Women in the Salesforce Ecosystem (Event)
Inardua’s own Papya Qureshi and Anja Porter were in attendance of another fun packed Salesforce Women in Tech meet up last week.
Hosted by Mason Frank International, the girls were treated to an informative session on ‘How to Stand Out in the Salesforce Job Market’. It touched on key in demand skills to have, like CPQ for Developers, and the importance of soft skills in Salesforce roles right now.
Here is what Papya had to say:
The evening began with an update on community groups and future events and a call for speakers at French Touch Dreamin. Working and learning about Data Cloud is the new rage and AI is the new buzz word from Dreamforce. So, any knowledge gained in these areas are highly recommended. Then came the signature achievements and news to share from the women in the room. Be it passing a certification or turning 40 all things that could be celebrated were, amongst a trusted and safe environment.
Katherine and Darcy from Mason Frank International shared insightful tips about allowing LinkedIn profile pictures speak about you. If you enjoy travelling have a picture showing the latest destination you’ve been to. Get endorsements and recommendations and use that to your advantage as that gives you added credibility. They touched on what to include in your CV and to ensure that it is an easy-to-read format, as recruiters rarely look at a CV for more than 60 seconds! The most useful tip of the evening was when they revealed that the most sought-after soft skills in any Salesforce role is being able to communicate, problem solve and project manage. They ended their session by inviting women to a Candidate Consultation evening by Mason Frank International to help them write CV’s and mentor women into using LinkedIn appropriately.
Pizza and bottomless drinks were served all evening and the evening was topped off by Organiser Louise Locke giving away swag after an entertaining Dreamforce quiz.
The key take away from the night has to be that the most coveted currency in the Salesforce job market isn't just your technical prowess its actually the soft skills that are the secret sauce to stand out in this tech-savvy world.
And here is what Anja had to say:
The Salesforce Women in Tech Group is one of a kind. Like with anything new the first couple times attending are a bit daunting. But this group and its host, the wonderful Lousie Lockie, are so welcoming that once you’ve got a slice of pizza and a (soft) drink in hand, it’s easy to walk up to a random person and find out who they are and what they’re doing in the Salesforce ecosystem. It’s a fantastic opportunity to get a bit social, especially when working from home…
My favourite part of the evening (and Louise’s as she always mentions) comes right at the start. A space to share/celebrate/brag about recent achievements - professional or personal. It always starts off slow as people are shy but as they feel the applause raining down on them many come out of the woodworks. It’s a wonderfully supportive space and part of the reason I love this event. I don’t share every time but it’s amazing to hear the pride-filled stories of fellow WiT.
Last night’s session was no exception, it felt like there were a lot of newbies there which made the chosen topic of discussion even more relevant. This time we were hosted at Mason Frank, the global Salesforce recruitment company, and they gave us a talk on ‘How to Stand Out in the Salesforce Job Market’. Whilst the talk itself wasn’t really ground-breaking this time, it gave brilliant foundational insights on how to utilise LinkedIn, upskill and tailor your CV.
They also encouraged job seekers to keep doing their best because this year the market has been flooded by ex-Salesforce employees after the huge number of layoffs earlier this year (one of whom joined the event). The Q&A was really where it got most interesting, as the topic seemed to strike a chord with most of the attendees. This also reflected what the speakers called a Tech Crash Market in the fact that there is a lot of great talent searching for new roles at the moment. It made me feel very lucky and grateful to be so settled in my role at Inardua.
The last part of the evening always revolves around some sort of game and Salesforce SWAG. Who doesn’t love to win a little something?! Louise makes it so fun and last night we did a little quiz around Dreamforce. I’ve been to this event 4 times now, and have won 3 plushies! Unfortunately, last night there wasn’t any left by the time it was my turn but that’s okay. I’ll collect them all eventually…
One of my biggest takeaways from these kinds of events is to just turn up. No matter what kind of day you’ve had, it always cheers me up to see the friendly faces, learn something and get the reminder of what a lovely bunch are in the ecosystem.
We think it is really important for our team to attend events in the community so that they can build, maintain and strengthen relationships in the ecosystem as well as learn from some of the best minds in the industry.
