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How the Trailblazer Community Survey helped the #SalesforceOhana at Snowforce

Snowforce 2018 was a fantastic Community event – more than 400 people registered to attend 30+ sessions across 6 tracks in Salt Lake City, making for a huge #SalesforceOhana presence at the foot of the Wasatch mountains. I was fortunate enough to present at Snowforce on how beginning admins can use the Trailblazer Community Survey for career benchmarking; in this blog, you’ll learn more about the Survey, why it matters, and how you can use it to help jumpstart your Salesforce career.

 

Sponsored by Spanning, as unique as the Salesforce Ohana

Launched in 2014, the Trailblazer Community Survey is unique – it’s by admins and developers, for admins and developers. The questions asked help paint a picture of the #SalesforceOhana, which is why we sometimes call it a “Salesforce Selfie.” The Survey kicks off in the spring, and runs until Dreamforce, when we share the results back into the Community. And, at the suggestion of the Community, Spanning has donated for each survey completion to worthy nonprofit organizations. It is a joy to get to present our donation at Dreamforce.

 

How the Survey can help you benchmark your Salesforce career

There are a number of great salary surveys available for Salesforce admins and developers, such as the well-known Mason Frank Salesforce Salary Survey – but they don’t provide a 360 degree view of what makes this Community unique. In the Trailblazer Community Survey, we not only ask about salary ranges, we ask how many Trailhead badges and Certifications have been awarded. We ask about the adoption of Salesforce and vendor technologies, such as Lighting UX and AppExchange apps. And we know that the Ohana values diversity and equality, so we ask responders, if they wish, to anonymously share data that helps us see where we are as a diverse Community and where we need to progress. By diving into Trailblazer Community Survey results, Ohana members can see how they compare to peers across multiple dimensions, not just salary.

 

At Snowforce, we went beyond benchmarking and into skills for networking

The Survey findings were only part of what we shared at Snowforce 2018. We also shared practical, hands-on ways for beginning admins to start developing and practicing the skills needed to make connections across the Ohana. In facilitated discussion groups, we went past our natural introversion and talked with one another, planned for User Group participation, and made new friends and connections. And the participants seemed to think it was a great session!

 

What’s next for the Trailblazer Community Survey post-Snowforce 2018?

We’ll reprise the Snowforce session (with some iterations) at the Salesforce Boston World Tour on April 5, 2018. We’ll also launch the 2018 version of the Survey in April, making this its fifth anniversary. When you see an invitation for participation in your Trailblazer Community User Group, or in a larger Ohana or interest group, go take the Survey – and keep sharing it! Remember, it’s for admins and developers, by admins and developers, and it provides a way to benchmark careers as we see ourselves reflected back in this “Salesforce Selfie.”

Learn more about the “Salesforce Selfie” Community Survey here

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Spanning authored by Lori Witzel. Read the original post at: https://spanning.com/blog/trailblazer-community-survey-helped-salesforceohana-snowforce/