Today, I’m a lead solution engineer at Salesforce, a Golden Hoodie recipient, and an All Star Ranger with more than 2,100 badges. There’s no end in sight to my learning journey. Along the way, I learned a lot about what it takes to make career goals a reality.
Here are my top six tips for goal-setting success.
A few years ago, I listed my top career goals for the following year on a LinkedIn post. I asked others to share their goals for the next year, too. My goals, which probably seemed audacious to some at the time, included obtaining multiple Salesforce Certifications, earning hundreds of Trailhead badges and superbadges, and, most importantly, finding a job in the Salesforce ecosystem.
I not only achieved my career goals. I surpassed them.
In 18 months, I discovered Salesforce, earned six certifications, achieved All Star Ranger status on Trailhead—Salesforce’s free online learning platform—with 10 superbadges, and was hired as a solution afghanistan phone number list architect by a highly-regarded consulting firm.
Dream big, work hard, and you can achieve anything in the Salesforce ecosystem.
After a year, Salesforce reached out and I was eventually hired as a senior solutions consultant. I’ve been promoted twice since then—first to senior solution engineer, then to lead solution engineer. And I was recently awarded the coveted Golden Hoodie.
2. Learn, earn, repeat
Once you have your big career goals, it’s time to work on achieving them. I know it may seem daunting at first. Finding myself a year before my military retirement with no job prospects, despite my years of preparation, left me feeling defeated and dejected.
But when I heard about Salesforce and discovered Trailhead, I was hooked! One badge turned into five and quickly became 10, then 100 in just a few short months. I poured all my free time, energy, and heart into learning how to be a system administrator.