Help me get to Dreamforce 2014
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Dreamforce is the ultimate conference for everything related to Salesforce.com. For me, it is where I must be the week of October 13, 2014.
Why? For the learning opportunities, sessions, HOT, Women in Technology, Keynotes and most importantly, the community networking opportunities that abound everywhere you turn. I am currently seeking my dream job as a Salesforce Admin.
This is the first year that I am able to attend, all thanks to a charity silent auction that I found on the Salesforce Success Community. The item up for bid was a full conference pass and Kona coffee donated by Kona DataSearch. Maria Belli donated a Fitbit Flex and a matching donation was made by Sharon Klardie. The proceeds of this auction went to Friends of Forgotten Children in Concord, New Hampshire. I was the lucky bidder and won the pass after making my donation to their worthy cause. It was my dream for this year realized. I was so excited! My request to attend had been declined by company management due to funding back in May, but I was welcome to attend on my own dime and given the time off from work. In order to pay for this trip, I started doing side jobs and driving for Lyft part time. Now that my job was eliminated September 5th, this is not going to be possible without your help. I have a room reserved and a flight picked out. I have a deficit on my travel funds of $1650. I have been looking forward to this since missing Dreamforce 2013. I plan to use this trip for networking to find a new job and learning. I am taking my ADM201 exam in 26 days and am excited to start a new chapter in my life.
Here is My Story
If you know me, you know that I love technology and challenge. In college, I couldn't afford a computer and got tired of spending hours in the poorly ventalated computer lab, so I found enough used parts from friends old computers and built my own. My monitor was a freebie we found in an alley that someone was discarding for trash. All I needed to buy was a copy of Windows 98 and a motherboard. It couldn't play games or do anything fancy but I was finally able to do my work from my dorm instead. I didn't think much about it then but now I realize that not too many young women were building their first PC themselves in 1999.
For the last two years, I have been fortunate to learn one of the greatest SaaS programs on the market today, Salesforce.com and manage it for a small family owned business, eventually becoming their Administrator. This is not what I was hired to do in the beginning. I was hired on originally to be their Office and Sales Support person which was more of a secretarial/receptionist role.
At that time, the company had just purchased Salesforce.com to replace their ACT! CRM. They had a good start on the design and process but there were many growing pains in the switch. I came to the company with a background in using Salesforce as a user from my prior employment, so I had a very good idea and vision for what could be possible with the program. With time and dedication to learning the admin role on my own, I was able to take over the staff training and management of the instance from their consultant, which provided them a huge savings.
Everything I know I've learned on my own, either from being a user to my self study and certification prep. I also owe much thanks to many supportive people in the MVP and Success communities, and my local user group for answering my questions. I love the community! Please consider helping me attain my goals.
Why? For the learning opportunities, sessions, HOT, Women in Technology, Keynotes and most importantly, the community networking opportunities that abound everywhere you turn. I am currently seeking my dream job as a Salesforce Admin.
This is the first year that I am able to attend, all thanks to a charity silent auction that I found on the Salesforce Success Community. The item up for bid was a full conference pass and Kona coffee donated by Kona DataSearch. Maria Belli donated a Fitbit Flex and a matching donation was made by Sharon Klardie. The proceeds of this auction went to Friends of Forgotten Children in Concord, New Hampshire. I was the lucky bidder and won the pass after making my donation to their worthy cause. It was my dream for this year realized. I was so excited! My request to attend had been declined by company management due to funding back in May, but I was welcome to attend on my own dime and given the time off from work. In order to pay for this trip, I started doing side jobs and driving for Lyft part time. Now that my job was eliminated September 5th, this is not going to be possible without your help. I have a room reserved and a flight picked out. I have a deficit on my travel funds of $1650. I have been looking forward to this since missing Dreamforce 2013. I plan to use this trip for networking to find a new job and learning. I am taking my ADM201 exam in 26 days and am excited to start a new chapter in my life.
Here is My Story
If you know me, you know that I love technology and challenge. In college, I couldn't afford a computer and got tired of spending hours in the poorly ventalated computer lab, so I found enough used parts from friends old computers and built my own. My monitor was a freebie we found in an alley that someone was discarding for trash. All I needed to buy was a copy of Windows 98 and a motherboard. It couldn't play games or do anything fancy but I was finally able to do my work from my dorm instead. I didn't think much about it then but now I realize that not too many young women were building their first PC themselves in 1999.
For the last two years, I have been fortunate to learn one of the greatest SaaS programs on the market today, Salesforce.com and manage it for a small family owned business, eventually becoming their Administrator. This is not what I was hired to do in the beginning. I was hired on originally to be their Office and Sales Support person which was more of a secretarial/receptionist role.
At that time, the company had just purchased Salesforce.com to replace their ACT! CRM. They had a good start on the design and process but there were many growing pains in the switch. I came to the company with a background in using Salesforce as a user from my prior employment, so I had a very good idea and vision for what could be possible with the program. With time and dedication to learning the admin role on my own, I was able to take over the staff training and management of the instance from their consultant, which provided them a huge savings.
Everything I know I've learned on my own, either from being a user to my self study and certification prep. I also owe much thanks to many supportive people in the MVP and Success communities, and my local user group for answering my questions. I love the community! Please consider helping me attain my goals.
Organizer
Kristen Putikka
Organizer
