ORIGINS: The Story of Mayank Srivastava

Today, I am excited to have a new post in the Origins series where we hear from Admin Heroes on how they got their start with Salesforce. Today’s story comes from Mayank Srivastava. Enjoy!

I hail from a Computer Science background and in my first job which also happens to be my current one, my primary job responsibilities have always been focused on process automation and analytics to ensure quality software deliveries. I had been using Salesforce as an end user but was well aware of the power of the platform. I requested the higher management to give me administrative capabilities in Salesforce so that I could analyze how we could enhance and optimize our existing processes to which they gladly agreed. For the first few years, starting 2012, my efforts were mostly centered on cleaning up our org in terms of data cleansing, better sharing and security, more organized page layouts and optimizing sales and service processes. The more I got to work with the Force.com platform, the more comfortable I grew with utilizing various part of it to meet complex business requirements. My efforts and the impact that they had were recognized throughout the firm, both by internal employees and higher management which were the biggest boost to keep me going and keep me motivated. I am so glad that I took the initiative and encourage everybody to do the same, if they feel that their effort can make a difference.

Tools like workflows, URL hacking, custom Javascript buttons got me started with the automation side of the platform and there was no looking back after that. Back in 2013, the COO approached me with a complex problem related to attaching consolidated Conga reports as PDF’s to an E-mail and sending them on the first of every month. Thanks to all the experience that I had gained, I knew it could be done using Apex and custom settings (bosses love this!); something that I had never worked with before but knew could be leveraged in this case.  Since this was my first ever kickstart with Apex, I had a long conversation with one of my close friends, Deepak Anand, who happens to be an expert not only in configuration but also custom development. After 2 weeks of rigorous brainstorming and coding, we finally got it to work. I demonstrated the functionality to the higher management and they were super impressed. I absolutely loved how we could utilize the programmatic side of Force.com platform to accomplish a task that was otherwise impossible via the declarative side of it.

Since then, I worked on multiple end to end implementations and ended up automating almost 70-80% of the processes that were earlier being carried out manually. The higher management recognized my efforts, promoted me to the Team Lead role last year and sent me to Dreamforce, all expenses paid which was undeniably one of the best things to have happened to me in my 4 years with the firm. I hopped around in SFO from location to location like a kid in a candy store, with the impossible goal of attending all 1000+ sessions =)  I also pledged to use Agenda Builder more wisely next time and grab all HOT sessions right on the first day of it going live!

I came back super energized, super enthusiastic and beaming with utmost confidence that I can do a lot more than what I had done before in my org. The Apex for Admins sessions by David Liu and Imam Maghroori were enough to stimulate me to get into hardcore development on the Force.com platform and master Java along with Apex and Visualforce. I also promised myself all Salesforce certifications within the next 2-3 months after returning from Dreamforce, which I wasn’t sure that I could accomplish since I was getting married in November 2014. I was well aware the married life changes a lot of things and spending 1-2 months on exam preparation soon after the wedding probably wouldn’t be fair to my wife. I discussed it with my wife and fortunately, she was aware of my love for the platform and was immensely supportive and encouraged me to go for it. Thanks to all the amazing people around me that I was able pass all five certification exams in less than 6 weeks and from that point on, I knew that I wanted to build my career in Salesforce.

I also decided that it was time to give back to the community where people are trying to be good admins and developer themselves. Since then, I have helped a couple of Non Profits get started with Salesforce and have been extremely active on the Success Community. It feels great to get thank-you emails and personal messages from folks who I help on the success community on a daily basis and I hope I can continue this for a long long time! I am also planning to start a blog soon so that I can share with the community whatever I learnt during the past few years.

I recently decided that it was time to make a switch to a full time Salesforce developer role, something that I had been craving to do for the past few weeks. I updated my LinkedIn profile with the ever-so-coveted Salesforce certification logos and the nature of my contribution to the community, which was enough to attract calls from technical recruiters (another reason to go get those certifications!). I interviewed with five amazing firms and was able to convert four of them into job offers. Thanks a ton to all the incredible people around me (special shout out to Deepak Anand , Jackie Travieso, John Szurley, Sharif Shalaan) that I now have a dream job where I can’t wait to be on board and work on Salesforce all day long!

My journey with Salesforce has been nothing but fascinating, enlightening and an absolute joy-ride. It’s undoubtedly one of the best feelings in the world to be eager to get up on a Monday morning, rush to work, log into Salesforce and get started with working on the platform that I am so passionate about.

Follow me on Twitter and the Success Community.