Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%Finally, Apex tutorials for point-and-click admins! Written by a self-taught Google engineer.
Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%
David’s note: Jeanette, you are someone who doesn’t let their background define their future. You have broken past so many barriers and you are trailblazing the path for other women to do so as well! Respect!
I don’t have a college degree. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and didn’t want rack up a ton of debt just to be able to say I had a degree. So I’ve been working full time since I graduated high school.
I started at my previous company 15 years ago working in customer service, which was an entry level position. Over the years, I worked my way through different positions before finally moving into a Business Analyst role in IT. I’d always liked my jobs, but looking back, I was never truly passionate about them.
Then my company decided to implement Salesforce. Everything changed. I was one of a few people on the initial team that was formed to start the implementation and as I started to learn about what Salesforce was and what it could do, I became voracious about learning more and more.
I got my Administrator certification in 2016 and then attended Destination Success in 2017 where I earned 5 more certifications during the week. Despite that, or maybe because of that (I attended your breakout session there), I still wanted to learn more.
I decided I wanted to learn how to code. Having no real technical background, and certainly no coding or software development background, the idea terrified me. After hearing your story at Destination Success and reading some articles on your website, I knew I had to try. It was just a matter of how to get started. I was fortunate that at that time, I was working with an amazing consultant (Zayne Turner, who is now Principal Architect Evangelist at Salesforce) who told me about the RAD Women Coding School and encouraged me to look into the program.
So in the Fall of 2017, I applied to be in the next cohort of RAD Women and was lucky enough to get in! Between that program and your website, I finally felt like I could start to understand code and maybe even write some of my own. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use many of my newfound skills in my current role and found it hard to continue growing and going down the career path I wanted.
Last Summer I ended up leaving that company after more than 14 years and took a position where I felt like I could spread my wings a little more, continue learning, and get to apply my new knowledge in my daily role. Leaving a company I had been with for that long was difficult to do (it’s the comfort factor), but seeing and hearing other people’s stories and advice about maximizing your potential and knowing your worth I knew it was the right thing to do.
Since leaving I have taken part in the pilot for RAD Women Part II, and am very proud to say that I achieved my Platform Developer 1 certification! I’m now 11x certified, have my Application Architect certification, and am now moving up the System Architect side of the pyramid.
If you were to tell “high school graduate me” that I would achieve the career success that I have today, especially without a college degree, I don’t think she would have believed you. I’m thrilled to say that I get to live the reality of that success every day, and I hope others reading this will be inspired to blaze their own career trail as well!
Jeanette Jett
@JeanetteJett
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It was a great honor giving Salesforce career advice to the hardworking people of Oakland!
We talked about all sorts of things such as:
Watch the recording here – it starts at the 12 minute mark!
(The sound quality improves over time – I promise the content is worth it!)
You can also view the full slide deck here.
Special thanks to the Oakland Salesforce Saturday organizers for inviting me and hosting!
Preface: this post is part of The Definitive Salesforce Careers Guide series.
Gone fishin’!Sometimes people ask me to be their mentor, and honestly, it’s a great honor.
But I always say no. I’m a father of two kids – who has time for that?!
Until I realized… I’m unofficially mentoring a lot of people and I just didn’t know it!
It’s true. I’ve been tricked. And honestly, I really enjoy mentoring these folks. And in this day and age, with the whole internet thing and all, getting a complete stranger online to mentor you is all the rage.
Anyway, here’s my guide on getting anyone to be your mentor. I’ve learned from the best:
1. Don’t explicitly ask someone to be your mentor
You gotta be more subtle than that. From the mentor’s perspective, an official mentor position can be so scary. Are you suddenly accountable for career decisions? What if my mentee is nutty?!
Your chances of getting someone to be your mentor will triple if you never actually ask them to do it.
2. Never underestimate the power of flattery
Flattery is a powerful weapon, and no one is immune to it. Go ahead and lather on the praise – tell your potential mentor how impressed you are with their career achievements. Let them know that they’re your hero and you want to be just like them one day.
When you start feeling like you’re overdoing it, throw in one more compliment and call it a day.
3. Make a down payment
You must invest in this relationship if you expect someone to invest in you back. Realistically, you have nothing to give but your time and attention. But that is enough to make a mentor happy.
Your down payment is your story. Introduce yourself and let them know who you are and why you want to succeed. You must demonstrate a purpose, otherwise you’re just another helpless soul.
Don’t ask for anything in your first message. That’s not how down payments work. Just invest.
Hi Angela, My name is David and <insert flattery>. <Insert your story> <Insert your purpose> Just wanted to let you know I want to be just like you one day. Sincerely, David4. Pay your mortgage each month
Your monthly mortgages are your regular updates to your mentor. A simple email that does nothing other than says how your life has been going is gold.
Again this is an investment. You get your return later. The more you invest, the larger your returns.
Hi Angela, Just a quick update on my career. Recently I've been part of a <insert scenario>. I remembered a blog post you once wrote and <insert flattery>. Hope you've been doing well! Sincerely, David5. Withdraw, but sparingly
It’s time. You’ve invested so much into this relationship and it’s time to finally ask for advice.
By now, your mentor is fully invested in your story and they don’t even know it. You’ve asked for nothing from them, and they have no reason to believe you’re just a stranger looking for shortcuts.
It’s a good time to ask a very specific career question. Generic questions get generic useless answers.
Hi Angela, I hope you don't mind if I ask you for some advice. I have two job offers and I don't know which is best for me. <Insert specifics of offer #1> <Insert specifics of offer #2> I hope you can find a moment to help, <insert flattery>! Sincerely, DavidAt this point no human being with even a sliver of a soul can deny helping you.
Congratulations, you’ve found yourself a new mentor =)
David
Salesforce Saturday Oakland, see ya there!
July 27, 2019
If you live near Oakland California, I hope to see you at Salesforce Saturday next week!
I am very honored to be invited to speak to my local community! This event is extra special for me because I grew up in the Bay Area and my wife was actually raised in Oakland =)
One of the craziest things I’ll ever talk about, is while Salesforce developers already make ~$150,000 on average in the US, in Oakland, they can make $300,000 or more! This is gonna be fun.
Event info:
- Register here
- Saturday, August 3, 2019, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT (add to calendar)
- 555 City Center – The Port Workspaces, 5th Floor, Oakland, CA 94607
Session info:
Which Salesforce career path is right for you? In this session, we evaluate the pros and cons of the core Salesforce career paths: admin, developer, and architect. Every aspect is examined including pay, short and long term job prospects, end games, and more. Then, we’ll give you the best resources for starting down your chosen path!
Special thanks:
Shout-out to Sybil Carter-Love and Cynthia Hill for leading the Oakland Salesforce Saturday chapter!Hope to see you there!!
DavidP.S. Very sorry about the scheduling mishap last round, totally my fault!!!
Free Salesforce admin virtual conference!
July 22, 2019
There’s a FREE Salesforce Business Analyst Virtual Summit going on next week!
This online conference is for you if you’re an admin who wants to level up and become a business analyst. This is the natural admin career path I outline in my Salesforce Career Personality Test!
If I was on the admin track, I’d definitely attend these sessions:
- Getting executive buy-in
- Becoming a Salesforce consultant
- Saying no by saying yes
Check out the full schedule to see what interests you =)
Oh ya – I’ll be doing a session on Developing Persistence, so you should probably check that out too!!
“How does someone with ZERO development skills end up as a Salesforce Technical Architect for a multi-billion dollar org at Google? You’ll find out when David Liu takes you on the mental journey he mastered from transitioning from a marketing career into success as a self-taught Salesforce developer. Not only is David’s story inspiring, but his mission to enable aspiring Salesforce professionals globally to walk in his footsteps. Hear how his lows (10 rejections from Google) and highs (Salesforce Developer Golden Hoodie winner) have shaped his mindset and outlook for his future, and how you can channel the same persistence into your own success.”
Cheers to Toni V. Martin, my Salesforce Careers Webinar partner in crime, for working so hard to get this out for free! If you like what she’s doing you can support her by buying an all access pass!
Podcast: My Technical Architect Journey!
July 17, 2019
I’m very honored to be interviewed by Ladies Be Architects about my Technical Architect journey!
One thing I’ve always loved about podcasts is that you can get really in depth about a topic. And the brilliant Ladies Be Architects asked me just the right questions to get all the juicy, candid details about my career. I hope you enjoy it!
Listen to the full 40 minute podcast:
- 00:00 – Introduction
- 03:25 – Golden Hoodie
- 05:15 – My Story
- 07:45 – What do you do a Google?
- 09:30 – What’s it like being an architect at Google?
- 11:25 – Why are you pursuing the CTA?
- 15:28 – What’s next in your CTA journey?
- 20:25 – What was your experience with the CTA designer exams?
- 23:10 – How do you balance your time at work, life, etc?
- 25:50 – Advice for aspiring architects
- 30:15 – How has the architect journey changed your career?
- 34:30 – What are your thoughts about diversity in tech?
One more big shout out to Ladies Be Architects movement, we are so lucky to have them!!
David
P.S. if you are wondering, yes I am actively making them a special limited edition t-shirt!
What to do if you’re a bad developer
July 7, 2019
The Great Aaron Franklin, Legendary BBQ Pitmaster.I’ve come to the realization that I’m bad at BBQ.
I’ve watched and rewatched hours of BBQ tutorials, read countless recipes, and troubleshooted across the entire end of the internet and back… but BBQ has just not come naturally to me.
Recently, after burning yet another set of burgers, my wife caught me staring lifelessly to the yard. BBQ had broken me.
But there was hope!
I remembered Aaron Franklin, the world’s greatest BBQ pitmaster, who famously started off by making horrible BBQ. I thought, “If he became a great BBQ pitmaster, maybe I can too!”
Then it really hit me. I used to be a really, really bad developer too.
After I completed multiple programming classes, read Head First Java, and finished a book on Salesforce development, I finally mustered up the courage to write my first production trigger.
The trigger was just 5 lines of code and it was virtually an exact copy of a trigger in the book.
Embarrassingly, it took me 8 hours to write this trigger:
trigger DefaultOwner on Account (before insert) { for (Account acc : Trigger.new) {acc.OwnerId = '005i0000000OAO9AAO';} }That’s 1 minute to copy/paste most of it, 1 hour to write the highlighted line, and 7 hours to debug it.
My first trigger was horrible.
…Just like my first BBQ.
…Just like Aaron Franklin’s first BBQ.
But I stuck with it. And I’m sharing this story with you here today because I did. None of my career would have happened otherwise – SFDC99, Google, MVP, Hoodie, etc.
It makes you wonder – what other great careers never happened because people gave up too early?!
How do great Salesforce professionals work differently?
July 4, 2019
I’ve been very fortunate to work with some great people in this industry!
I’ve also worked with people who, despite having good intentions, were just not good at their jobs.
Maybe the most interesting thing I’ve learned is that being a great employee has nothing to do with being smart. There is almost no correlation. I’ve worked with plenty of geniuses who can not deliver.
But there is one commonly occurring scenario, without fail, that has always predicted whether or not someone would be great. The scenario? How a person reacts when there is no work to do.
Every not so great employee I’ve worked with shuts off whenever there is downtime. They’ll mosey around, browse the web, look busy, etc. Nothing wrong with this – there is no work to do after all.
Great employees? They make meaningful work when there’s no work to do. They’ll learn new things, explore technology, optimize existing features, or just tell their boss they’re bored. They’re intellectually curious and actively make the most of their time – nothing is passive about them!
It’s a simple test that at least for me, has never been wrong. That small difference in attitude somehow becomes significant when multiplied over a lifetime of experiences.
At the end of the day, there are many things that separate great professionals from the rest of us. But at the very least, if you find yourself turning on auto-pilot when times are slow, consider a more proactive approach to your career and learning – you don’t have to be a genius to do it!
David
Mainframe developer to Salesforce developer in Ireland!
July 2, 2019
Not my best pose, but one of the great moments – Dreamforce 2018 & SF99 Gold T-shirt
Dear David,
Wish you and the Salesforce community a very happy days ahead, I hope you are doing good and so am I.
First of all, I would like to thank you for SFDC99.com and being an inspiration to so many people across the globe and there is always a huge fan following for you in India. You might not know me or remember me unless you go back and check your LinkedIn network but now that you could even recall that we met in Dreamforce 2018 at San Francisco. I was there when you received your Golden Hoodie, believe me the world is too small as they say. Things have changed a lot from 2014. I am just one of them who started following SFDC99, but I have always been a silent spectator on your blog from 2014.
Quick Background:
I started my career in the Indian IT industry as a mainframe developer, back in 2009 after completing my Masters in Software Engineering. Little did I know that not working on object oriented programming or web development will never help me to progress much in this competitive and challenging market as quickly as those guys could.I was knocking all doors, looking for a better opportunity or to change my career path. But, nothing big happened apart from my daily routines on a mainframe screen. Life became boring at one stage and there was nothing challenging at work. As days passed I was witnessing my very own friends with advanced technical skills reaching skies, that’s when I started realizing my mistake, that I should be the change if I want something to be changed. But it was already 4+ years in mainframes during late 2013 and I had almost forgot about object oriented skills which I learned in college.
Never Too Late:
But it was never too late and I heard about Salesforce.com and administrator capabilities from one of my friends.I started searching on Google to read about Salesforce, and I ended up finding SFDC99.com. I started learning Salesforce online from various blogs, friends and of course would visit SFDC99.com too often. Whenever I read the success stories on it, I use to think why can’t I be one of them some day if my life could change.
Then in 2014, Salesforce had become part of my life, interests, and hobbies in my mind. I started spending my free time and hours on learning administration and development on Salesforce using a free developer account. I started working on all the exercises in Trailhead, and I also started to do freelancing with my friends who were already working on Salesforce.com projects.
In August 2014, I did my first certification – Salesforce Admin 201 at that time, and also then I managed to clear the interview and became a Salesforce developer with a leading MNC in India. Then I followed up immediately with the first Salesforce Developer certification (401 at that time). From then onward I have been learning and living Salesforce with the community.
Sometimes you just need that spark to kick start the change and that’s what I received from SFDC99.com when I was completely down. And then, I always wanted to share my success stories on SFDC99.com, to inspire a few like me – but was shy thinking of myself of not achieving something big yet.
The Big Step:
Nearly two years passed, in the meantime I started building my Salesforce contacts on LinkedIn. I started following David Liu as well on LinkedIn as well. I was constantly putting my efforts to learn which ever possible with the opportunities I had.I was able to get a job in Limerick, Ireland as a full time Salesforce developer in Jan 2017 with one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Today, I still live here in Ireland with my family, things have changed a lot coming from a small town in India and having been migrated to Ireland as a Salesforce developer for more than couple of years now. I don’t even think about my salary to much extent nowadays because I know its constantly growing and also the demand of Salesforce developers in the future is always there.
Challenges and Conversion:
Now, I felt it might be the right time to share my story to inspire others like the way David did it for me.Yes, I have been following SFDC99.com, Apex Academy on Pluralsight which is one of the great companion to start with and also many other websites and blogs in the community. But David has always been a special to motivate me every day. Today, I have more than 100 badges on Trailhead but the learning has never stopped, it’s fun to learn something new almost each day.
It was difficult for me in the initial few months, but I got a lot of support from my family, friends and Salesforce community. There have always been some discouragements, disappointments, failures during this journey. I would say never give up would be the one thing who need in life to be the change.
A great thanks to my mentor – David Liu. Waiting for your future Apex Academy courses on Lightning and SalesforceDX too, and also sometime maybe end up working with you as I said earlier this world this too small we never know.
Thank you, David, for motivating many people like me as many had already stated, you’re awesome.
Regards,
Suresh Kumar P
Inspired by this story?
Read more success stories from other SFDC99 students!Want to tell the world your story too?
Email it to sfdc99.mailbag@gmail.com and your story could be heard around the world!Must follow: Ladies Be Architects!
June 26, 2019
Do yourself a favor and bookmark this website: Ladies Be Architects!
Ladies Be Architects is site completely dedicated to making you a Certified Technical Architect. I think of it like SFDC99 for the CTA, but better. No one is paying me to say that!!
Honestly, as someone personally studying for the CTA, I think it’s one of the best resources available. And believe me, you’re gonna need all the material you can get!
Some of the things you’ll find there include:
And in case you were worried about it, don’t worry, it’s open to men too!
Shout out to the four incredible leaders of #LBA, who make this site for free!
That’s Gemma Emmett, Charly Prinsloo, Susannah St-Germain, and Amanda Beard-Neilson. These ladies are doing an incredible job and I look up to them a lot.
P.S. LBA if you’re reading this, I am still working on your t-shirts, I didn’t forget LOL!
David
