I joined the Talent Stacker Salesforce Career Development Program on January 12, 2021. I was stuck professionally and looking for anything that would be a change for me. Salesforce seemed like a great option!
I had spent the previous 8.5 years working in the live event industry working on a variety of events and traveling the world. That career came to a grinding halt in 2020. Thankfully, the software company I used to work for offered me a full-time contract position soon after. I joined the QA team and worked on some other special projects that needed an extra set of hands. But after a year of that, I was ready for something new. I heard about Talent Stacker on the ChooseFI podcast and dove right in.
In 2021 I was able to go back on the road. This slowed my studying way down and I wasn’t sure I was going to continue. I still wanted to be doing live events and traveling all the time, so I jumped at the chance to pack my bags and head out on planes and tour buses. However, after a tour in the fall, I was ready to retire from that life. I got married in February 2020 and we adopted a cat that fall. Being away from home so much was a lot harder than it had been when I was single.
I resumed studying in January 2022, and this time it all felt easier. I was able to go through the Admin Trailhead in just a couple of months, did all of the study group material from Talent Stacker to help prepare. I did one more tour that spring before I officially retired and put away my show blacks. This time around, I used my free time on the road to keep studying. I didn’t skip any days, even if that was just 15 minutes of reviewing something.
506 days after I signed up for Talent Stacker and started my Salesforce journey, I took the Admin exam and passed it on my first try! It was such a relief to get past the first exam. I knew that was going to be the biggest challenge of all, no matter how difficult future certifications and projects would end up being.
I used the material and guidance from Talent Stacker to start. Most of my early learning was done on Trailhead, following the Admin Trailmix. I used Focus on Force for detailed study guides and practice tests to get read. I also found a great set of videos on Youtube that I used for my final cram sessions the week before I took my exam.
Want to learn more about Talent Stacker? Check out the free five-day challenge! You’ll be sent an email each day with specific steps to take each day. This is a great way to get going without having to figure out everything on your own. Sign up for the 5 Day Challenge using this link and I’ll get a referral credit if you end up signing up for the full program. The referral doesn’t cost you anything! Prefer not to use the referral link? That’s OK! You can use this link to go straight to the signup page without the referral.
