everything trying tograb your attention, attention
is shortened.
So for that I try to be veryintentional.
I'm not to multitask and tomake sure I make lists, make
sure I have a schedule, so Ijust try to organize the animal
(21:06):
that I am, the human being.
I try to attain this humanbeing.
So I find that as a greatstrength.
Josh Matthews (21:14):
Listen, guys.
My name is Josh, in case you'rejust tuned in.
I run the Salesforcerecruitercom along with our
friend Steven Gregor here, whois actually having some
technical difficulties.
My co-host is Vanessa Grant,dreamforce speaker, tahoe dream
and speaker, london's call andspeaker.
It's extraordinary Floridadream and speaker,
(21:35):
extraordinaire and badass BA,plus a bunch of other things.
Thanks for joining the liveshow.
If this is your first timelistening, you can find past
episodes either here on Twitterspaces, but we recommend that
you visit the Salesforce careershow dot buzz proud or forward
slash buzz proudcom or somethinglike that, I can't remember.
Just go to your favoriteplatform type in Salesforce
(21:57):
career.
We'll probably be the firstthing that pops up on podcasts
and you just go ahead and clickon that, check out the past
episodes.
And, guys, I'm going to ask afavor here.
Seriously, do us a favor.
Would you do us a favor and notjust subscribe but also leave a
review?
Leave a review for our podcasts.
I think that you can do this onApple.
(22:18):
I'm pretty sure you can do iton Spotify and maybe even on
Google.
So whatever your favoriteplatform is, those reviews help.
What it does is?
It just kind of lifts us up inthe rankings a little bit and
lets us reach more people.
And when we reach more people,we do one thing and one thing
only, and that's help morepeople, and that's what we're
here to do.
So we appreciate you, weappreciate your listenership and
(22:42):
we appreciate you liking,subscribing, leaving comments
and leaving some good reviews aswell.
So thanks for that.
Let's get to another questionhere.
So we've answered some goodones.
How about this one?
Okay, how does one get into theconsulting space when almost
all consulting openings requireconsulting experience?
(23:03):
Vanessa, you work for aconsulting firm.
You said you were a leader in aconsulting firm.
I'd like to hear yourperspectives first.
Go for it.
Vanessa Grant (23:15):
Fred probably has as a leader, probably has a
really good perspective on this.
My perspective on this is thisis where transferable skills has
really.
You know, being able tocommunicate those has been
really helpful in my career andalso in the career of my mentees
.
There were so many people inhospitality and healthcare and
(23:36):
education that had to figure outa way to describe what they did
every day, but in a way thatwould make sense to a consultant
.
So if they were an educatorthey could adjust.
You know what they did on aday-to-day basis so that they
sounded more like trainers.
So they say oh, you know, Icreated curriculums and I worked
(24:01):
with some difficult folks totrain them on things Just.
However, I'm not doing it wellbecause I'm not an educator.
But I think focusing on thosetransferable skills, having some
confidence, having those softskills a lot of times,
especially at least in the lastfew years where we've had such a
(24:22):
gap in, there's been moreprojects for consultancies than
there were people working them.
It was a lot easier to get in,probably a little more difficult
now, but I still think having afocus on those soft skills,
those transferable skills, whenyou don't already have the
Salesforce experience, can getyou into consulting.
And if you do have thosetechnical skills if you've been
(24:45):
an admin then just make sureyou've got those soft skills in
there.
Have you been doing businessanalysis as an admin?
Can you say that you are thewhole package?
It's easier to get intoconsulting that way.
And then, lastly, getting aconsulting certification Show
that you actually understand howa project is delivered in your
desired cloud.
Josh Matthews (25:03):
Yeah, that's great.
Thank you, Vanessa.
Let me pipe it.
Fred, You're going to take mostof this.
I've just got one small thing tosay, which is, if you've ever
been hired by any company everbecause of the skill sets that
you already have, that first fewmonths on the job you are a
consultant, You're a full-timeemployee, but you're dealing
with people that you don'talready know.
(25:24):
You're figuring out the lay ofthe land.
You're having to communicatewhat your strategies are, the
reasons for why you thinkcertain things should be done in
a certain way.
Congratulations, you're aconsultant.
So it's not the same thing asmaybe balancing for clients at
the same time logging yourbillable hours into a platform.
All that stuff is a little bitdifferent.
(25:47):
But actually interacting withstakeholders.
I learned early on that CIOslook at internal departments as
clients.
If you're in IT, moving intoSalesforce, and you've already
been in IT, then you're alreadydealing with clients, which
(26:08):
means that you're consultingwith them.
So it's a big word that appliesto so many things, but I think
if you've ever been hired foryour expertise before you know
everybody congratulations,you're a consultant.
What do you think, Fred?
Fred Cadena (26:22):
Yeah, I could agree more with both you, avinathan,
on this topic.
First, no surprise here as thecontrarian, I'm going to
challenge the premise, which isI've been a leader now at five
different well-known consultingfirms.
In the Salesforce ecosystemthere is not a requirement to be
(26:44):
have been a consultant beforeyou get hired, so if that's on
the job list that you're lookingat.
I would certainly take the talktrack that Josh just laid out
and say look, here's the skillsthat I have based on what I've
done that apply to consulting,and let's have a conversation.
But what I think is difficultis you have to have something
(27:07):
that you can cross-apply.
We're not going to take.
It's going to be very difficultfor a consulting firm, a
consulting leader, to takesomebody that has this is their
first Salesforce job.
They really don't have businessexperience.
They maybe have worked inunrelated industries and now
your first job you want is in aconsulting firm doing Salesforce
(27:27):
limitations.
That's probably a path too far,unless you're going to some kind
of a consulting firm that haslike a Salesforce boot camp or
something along those lines.
But as long as you're bringingto the table hey, I know a lot
about this industry, a lot abouthow this business runs, and
maybe I haven't doneSalesforce's deeply, that's fine
, that's a great place to have aconversation.
(27:48):
Or I know a lot aboutSalesforce.
I've worked as an admin for ayear, two years, three years,
but I've never done consulting.
Okay, that's a great jumpingoff point.
But I think as long as you'rechecking some of those boxes and
you can show how what you'vedone really lines up, even if
the job title is not identical.
Go for it.
Vanessa Grant (28:11):
Yeah, I just want to add to that, like there is
no one perfect consultant,consulting generally happens in
team-.
Josh Matthews (28:20):
That's not true.
I placed them, I did.
Vanessa Grant (28:23):
But the perfect consultant.
Josh Matthews (28:26):
I did.
I'm just teasing.
Vanessa Grant (28:28):
It's definitely not me.
Josh Matthews (28:29):
You'll never know .
Vanessa Grant (28:31):
It's not me either, but generally speaking,
you are working on a team.
It tends to be the resourcingperson's problem at the
consulting company to make surethat they put the team together
that is going to be able to dothe job best.
Just like Fred's talking about,you are not necessarily going
(28:51):
to check all the boxes, but youdon't have to wait until you
check all the boxes before youcan become a consultant.
There is a team out there thatis probably missing your skill
sets.
You just have to be able tocommunicate what those skills
are and make sure that they'reuseful in a consulting capacity.
Josh Matthews (29:06):
Definitely.
One other thing I'd throw inhere, guys, is that every job
description you've ever lookedat, usually not always but
they're usually asking foreverything that they desire, not
everything that they need.
Now it might be listed underthe required competencies
section.
You get your summary at the top, your little byline the
(29:31):
absolutely required the nice tohave the day in the life of the
benefits.
They're pretty much the same,but most job descriptions will
list everything in the kitchensink.
A lot of hiring managers don'teven know what's on there.
It's produced by humanresources.
It gets pushed out by humanresources.
I've told the story on this showbefore about someone who had
(29:54):
never even read the jobdescription that they were using
to attract candidates to workfor her, for the team she was
hired to build.
I mean, talk about abdicatingresponsibility.
This woman should have beenfired because that's just the
stupidest thing.
I mean honestly, god, guys,it's the stupidest thing I've
ever heard of.
But this stuff happens and ithappens all the time.
(30:14):
So if you want a job at aconsultancy and you see a job
description that says you musthave consulting experience, yeah
, apply anyway, but be upfrontabout it.
Hey, listen, I'm applying forthis job.
I'm going to be straight up.
I don't have specificconsultancy experience working
(30:34):
at a Salesforce partner, however, and then fill in the blanks of
everything that Vanessa andFred just said.
So call it out.
This is called taking thebullets out of the gun, because
if you don't address it, theycan shoot that bullet right back
at you and say, hey, thanks forthe application, but you don't
have consulting experience.
But if you already said, hey, Iknow I don't have consulting
experience, but this is why youshould still look at me Now
(30:57):
you're making a case.
It's just an obstacle, soovercome it.
It's an objection.
Overcome the objection.
That's all you got to do.
Just overcome the objection.
Give them a reason that'scompelling and it doesn't have
to be mind-blowing.
You can just say, hey, look,here's the reality.
I'm extremely good technically.
I'm the guy that people come toon my team for when they have
(31:21):
questions and they're notcertain about things.
I support people in these areasand that area and this, that
the other thing.
I've also done a lot ofresearch about what it takes to
be a good consultant.
And guess what Lucky you, luckyme I happen to fit that profile
perfectly.
So let's please have aconversation.
You can say something like that, and that's just a first draft
right off the cuff, but youcould do something like that
(31:42):
that's a little bit morepolished and probably double or
triple your chances of getting ameeting.
Once you get the meeting, it'sall game over.
Then you just lay it all outand be awesome, be your super
awesome self, all right, sogreat question.
Let's do one more questionbefore we wrap up the show, but
let me kick it to Vanessa.
Vanessa, are there any morequestions coming from your live
(32:05):
experience out at Tahoe Dreamingright now?
Vanessa Grant (32:08):
So today is basically registration day.
It's just mostly people playingConnector and lots of hugs and
how you've been at theregistration desk.
So no questions today so far.
Josh Matthews (32:22):
Okay, so I'm going to ask this question that
was given to us by a candidatethis past week, which is are
there any resources or toolsavailable to help me stay
updated with the latest trendsand developments in Salesforce?
I'm going to kick that toVanessa and Fred.
Vanessa Grant (32:45):
I would recommend .
So this is a big thing that Iadvocate for which is finding
the MVPs.
They're usually the ones thatare the Salesforce.
Mvps tend to be the ones thatare really in touch with their
particular niche of Salesforceand speaking to it.
So, like Andy Utkin, he's goingto be able to speak about flow
(33:11):
stuff.
You follow Salesforce Ben.
You're going to get breakingSalesforce news all the time.
So if you follow those folks onLinkedIn, it'll help make your
LinkedIn feed serve you theindustry news.
But you have to be able to kindof cultivate your feed with the
right people so that that newsis reaching you.
And then, of course, I wouldsay you know, I mean the
standard.
You got to read the releasenotes, go to the webinars
(33:34):
explaining the releases, theproduct roadmaps.
I even connect with the I wouldsay, the product managers that
are within Salesforce too isalso a nice way to kind of keep
up with what the future is goingto bring as far as the products
that you're interested in.
Josh Matthews (33:51):
Excellent advice, Fred.
What about you?
Fred Cadena (33:53):
Hey guys, I don't know if I can add a whole lot
more to that, Other than thechallenge that I have is not
getting enough sources.
It's really curating thesources, so I'm getting the
information that I want.
I think Vanessa raised a lot ofgreat points there.
It's making sure that you'rereally focused in, you've
(34:16):
connected with people, you'refollowing people, you've got
alerts set on certain topicsbecause Salesforce generates a
lot of news.
Salesforce is a huge ecosystem.
It's way different than it waswhen I got involved 16 years ago
and there was Sales Cloud andService Cloud and Sassy was
walking around at the differentevents.
There's so many products nowthat you can't learn at all.
(34:39):
You can't do it all.
So really hone in on what youwant to do and learn and keep up
with those are all greatresources.
I know, John, you've got agreat resource that you've been
putting together on your site aswell, but I mean those are all
fantastic.
Josh Matthews (34:58):
Thanks, fred.
Yes, so you can visit theexpand exchange.
It's expandexchangecom.
Just about two hours ago, I waswrapping up a little Zoom
meeting with our marketing proand our UI UX web designer.
(35:19):
So that's all being redesignedand I got to look at the initial
drafts of it today.
It's going to be awesome.
It's going to be easy tonavigate, it's going to be
beautiful and it's going to bemuch faster loading than what we
have right now, but what wehave right now will still serve
you.
So go to expandexchangecom.
You can also go to thesalesforcerecretercom forward
(35:40):
slash resources or just clickresources when you're on the
site and that will take you toabout 50 or 60 curated links
that mostly Vanessa put togetherme too, but mostly Vanessa and
these are YouTube channels,slack channels, training
(36:01):
academies, influencers, bloggers, newsletter writers, all sorts
of different folks and these areresources that you can find off
of the salesforcecom platformor site.
So definitely check that out.
Some really great questionsthis week, I think, some really
(36:21):
amazing and insightful answersas well.
Thank you to everybody forjoining us on this live program.
Thank you to all of ourlisteners of the podcast.
We appreciate all of you.
We really do, I like for real.
We love you guys, so keepcoming back.
We'll be back next week.
Now, tomorrow, I'll be releasingpart two of our military show
(36:43):
conversation that we had withDave Nava Golden Hoodie, dave
Nava and Fast Roper, deloitteconsultant Philip Anderson.
So please check that out.
It should be available for you,I would think, by noon tomorrow
.
So that's part two.
What we've been covering so faris part two, and this is going
to be released on podcastsprobably two weeks from today,
(37:06):
and if you missed the first part, if you're just joining us now,
then next I believe Tuesday orWednesday it will be released on
Spotify, apple, google andiHeartRadio and every other
podcast platform that you canimagine, so you can listen to
the episode in full, and it'salso going to be immediately
(37:27):
available, unproduced, unedited,here on Twitter Spaces, because
it is a safe podcast, and I'llpost it on my.
I will post that on my personalprofile.
If you're not connected with me, please go ahead and connect.
It's at the JoshForce and makesure that you join our Twitter
(37:48):
community as well.
It's the largest, fastestgrowing Twitter community
dedicated to Salesforceprofessionals and it's got a
really unique name it's calledSalesforce Professionals, so you
can find it.
So if you see those littlepeople buttons.
They look like little peopleicons.
That stands for communities.
You can check us out and youcan also search for communities.
Just click communities type inSalesforce and we'll pop right
(38:09):
up to the top.
Thanks, everybody.
I hope that you have awonderful week.
Vanessa, good luck on theconference and to you and Janine
on your presentation, and I'mlooking forward to catching up
with everybody in two weeks fromtoday at 230 Western excuse me,
pacific and 530 Eastern.
(38:29):
Fred, it's been special to haveyou on the show again.
You're welcome every time.
Love having you on here andthanks for all of the insights
and for the interesting topics.
Also thanks to Jason and toAnthony as well, and I just want
to do a quick little shout outto my friend, larry Lee.
Hope you're doing great, larry.
That's Cheesecake, larry Lee.
Thanks for being on the show,buddy, good to see you, man.
(38:52):
Okay, guys, have a wonderfulweek.
Bye for now.
Vanessa Grant (38:56):
Bye, josh, thank you.
Josh Matthews (38:58):
You're welcome.
Anthony Rodriguez (38:59):
Great show.
Bro Loved it.
Josh Matthews (39:01):
All right guys, I'm going down.
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