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Struggling graduate gets 15 certs and multiplies his salary 11X!

June 5, 2019

David’s note: Dude, 11x your salary is insane! Congrats! You are a great guy setting a great example: Ambition + Goals + Persistence + Humility = MASSIVE SUCCESS! You’ve made your family proud!


Here’s my story on how I went from a beginner in the industry to Salesforce Certified Application and System Architect:

Background
When I freshly graduated from my university, I started out my journey in a giant IT company with a minimal salary that could barely support my life in a city like Bangalore (India). I went to Bangalore just because I did not want to miss out on the opportunity to be in the industry. I was staying in my friend’s home in a small room just so that I can bear the expenses paying a small amount. In fact, I had to sometimes borrow money from my dad just to pay my daily expenses and eat properly.

An Accidental Discovery
I had a very keen interest in learning about entrepreneurs, and other successful people who made it large. I was always inspired by their success stories until one day that really changed my life and my world. While browsing through the books in my company library, I found Behind the Cloud. That time, I didn’t know about Salesforce, in fact, I never even heard of the name anywhere. But, interestingly, it was a success story about a person who revolutionized the whole industry, Marc Benioff. I borrowed the book from the library and that was the first time I heard about Salesforce. After I studied about it, I became insanely curious to know how it works.

I started learning Salesforce, and boom! One day, I got a mail from which I got to know that there is a requirement for Salesforce developers in my company. I couldn’t wait to pick up my phone and dial the number to talk to the people involved. I got to know that they are holding a 1-week training for Salesforce and they would be selecting some of the candidates from them. I quickly got myself registered for the training.

I’m on the cloud!
After the training, I got selected for a Salesforce admin position in my company. After just a few months, I found myself as a Salesforce developer in the same company. My passion for Salesforce grew much stronger and I discovered SFDC99. I started learning Apex from SFDC99 and started studying for certifications. I was really fascinated by David Liu and his quest to help other fellow developers in the ecosystem.

Certifications
By the time I gained confidence, I already made an aim for myself to complete at least 2 certifications. Nothing comes easy and I’m no exception to it. So, the first year, I could only do 2. The next year I doubled the aim and completed 4 certifications and the next year following it, I completed 9 certifications. So, by this doubling strategy, I have already completed 15 certifications in total including Platform Developer II, System Architect, and Application Architect. I still remember, my first attempt to get the System Architect failed and I had to take the Integration Architecture Designer certification again with countless sleepless nights. So, by the age of 25, I already had 15X Salesforce certs.

Continuous challenges and motivation during the journey
I was a mere beginner sitting between a pool of highly skilled and talented Salesforce developers. In the beginning it was very difficult to even keep pace with the other experienced developers when I started out as admin. It was difficult to ask for a developer role when I got interested in coding and was merely few months old in IT company and Salesforce. But, my strategy has always been to take risks and learn new things. So, I never said no to an opportunity, in fact, I used to ask for immensely challenging tasks that sometimes I, myself didn’t know how to solve :p . But, I would sit overnight and not quit until I come up with a solution and implement it. This approach helped me to a great extent and yes, attracted a great series of certificates, awards and appreciations.

Great Opportunity
With the certifications and ever-growing knowledge, I tried for a challenging senior role in another company and immediately got an onsite opportunity to work overseas in Malaysia with a much higher salary package (more than 11X of my monthly salary in previous company).

Great Thanks
I owe a great thanks to David Liu for such a great blog and for inspiring me and my family who has always supported me in every decision I made for myself, and myself for picking up the book that day Behind the Cloud ;-)

Dipojjal


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!

26 Comments
Abhijit Goyal
January 12, 2020 @ 8:13 am

Many congrats! :)

But why did you need to retake Integration Architecture Designer after not clearing System architect? Is there any dependency like if you fail System architect then you need to retake Integration Architecture Designer (which is the pre-requisite of System architect)?

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    January 22, 2020 @ 2:17 am

    Actually there is no specific exam for System architect. As soon as you clear all the pre-requisites for System Architect, you get that certification. So, for me, Integration architect was the last one, clearing which I would get the System Architect certification.

    Reply
Avika
June 13, 2019 @ 7:51 pm

Way to go Apple, that’s a great story! Wish you all the success and happiness. Congratulations!!

Reply
Nivedita
June 11, 2019 @ 1:50 am

Wow bhaya.. this is very inspiring and proud of u.. congratulations

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 11, 2019 @ 2:26 am

    Thanks a lot Nivi :)

    Reply
Anonymous
June 10, 2019 @ 10:56 pm

Congratulations! Great going.My best wishes for future.

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    January 22, 2020 @ 5:22 pm

    Thanks

    Reply
Garima Malhotra
June 10, 2019 @ 10:35 pm

You’re an inspiration, Apple. Nothing but good wishes for you. ☺️
#AProudFriend #CapsOff

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 13, 2019 @ 6:44 am

    Thanks a ton Garima. Thanks for the good wishes and keeping me motivated

    Reply
Shashikant
June 10, 2019 @ 12:43 am

Bhai meri photo bhi laga..

Reply
S K
June 9, 2019 @ 10:32 pm

Thank you for sharing such a Motivational Success Story..!!
Real Kudos to you and David for going the extra mile..!!

Reply
Himanshu Sharma
June 8, 2019 @ 2:30 pm

wow.. Proud of you buddy, I really feel proud that we have worked together . All the best for your future, This is just the beginning champ.

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 10, 2019 @ 12:11 am

    Thanks buddy. I feel the same. I was really delighted to work with you all :)

    Reply
Pooja
June 7, 2019 @ 8:39 am

Congrats Dipojjal….:)

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 10, 2019 @ 12:12 am

    Thanks Pooja.

    Reply
Arun Mohan
June 7, 2019 @ 12:50 am

That was very much inspiring. All the best bro

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 10, 2019 @ 12:15 am

    Thanks a lot

    Reply
Anonymous
June 6, 2019 @ 9:01 pm

Heard work never fail.. Uplifting story!!!

Reply
Smita
June 6, 2019 @ 8:47 pm

Wow! Such an inspiring story!
Thats going to be 1 day!

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    January 22, 2020 @ 5:24 pm

    Thanks Smita. Glad to see people are actually getting motivated by this story.

    Reply
Anonymous
June 6, 2019 @ 10:24 am

Way more to go, man.. Proud of you Jwaleeee…

Reply
    Anna-Marie
    June 6, 2019 @ 2:42 pm

    Uplifting story!

    Reply
Anonymous
June 6, 2019 @ 6:01 am

That’s my brother so very proud of you little brother

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    June 10, 2019 @ 12:16 am

    Thanks a lot sis :)

    Reply
Bhavana Singh
June 6, 2019 @ 4:53 am

Wow what an inspirational story.

Reply
    Dipojjal Chakrabarti
    January 22, 2020 @ 5:26 pm

    Thanks Smita. Glad to learn that it inspired you :)

    Reply

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