Retraining to be a Salesforce Consultant: Is a Tech Career Your Next Move?

In this bonus podcast episode, we delve into Ana-Maria Guzu’s inspiring transition from a sales role in the construction sector to a flourishing career as a Salesforce consultant facilitated by the wonderful Salesforce trainer, Supermums.

Ana Maria unpacks the benefits Salesforce presents, particularly for those eager to pivot their career paths. She sheds light on the supportive environment, the scope for professional advancement, and the rich diversity within her training cohort.

During our conversation, Ana-Maria discusses the hands-on experience she acquired during her training and the increasing demand for Salesforce expertise. She offers a glimpse into her daily responsibilities as a consultant and the fulfilment she gets from her new vocation. Her story is a testament to the power of adaptability and continuous learning in the dynamic Salesforce ecosystem.

If you are considering a career change and wondering if a tech career is for you, don't miss this week's bonus episode from the Work It Like A Mum podcast.

Show Links:

Connect with Ana-Maria Guzu on LinkedIn

Connect with Elizabeth Willetts on LinkedIn

Learn more about retraining in Salesforce with Supermums here.

Boost your career with Investing in Women's Career Coaching! Get expert CV, interview, and LinkedIn guidance tailored for all career stages. Navigate transitions, discover strengths, and reach goals with our personalised approach. Book now for your dream job! Use 'workitlikeamum' for a 10% discount.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life. I'm a working mom with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women job board and community. In this show, I'm honored to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business. They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, set boundaries and balance, the challenges they faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance. We cover it all. Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED Talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school. So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cosy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.

Speaker 1: 1:07

This is the Work it Like A Mum podcast. This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women. Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers. Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you. They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries. Ready to find your perfect job? Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity. Now back to the show. Hello, welcome to today's Facebook LinkedIn Live. I'm delighted because today I'm going to be chatting with Anna Maria Guzzo. I'm going to be talking all about Salesforce and how you can retrain as a Salesforce consultant which is what Anna Maria did without any tech experience, and whether retraining and becoming a tech specialist is for you.

Speaker 1: 2:15

I'm just but if people are logging on, do let us know if you can hear us all. Okay, I'm going to be chatting today with Anna Maria Guzzo, who retrained in Salesforce. She didn't have any tech experience, looking at your LinkedIn profile and now you're thriving in a new role, so we're going to learn more about Salesforce today. Thank you so much for joining me, ana Maria. It's so lovely to meet with you and chat, so talk us through your background and what you were doing prior to this.

Speaker 2: 2:43

So my background is really in construction industry. I've done bits and pieces, starting from administration, finance, and I ended up in sales. I've spent 10 years in a company in construction industry where, for the last few years, I've ended up being sales manager, and so I wanted something different. Hence why I started to look for a change. But yes, my background is really in sales.

Speaker 1: 3:13

Wow. So what made you then move from sales to this?

Speaker 2: 3:17

Well, I guess I was keep finding myself questioning what I'm doing. Is this something that I want to do until retirement? Is this something that I would keep having doubts? I would keep having those feelings where it's not enough. And, you know, flexibility was not part of the deal too much. And so I wanted something that I wouldn't have to feel every two to three years that I need to find something new because I didn't challenge my brain enough, I guess. So I wanted something completely different, something that I know that over the years I can move from one department to another or from one industry to another without difficulties, without needing to retrain and retrain again. And so I spent about a month researching on what will that be.

Speaker 2: 4:06

And I don't even know how I got around Salesforce, I guess. First I got around super moms and I saw what they were doing and I heard okay, super moms, I'm a mom, you know, so I can relate. And then I looked at Salesforce itself and I said, okay, you know, when you say you see Salesforce, you think, oh, it's a sell thing. And I said, all right, okay, I've done that. So it's not sales related, you don't need to have sales background, you don't have to be in sales at all? Because it's definitely not. It's about administering a platform that actually gives the organization a good customer relationship, so it's managing that. It's part of IT. I always had my question is Salesforce actually part of sales department or is it 100% part of IT department? And 100% you won't have to do sales one bit. So that's something that I really had questions about.

Speaker 2: 5:08

And, doing more research and speaking with super moms as well, I understood exactly what it is and I've loved it. I loved it for so many reasons, first of all, being you won't be able to know everything in Salesforce, because of how big it is and because of the opportunity that it offers, and so it meant for me I could have lifetime learning. That's exactly what I need. But if you're not the type of person and if you just want to be a salesforce administrator and do the course of the admin and then you can just be an admin, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 5:42

It's about the possibility and the opportunity it offers. That's what really, really I liked about that and also the flexibility. You know, having a daughter, it meant that I needed the time to be able to spend time with her to. You know, it's school drops, pickups, you know you have all that. So I really needed that flexibility and so there are loads of companies that offer that because part of the job. You can have remote jobs and, if not remote, hybrid ones. I've rarely seen all day in the office ones of jobs around, so it's definitely an industry where flexibility is part of the deal.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Brilliant. So what made you choose Supermoms to train with them? What was it that appealed to you about Supermums?

Speaker 2: 6:26

Well, so many things, but I guess the first one was the flexibility in terms of when you can study. Yeah Well, they require to have 16 hours a week, but you could do them nighttime if you want to. You can do them in the morning, you can do them in the evening. You can do in the morning, you can do in the evening. So part of these 16 hours you essentially have three hours live session with an instructor, which you had your chance to ask the questions that you have and now understanding a lot better, rather than just reading through a PowerPoint presentation or God knows what else, and so that is recorded as well. So you didn't have to attend that. You will have a recording session if needed. But that's exactly what I like is that? You know, I'm a very morning person, so I will wake up at five and I have my two hour piece of learning, and then I could do some beats in the evening, I could do some beats over the weekend, and that's exactly what I like.

Speaker 2: 7:21

But soon I discovered actually that was one bit, but the community around it is just amazing. You know, I had my fair share of promises. Oh, we are a great community, We'll help each other and I was very, very skeptic at the beginning. I said that's not possible. It's like the rest you know that we are there for you when it is. But it was actually the opposite there was. There's an amazing community, like on, even on a daily task that you don't know how to do or you're just stuck, just drop a WhatsApp. Someone answers you in the next 10 minutes, for sure. Yes, so this is the community and the help that you get.

Speaker 2: 7:58

The mentoring side they offer a mentor alongside the course as well, which will help with the homework, will help with all the questions that you have along, Because you know it's a system that you need to learn the ins and outs and it's complex, so you will have questions 100%. So the mentoring I had an amazing mentor which I'm still in touch with. She still helps me out through the job when I need to, which is amazing. But those were the main things that I really really liked about in terms of different providers as well, Because you will normally look at at and do you know they offer also this plan where you can. You don't have to pay all in. You have the plans. You can pay six months or three months as well, and that was also very convenient for me yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 8:45

And how many people are in your cohort, then you know people I don't know an exact number.

Speaker 2: 8:49

I think we're about 33, if I'm not wrong, around 33. Are you still in touch with them now? Yes, definitely. We have our own whatsapp group. We're still planning to see each other in person haven't managed yet, we're hoping so, but it has been an amazing cohort. So many of my colleagues they are just amazing and they went through the course so, so nice, and they have jobs now and we still help each other when we need to. We are doing some live catch-ups from time to time as well. I couldn't attend last one, sadly, but yes, we are definitely still in touch oh, that sounds so.

Speaker 1: 9:26

The course is 16 hours a week. It sounds like you can do it pretty much when you want to do it how long are you studying for?

Speaker 2: 9:33

for 20 weeks, 11 or 12 weeks, I think. There are 12 weeks of actual learning, of actual course material, and then you get into the work experience of things. So you okay, so talk us through the work experience then. So that's an amazing part actually. That's what gives you so much value. Super moms actually is giving you an opportunity to work through either a nonprofit organization or whichever might be that signed up for being a partner with them, and so you get to have 48 hours, and that doesn't need to be like 48 hours. You can have them in three weeks, you can have them in four weeks. It depends on what the project is, where you get the project manager and where you actually get to spend time and work in the org itself working on the platform. You have some tasks that you need to do, being that data migration or configuration, from start to finish.

Speaker 2: 10:27

My project was just amazing. I was so lucky I caught an implementation from the beginning, so the nonprofit was new to Salesforce and so I had to implement everything from them from scratch, which gave me so much experience and was lovely to be part of that. And that is so valuable as well to the CV because it's essentially it's work yeah, you can put it on there Something that the organization will always will have. That valuable experience as an admin because, believe it or not, you go from zero to so much knowledge. It's unbelievable. And the how the course it's actually delivered in a way where it might not make sense on the week what you're learning, but by the end of the course you know. Right now everything comes together. If you know, I'm such a big advocate of Salesforce, my husband started the course as well. Lovely, oh, that's nice.

Speaker 1: 11:31

So you finish the course, you do the work experience, and then what happens. And then you, you know how in demand are people with Salesforce certifications.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Still in demand. I know there were debates whether this is still a good career to have or not, and I've actually read some articles lately where they were saying is it still okay to train? Is there still need? You know, obviously it has its fair share of redundancy here and there in terms of Salesforce itself, but definitely still in demand. I remember I probably had about 25, 30 recruitments contact me for jobs. It was yours, is yours. This was my first interview and I got the job, so I stick to it because I just felt the organization was the right one for me, but they're definitely still in demand. I know there'll be a lot of people who would love to have 25, 30 recruiters.

Speaker 2: 12:20

I mean that is a lot of recruiters, yes, and that's actually why my husband said I need to get into Salesforce. There's definitely a market for it and there is definitely a demand for it. So yes, it's definitely. I'll say it's definitely still up there and the great thing about it you can have any background and your background it's going to be so valuable because you will have so many transferable skills. You know, if you have communication skills, it's just one of the big things to have because you will understand and you can speak with the users and you can gather the requirements that needs be and then transform them into essentially building a solution for them. So I've seen people from so many from teaching backgrounds, from military background like really you wouldn't think of it, but doctors as well. So it's just, it's really a place for everyone. I guess Salesforce ecosystem it really does offer and it really does stick to the principle that they say they do.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Yeah, so what does a day so you get the certification? You've all had some work experience. What do you actually do on a day to day?

Speaker 2: 14:34

So you get a certification just to answer sorry your last question. After you did the work experience, you have a go at passing the admin exam and you also get the recruitment team from Supermoms to help you actually find a job, and so it's CV drafting, it's about how you present yourself in an interview, so they really help you. Start to finish. I got a current job through Supermoms Recruitment, which was great help, Day-to-day job. It's essentially well because I've joined an organization that just started using Salesforce.

Speaker 2: 15:07

It's a lot of figuring out and training users and documenting processes. It's about just to give you a rough example. You will sit around with a user and you'll see right, let me see how you're actually doing your work. Or maybe just a very simple example will be I can see you doing way too many clicks. Let me just move the buttons around for you, and so it makes your life easier. So it's really the nitty gritty of the administration of the platform. And but on top of that you have the automation side. So you will use flows, you will use validation rules where you have to say, Because most of the platform so it's essentially it gives you so many possibilities to create and configure something just with clicks and not with code, Because I don't have code, I don't have tech experience, so I have no idea how to code, but you do have so many other tools that helps you automate processes.

Speaker 2: 16:02

So, for the user, don't have to spend that admin time. I think this is the best way to describe Salesforce at a very low level, really, because it's so much more than that. It saves the organization, the admin part, where that's why it's feasible to have a person like me in the organization, where, rather, have one person spending the time making sure that admin work is taken off by automating the processes, rather than having all the team doing admin work all the time, where they can focus on the more meaningful task of the day. So, besides that, you also have meetings with your stakeholder being them external or internal, like your user, your managers and finding solutions. For example, I've been involved in finding a backup solution for the charity that I'm working with because they are new to Salesforce. We want to make sure if something happens, we can restore the data.

Speaker 2: 16:58

So there's no one thing that I can say right today. I'm just doing flows. There isn't anything like that. It's if you have a ticket from users that say something doesn't work, you need to jump on it and fix it. But that's the exciting thing. I guess it's so amazing the team I'm with with. They are so understanding that Salesforce is not just so simple. You have ways around it.

Speaker 1: 17:20

It gives you so much possibility but also so many solutions, and so you just need to find the right solution for the organization itself and it sounds like the training was good because you know, like we said, no, it doesn't really know Salesforce, you'll get a ticket and it'll be fixing it and I'm'll be like, oh my gosh, how do I do that? But it sounds like you had such good training, you're quite confident in your skills and expertise, a hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 17:43

The training. You know you could have a bootcamp for two, three days. I guarantee you won't be able to come out of that bootcamp with this sort of knowledge. And it's also the AI comes into place. I'm part of the course which I really need to get back on the AI and how that helps you during the day-to-day job. Actually, this is through AI force and collaboration with super moms as well, and it's just amazing. You will use a lot of, honestly, a lot of Google, a lot of chat, a lot of AI force. It's just that question because it's so complex. It's that research that you need to do to make sure that what you're changing is actually in need of what the charity or the organization you're working in needs. So it's a lot of that, but it's amazing that you have the background. You know where to start because you had that opportunity.

Speaker 1: 18:34

Build that knowledge during the course as well I think what's so important, you know, it's something like salesforce does improve an organization's productivity. Like you said, they don't need a full team, necessarily, of administrators if salesforce can do a lot of that. So you know, we hear a lot, don't we, about the productivity crisis, so it's companies will be investing in systems like salesforce to improve that, and automations are so hot, and you talked about the AI, and how do you keep yourself upskilled on? You know, because it must be a moving system, salesforce themselves must be improving it all the time.

Speaker 2: 19:08

Yes, definitely. They have at least three, really have three releases a year, so you kind of need to stay on top of what's going on. Supermoms it's definitely my provider in terms of new courses. As I said, I'm currently doing the AI course through them and together with AI Force as well. Linkedin it's a good platform where so many colleagues from Salesforce ecosystem are adding daily solutions, what they found, what they feel as well. If I'm allowed to name a few Salesforce Band it's a great website where you can find so many valuable information as well. Google, the good old Google ChatGPT, but through courses.

Speaker 2: 19:50

We also in the charity will be using Marketing Cloud as well. So that's something that I'm looking to upskill as well, because that's going to be needed the admin side, knowing how to deal with that. And yes, supermoms offers this course as well. And you know the biggest part I guess the big entry level is the admin. So as soon as you've done that, don't expect that you have to upskill and have every course of 20 weeks.

Speaker 2: 20:15

That's not like that. As soon as you have the basic, as soon as you have that knowledge, then it's very easy to upskill in so different areas. Marketing cloud it's one of the niche, then you have so many others. It depends on the industry where you land. I've didn't have experience on nonprofit before, so I'm just really gasping what that means as well. But that will mean that obviously, my future will be upskilling in the nonprofit clouds as well. So it's really about where you end up being and where you want to be, because this is not to say that you have a job offer. 100% go to that job offer. It does need to be in line with your needs, in line with what you like to do as well.

Speaker 1: 20:57

Yeah, so you mentioned that you took the job for flexibility and I know that supermom, this is a huge advocate and Heather, you know flexible working, so talk us through what the week looks like from that perspective, where you know where do you work? Do you work full-time, part-time?

Speaker 2: 21:10

I do work full-time but I work from home most of the days. I go one day in the office when needed because it's quite far. It's about an hour and a half from me so it's not very easy to get there, but I do work from home. I do a nine to five, you know there's there's also the flexibility when needed, when I need to pick up my daughter or drop off, or there's always that side of flexibility yeah, and you're enjoying it.

Speaker 1: 21:33

Where's next? So there's so many different courses and things like that. Where would you like to see your career going?

Speaker 2: 21:38

What I've seen so far from non-profit. I'm probably going to stick to non-profit, at least for a good while, and try to upskill that. And certainly the next will be marketing cloud understanding how we can use that in terms of engagement with supporters. It's definitely needed within the organization as well. I did, certainly you will. As a beginner, you always set yourself it's overwhelming. I was overwhelmed as well. I said which way will I take, because there's so many different paths. But quickly I realized it is a point of making a plan, but not the plan. That's right. This is what I want to do. This is 100% what I'm going to do, because you might have some opportunities that you didn't expect.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I didn't expect ending up in nonprofit. I would have loved to because I wanted to do something meaningful with technology. Being spent so many years in commercial, I really wanted something that will just add that value to me, to my daughter, just leaving a legacy saying you have been part of this sort of challenge which helps women and children, which I'm sure every single one of us had our share of NHS, and it's amazing to be able to be part and just helping that little bit more in creating this experience for the children and the women. They are not so well. This was very unexpected for me. I wanted something like that. Without knowing I do, I definitely wanted it. So it does depend, you know, on everyone's, but I have definitely a plan. But be flexible with it, because if you end up in an organization where they need to add different clouds, like experience clouds, or CPQ, like configure price code, that's definitely in demand as well. Be open about it, because I think it's important, so it will help your career as well, because that's the best practice.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Actually just doing it every day is the best practice overall, absolutely and I think as well you know, I implemented a crm in the summer and actually it's just transformed how I work. And I think as well you know you're working obviously in a meaningful and actually it's just transformed how I work. And I think, as well you know, you're working obviously in a meaningful organization but actually what you're doing is so meaningful within that organization and it makes such an immediate impact to everybody that works there and I guess you must have real job satisfaction 100%.

Speaker 2: 23:51

yes, and you know it's when you end up at the end of the day, or? What did I do today? Oh, I made that user life a lot more easier.

Speaker 1: 23:59

Yeah, and that user will not forget that. And you know next week when the job that they were doing that used to take them, you know, an hour now takes them five, 10 minutes. They'll be thanking you.

Speaker 2: 24:09

That's definitely a satisfaction there at the end of the day, every single day, you know, even when you finish a report and they say, oh right, yes, we can pull all of this data now, as opposed to what we used to have before. That's amazing and, you know, if you get your daily satisfactions out of those small things, which is important to enjoy every time, you get one because I think it's just, it's making you move further absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 24:35

How can people connect with you and you're right, people have any questions about salesforce that they connect with you on linkedin yes, 100.

Speaker 2: 24:42

You can find me on linkedin. I'm not so much on facebook, but you can definitely drop me a message on linkedin. Every questions you have in terms of salesforce or career start or and we have our lean actually from superman is was part of my cohort, so we we're keeping in touch as well. She's definitely more suitable to answer questions in terms of what the course involves and what happens inside the course, because it does change it. I can see that my husband, they have some few changes we haven't done. I guess they're staying on top of things of what's happening and adding the AI to it as well, which is amazing to see that your husband's doing it as well, which is amazing to see that your husband's doing it as well.

Speaker 2: 25:19

so it's anybody that wants to to retrain please do yes and feel free to drop me a message. I'm more than willing to answer any questions you have.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Thank you so much, maria. It's been such a pleasure to chat with you and learn more about Salesforce and Supermoms thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 25:39

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend. If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode. You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram. Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.