I posted several months back. Appreciate everyone that replied and/or sent emails. Couple of the replies led to solid leads that ultimately didn't work out due to timing, location, etc... So, let's give this another shot...

I've been with my current employer for more than 7 yrs. Ideally I would prefer to stay but there have been numerous changes in the last year that have caused irreparable damage to the company culture. The current environment is not healthy and I'm genuinely concerned about the overall future of the company. I am not (or not allowed to be) in a position to impact the current situation enough to fix the issues so I need to lookout for my family's best interest and move on. Hoping there will be someone on here that can throw a few leads my direction.

About Me
BS Comp Sci
13+ yr career with approx 12 yrs working for software companies
Worked in 2 separate industries with no prior knowledge of said industry and quickly became an SME
Have worn many hats at my various companies. Experience with...

• Product Management
• Project Management
• Client Management
• Supervisor/Team Leader
• Interface/Product Design
• Data Analysis
• Database Management
• Business Consulting
• Implementations
• Training
• QA Management

What I am looking for
Ideally I would like to stay in the software realm but I am flexible as I think my background with data mining, analysis, management, etc...could fit numerous options. Right now the main areas that I have been looking based on my skill sets are Product/Project Management, Software Design & Data Warehousing Solutions but as I said I am open to any options that fit my background.

Not concerned with industry as long as the perspective employer is ok with getting me up to speed. As noted above, I have entered a new industry twice (Automotive and O&G) and became an SME in both during my times with the companies.

Currently live in NW Houston and would prefer to stay. Willing to consider relocation but would have to be for a near perfect situation at this point. I've become a bit spoiled with my current commute or lack there of and would prefer to stay off the road. Ideal locations would be Tomball, Cypress, Katy, Woodlands areas or a work from home. I prefer an office environment but I currently work from home (since my office was closed a year ago) and find myself to be surprisingly efficient. No issue with travel but need to keep it below 25%.

I am open to any size company, though if I have the option I do tend to prefer a smaller company. Upstart opportunities are ok as well. Ultimately I am looking for a good company and a role with some growth opportunity. Everything else is negotiable.

Please PM or email (in my profile) if you would like to discuss any opportunities.

If anyone wants to talk investment opportunities, I have an idea for a software suite that could be developed in 1-2 yrs (depending on size of development group). Have SMEs and developers available that I can bring with me as well.

Howdy, please email resume to aggieathleteinvolved@gmail.com

Thanks

Bump

Several Software Developer and Sr Software Engineer positions in Bryan/College Station with VIaSat:
https://www.viasat.com/careers/openings

Appreciate the bump. Unfortunately I'm not a developer.

Go learn Salesforce and get certifications. Not enough people out there. I'm hiring junior people at $100k+ and am probably on the low end as far as consulting partners go for pay.

ORAggieFan said:

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Go learn Salesforce and get certifications. Not enough people out there. I'm hiring junior people at $100k+ and am probably on the low end as far as consulting partners go for pay.

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I've used salesforce from a crm/helpdesk point of view...how difficult is the leap from user to admin? I hate my current job, was formerly in implementation for a SaaS company and would love to get out of my current situation.

ORAggieFan said:

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Go learn Salesforce and get certifications. Not enough people out there. I'm hiring junior people at $100k+ and am probably on the low end as far as consulting partners go for pay.

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I'm intrigued.
How difficult/time consuming is the certification process?
How much travel involved in your suggested opportunity?

I'll start with certifications. I started working at Salesforce five years ago. When I started there I had zero Salesforce experience. In 6 weeks I was able to get 5 certifications. If you study hard and are able to find resources online, you will be able to pass them. The only training was a virtual admin one I took for the first one. The rest were just done by using the Help and Training site and searching online. LinkedIn probably has some good stuff as well.

As for jobs, there are many opportunities. If you have no experience consulting the best route would likely be admin/dev. For devs, you should learn Apex, VisualForce and Lightning.

If you have consulting experience with other companies, you can likely get in that way as well. I've been doing consulting my entire career and had left from RightNow (acquired by Oracle), which was a direct competitor of the Salesforce Service Cloud product. I had the industry expertise, so learning the product was easy.

As for travel, it really depends where you go. My new company, we tell people we try and keep it about 35%. But, some customers want more. Have a Fortune 100 customer we are hoping to close a deal with who wants two weeks there, one week home, so we will accommodate.

Overall, Salesforce continues to massively grow. One thing Benioff is worried about is the ecosystem keeping up and enough qualified individuals. They have started to address this recently with Trailhead, which is another way to learn about Salesforce.

I have an old consulting buddy that left Deloitte and started Learn SFDC, if you're interested it's probably a good place to get cheap training.

Thanks for the response. I'm thinking of just diving in and absorbing as many online resources as I can. I used salesforce for 3-4 years and it seemed intuitive for me. Is an admin certification enough to land a job? There seem to be several paths I'd want to try so I'm thinking any certifications at first would be great.

Depending on what you want, yes. With a background in software and initiative to get a very I'd think you can get a basic admin job. Lots of options from there.

ORAggieFan, I just started looking at SalesForce and my interest in it keeps growing. I would like to connect with you to learn about your experience so far and how you got into it. Would that be cool? I don't have a paid TexAgs account so I can't PM. Would LinkedIn work? Thanks!

Salesforce has their Trailhead platform which allows you to create a sandbox, go through tasks and projects to learn, etc. All for free.

c47v3770 said:

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ORAggieFan, I just started looking at SalesForce and my interest in it keeps growing. I would like to connect with you to learn about your experience so far and how you got into it. Would that be cool? I don't have a paid TexAgs account so I can't PM. Would LinkedIn work? Thanks!

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Email me username @ gmail

Bump

You say you are a SME... in what?

Current employer produces software for upstream O&G. My expertise is production accounting, field data capture and (not quite SME) production regulatory reporting.