Externship draft for Salesforce Developer and Data Analyst

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Running head: EXTERNSHIP DRAFT

My Externship Draft as a Salesforce Developer

Introduction

Being a salesforce developer might be a fun to do job but it surely is also a quite challenging job. Having to always endeavor to tailor the salesforce atmosphere to suit the needs of my customers is the most common thing I have to do on a daily basis. Taking into consideration the vast needs and expectations of clients, you will get an insight of why it is always necessary for me to make maximum use of every externship opportunity that knocks at my door. On the current one, expanding my experience as a developer is key on my short list of goals. Other goals on my list include to sharpen my skills in project management and to add a twist in Information Systems Infrastructure.

My experience as an extern was very wide and it would not be possible to enumerate everything about it. In this paper however, I outline most of the experiences I had during the externship period. I would like to state that I focused mainly on project management and information systems infrastructure, and as such the paper will be edged on these two as main subjects. The following therefore is an externship draft that precedes the report that I will compile later.

My Expectations before the Externship

Just like any other extern out there, my greatest expectation was to gain first-hand experience in the workplace and to practice my already learnt knowledge in the field. In addition, I was greatly anticipating meeting new people who had vast experience and knowledge of the job market. This is in view of the fact that most jobs are secured in the line of networking with people of the same interest. I also expected to be able to make a decision on what to specialize on as I gradually progress to make a career out of salesforce development.

In this particular externship opportunity, I was looking forward to finding someone better that myself and as such have a real mentor who is already out there making fortunes and a name for themselves just by doing what I do. I have always desired to have someone I can chase after, or some sort of pacemaker, so that I could chart my way upwards and get to know what it takes to be a guru in developing. These are among the many expectations I had while making the decision to be on this program.

My duties as a Salesforce Developer

As I employed my time to venture into project management, I was greatly involved in contributing to the best performance of the customer’s business through research, planning and progress monitoring. Through giving of advice and help in lower levels of management, I was able to manage specific aspects of business environments. In addition, I was able to contribute to the creation of project strategies and keep track of them by running audits and reviews.

During my involvement in information systems infrastructure, I interacted with other professionals especially the information systems manager. I got to share in his world working with information systems and explored the following tasks and responsibilities. Most of the work involved benchmarking, analyzing, reporting on and recommending for the enhancement and advancement of the business systems and infrastructure.

In addition, I worked with stakeholders in a bid to define the various business requirements for implementing technology needs. I involved myself in the maintenance of awareness of the latest technology while making recommendations for the adoption of the most necessary forms. The information systems manager helped me to get acquainted with managing the deployment, development, upgrade, monitoring and support of all the available information systems. These included web systems, hardware, software, servers and peripherals.

Learned Skills and Experiences during the Externship

During the period of my placement, I was acquainted with the ability to integrate across various systems and to present data at the correct time, at the correct place. This was mainly using the platform and tools availed by Salesforce. It interested me to a whole new level just to customize customer needs without any restrictions. The freedom I experienced doing this inspired an enthusiasm to continue pursuing my career as a developer. I came face to face with the reality of a vast future into which I had an opportunity to explore.

I had some time to alternate between Apex, Visualforce and JavaScript programming languages. Doing this and learning to employ the individual aspects of each one of them to meet customized client needs came as a positive experience for me. My interaction with salesforce developers inspired me to endeavor for salesforce certifications in order to gain a competitive edge in the job market. Such is the Salesforce Certified Developer and the Salesforce Certified Advanced Developer certifications. I coveted these because I learnt that with them, I will easily be preferred for job opportunities. This is because most companies will only hire certified developers, clearly considering the credibility of all their employees.

Interacting with the information systems manager aided me with managerial and leadership skills especially in overseeing the initiation, progress and completion of projects as well as coming up with new integrations to support new system initiatives. I also learnt that to be competitive in information systems infrastructure, one has to be keen to employ Information Technology best practices in order to guarantee sufficient controls over the environment of production including web development and project management.

Other Skills and Experiences Learnt

Apart from professional skills and experiences, I would also like to enumerate some other things I learnt during the period in which I was on externship. First and foremost, I was able to learn some communication skills especially when interacting with other people at the office. It was always important to take note of the different personalities and how to handle each one of them while focusing on performing all my tasks as expected.

Secondly, I was able to polish my report writing skills as I was required to take stock of everything that was going on during my placement so that I could come up with a comprehensive report. In doing this, I also sharpened other skills like observation, research and drawing inferences. This draft could well serve as the direct input of the report writing skills that I acquired during the externship.

Thirdly, being in close interaction with the persons at the managerial positions, I was able to come up with some insights of how to lead teams and to coordinate them. In addition, I was able to come to terms with the personal commitments that come with the qualities of a good manager. Virtues like trustworthiness, honesty, integrity and self-discipline acquired profound meaning to me once I got to experience each of them, from the people I worked with.

Challenges Faced

Even before I enrolled for the externship, I knew it would not be a smooth ride all the way. I knew I would have to face some challenges on the way though I did not have in mind the magnitude of these expected difficulties. Lucky for me, I only faced a handful of them, which were not that bad. The most prominent one however had to be that there was a difficulty in doing continuous integration and automatic testing during project management.

Like in any other new environment, being in the company came with the challenge of familiarizing myself with the environment. It was however easy for me to acquaint myself with the people and working conditions since this was my area of specialization. I even found it easier to interact with the technology at the office than with the different personalities there. All in all however, it was a good experience and these few challenges did not take away from me the thrill of putting into practice my knowledge and expertise.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Moving away from challenges, I could make some recommendations that I think would make everything easier for employees. First and foremost, I would like to point out that the way operations are handled in the company is just exemplary. This is beginning from the effectiveness of workers, to their efficiency and to the performance standards of the systems in use. Also, the way hardware, software, networks and procedures are handled is very professional.

In addition to maintaining the above positive observations, it would be prudent for the company to put in place considerations for incorporating all the major programming languages into practice at equal measure. I found it a challenge to only focus on the most preferred languages while leaving out others which are as good and as effective. Lastly, if the management would create more room for professional advice and support, then the output of all projects would have fewer loopholes for correction.

To conclude my externship was definitely of great value to me. I have practiced nearly on all activities where a salesforce developer can participate. I have done many activities more than what I have stated above. I have learned that practice is the best school where I can make myself perfect in the future. Starting from management of big and not so big projects to the participation in information systems development, I have got a good lesson that enables me to be an excellent salesforce developer in the future.

This externship has helped me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. It acts as a mirror for me. This helps me to differentiate what skills and knowledge I have to improve in the coming time. Knowing weakness is a half way to avoid it. So, I can surely say that this externship was a very educative opportunity to enhance what I have right things and minimize what I have wrong things.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the experience and knowledge I have gained during the course of my externship specializing in project management and information systems; I saw the salesforce developer in me in action and learned a lot. All in all, the experience had some minor challenges at times, but mostly, it was very educating, moreover it opened new perspective for my future. I can clearly say that the externship met my expectations.

References

Gupta, R., Pareek, S., & Ng, A. (2014). Salesforce.com customization handbook: Customize salesforce to automate your business requirements.

Force.com developer certification handbook (DEV401): a comprehensive handbook to guide Force.com developers through important fundamentals and prepare them for the DEV401 exam

Rākeśagupta, & Pareek, S. (2013). Developing applications with Salesforce Chatter. Birmingham: Packt Publishing.