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< Golden Hoodie
Hector Perez Jr.
CRM Strategy & Platform Leader, AWS
Seattle, WA, United States
See my Trailhead Profile
I love the power of the platform, and that passion ignited my career.
How did you get started with Salesforce?
Like many young men who go into the military, I was desperate for an escape from my tough childhood and aimless, troubled adolescence. My years as a combat medic in the Air Force saved my life, gave me discipline, and filled me with confidence. After the military, I took advantage of the GI bill to get my degree and found my way into tech at Dell. I was living in London working on the back-end, data side of our legacy CRM system when the opportunity to lead a Salesforce pilot came my way. I jumped all in and haven’t looked back. I loved the power of the platform, and that passion ignited my career. As more success came my way, I was brimming with gratitude for the military that saved my life and the ecosystem that propelled me into an incredible career as a tech leader. That gratitude led to a deep desire to pay it forward and help other veterans.
My experience at Dreamforce ‘14 helped me feel empowered to actually make it happen! So I co-founded Merivis in August 2015 with my wife, Kate, my best friend and colleague, Joe Castro, and the support of the Trailblazer Community. We’re so proud to lead this non-profit Vetforce partner that helps veterans and spouses get started, get connected, and build amazing careers in the Salesforce ecosystem.
How does Trailhead help you learn?
I use Trailhead for many areas of learning, even areas that I didn't think of when I started. While I have five Salesforce certifications and am getting close to Ranger status on Trailhead, I use Trailhead on a weekly basis to help shape my learning and knowledge about the technical side of the Salesforce Platform. However, I also use Trailhead to acquire skills related to strategy and business topics. The flexibility of Trailhead allows me to learn, when I want to learn, about the ever-changing demands of my career.
Has Trailhead ever taught you something you can directly attribute to a success at work or life?
Trailhead really helps me fill in the areas where I don't have much familiarity. It also helps me stay up-to-date on new Salesforce product releases. Additionally, I've used Trailhead to learn about Salesforce mobile and its deployment strategies. These trails and learnings from Trailhead directly contributed to my success leading a mobile deployment at a previous employer.
Prior to Trailhead, what were your biggest work or career challenges?
Prior to Trailhead, if I wanted to learn something new, I had to go buy a book or read old, antiquated documentation to ramp up, which took a lot of time. Now, with Trailhead, I can learn at my own pace, earn points, and share my learnings with others.
Have you been inspired to tell others about Trailhead?
Trailhead is key to the Merivis training curriculum, and it's very inspiring to see veterans first learning about Salesforce through Trailhead. Merivis couples the Trailhead training with instructor-led classroom training offered by Salesforce, and this combination has proven to be successful for our veteran community.
What message do you have for people new to Salesforce?
Just get started! Learning Salesforce can be intimidating for some, and my advice has always been to just dive in. Start small with a few trails, then attend a Trailblazer Community Group or Salesforce Saturday to connect with others in your community. Before you know it, you'll take off in the Salesforce world!
What message do you have for companies new to Salesforce/Trailhead or considering using Trailhead for onboarding or employee continuing education?
Get your employees excited about Trailhead and consider using myTrailhead as your employee onboarding tool. myTrailhead is great—it allows you to customize training for your company by targeting key trails and modules that can be presented at the right time, in the right context, for your employee base.
How has the Trailblazer Community been part of your Salesforce adventure?
The Trailblazer Community has been essential to the success of Merivis, starting with Stephanie Herrera, a Salesforce MVP and Merivis board member. Stephanie has helped us and our program graduates by guiding us to make the right connections and lifting us up within the community. This concept couldn’t be nearly as successful in any other tech ecosystem. That’s because of the incredible, inclusive culture that makes this community so unique, both online and in person. We get veterans started, then the broader community takes them in, lifts them up, and helps them achieve beyond their wildest dreams.
What does being a Trailblazer mean to you?
Being a Trailblazer means simply one thing: You blaze trails in order to open pathways for others to learn. It means that at some point, someone in your life took a chance on you, and now you should do the same.
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