Turlock, CA, United States
Meet Jesse, proud member of Trailhead Military
If you have the summit in mind, you can climb any mountain.
How did you first get into Salesforce and Trailhead?
I’ve always loved interacting with people and solving problems, so a sales role felt natural for me. To take my sales game to the next level, I needed to focus on a different skill: funnel management. I started creating my own reports to manage my sales leads. I got hooked. I became the Salesforce expert on my team. Later, I found Trailhead Military and Trailhead. I started doing trails and getting certified, and made my transition into consulting.
What were your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
I came across Trailhead Military and Trailhead while I was recovering from a car accident and a Traumatic Brain Injury. It takes a long time to work on and since it’s an invisible injury, it’s very hard to gauge your healing progress. As part of my recovery process, my doctor wanted me to learn new skills and a new language, both at my own pace. Trailhead was perfect for staying mentally active, learning new skills, and measuring how productive I could be. Once I was capable of putting in full work weeks into Trailhead, I knew I was ready to return to the workforce.
How do you make time for Trailhead?
When I was making that career transition, I made Trailhead my full-time day job. Now that I’ve started consulting full time, I block out 30-60 minutes per day for Trailhead and treat it with the same respect as a client.
How do you stay motivated to continue learning?
I plan on becoming a Certified Technical Architect. It’s a huge goal that will take years, but I keep that goal in mind when I’m taking small daily steps in Trailhead towards that goal. If you have the summit in mind, you can climb any mountain.
What is your biggest win thanks to something you’ve learned from Trailhead?
Every now and then, I’ll have a meeting scheduled with a client where they want to discuss some specific feature that I haven’t had experience in yet. So I’ll look it up on Trailhead, become a quick expert on it, and share those trails with my team before we walk into the client meeting.
Which woodland creature do I most identify with? Probably a wolf. They're extremely loyal to their pack, which reminds me of my old Army unit.
Which project are you most proud of?
At TrailheaDX '17, I finished the project to get Einstein Vision to recognize pictures of frogs. That was really cool to me as I don’t come from a programming background. I also take a lot of pride in my Lightning Experience Specialist Superbadge, that took a lot of time but it was well worth it.
How do you use your skills to give back to your community?
I’m currently volunteering for a nonprofit organization as their part time Business Analyst/Administrator.
What does being a Trailblazer mean to you?
Every time I go to Yosemite, I see people take an incredibly curious mindset about exploring new trails or visiting a familiar trail and noticing something new for the first time. They're in total awe of the ecosystem around them. That’s what being a Salesforce Trailblazer is like for me.