Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast we’re joined by Aaron McGriff, Salesforce Business Systems Analyst at Masco Cabinetry in Detroit. We’ll learn about how Salesforce and Trailhead helped him go from unemployed to recording live on the Dreamforce stage.
Join us as we talk about why sharing his experiences changed his Salesforce learning journey, the incredible power of the Salesforce Ohana, and how to battle imposter syndrome.
You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Aaron McGriff.
From unemployed to Salesforce Admin.
This episode of the podcast comes to you live from the Dreamforce stage. It’s Aaron’s first Dreamforce, and how he got here is pretty amazing. “Two years ago I was unemployed and had no idea what direction I was going to go in,” he says. A family friend turned him onto Salesforce at first and so he started on Trailhead, but it wasn’t until he got on Twitter and started tweeting his experience. “That’s when everything really blew up,” he says, “the encouragement, the support I was getting was something I never felt before in my life.”
Originally, Aaron had heard about Salesforce but didn’t really pursue it. It sort of went in one ear and out the other because he figured it would take too long to go from first learning the platform to actually getting a job. A few months into working a new job Aaron asked himself a tough question, “Am I really living the lift that I want to live? Am I living my life on my own terms or just going with the flow? And as I’m sitting there I notice that the company I work for had a link for Salesforce on their landing page.”
Battling imposter syndrome with the power of the Salesforce Ohana.
“Whenever I do something right I giggle to myself,” Aaron says, “and every time I got a new badge in Trailhead I was just laughing to myself because I was actually getting it and doing stuff right.” The connections he had made on Twitter motivated him to come to community events, and he found himself at Midwest Dreaming. From there, he ended up in his new job at Masco Cabinetry.
“Two weeks into my new position I had 16 projects assigned to me,” Aaron says, and he’s working on everything from implementing live chat for customer service and building surveys for their design team. “Imposter syndrome hits you pretty quickly once you get into a new role,” he says, “but what you have to do is take a step back and say, ‘OK, I’m in this position for a reason, I got this job for a reason, I know what I’m doing and if I don’t I know I have a million people standing with me that can help me get through it.’”
The first of many.
For advice, Aaron says you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for what you need. “The Salesforce community is the best resource you can have,” he says, “someone will always be there to help you.” Beyond that, “you never know what you can truly do, what you can truly accomplish until you get up and actually do it.”
“Seeing just how big Dreamforce is, it’s just kind of awe-inspiring that I’m actually here,” Aaron says. The Salesforce Ohana (and a lot of hard worked) helped him get there, and hopefully many more to come.
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