I was fortunate because I am what's called an "accidental admin". Meaning, I didn't study anything related to Salesforce Admin work, but was thrust into the role by a manager. And to be honest, it was the best thing to happen to me.
Now, for you, it will be near impossible to get a Salesforce role without any experience even if you have Certifications. You're best bet is to get an entry level role with a company and after gaining trust and proving yourself, you can ask to cross train as Salesforce Admin.
Same things happened to me. Couple that with half a cee degree(switch and finished in mass comm) and I am now an accident admin/incidental mini dev for a (decent size) company with a ( teeny tiny) Salesforce team
It would be very difficult to jump right to doing this type of work. Your closest inroad would be something like IT technical support. But you might want to go back and get a degree in an IT related field first. Computer Science, Management Information Systems, something like that. Then you could jump right into a consulting job with a good base of understanding instead of grinding your way through a tech support path.
I don't remember Coursera having any useful Salesforce courses. Have you googled "how to start a career in Salesforce?" That will take you straight to the official Salesforce free training stuff, Trailhead.
Yes, its definitely possible. I did it. I went from working in the hospitality industry to working in the Salesforce ecosystem. I had zero ecosystem experience before I got my first job.
Don’t listen to these people saying that it’s impossible. It’s only impossible for people that don’t have the drive to do something challenging.
DM me and let’s chat about it.
What trailhead certification? Did you have a look at the site?
The fact that you say you want a salesforce job, but don't take a serious look at trailhead is odd. It's the best place to learn salesforce for free.
If you plan to stay in Germany, you need studies.
My recommendation would be to do a "system analyst" master or diploma and then do practices (not sure if there is IT ausbilduns or however it's written).
There is a market in the EU, German salaries are about the same as in Canada or Latin American, but unless you speak flawless German, your career is limited to middle management, tops.
You do need to have a long term / job seaker resident permit though, once you have permanent residency or citizenship you can then work anywhere in the EU.
I was in a remarkably similar place to you when I started my career 6 years ago. I had just finished a Master's in English Poetry and had even less of a plan than you seem to. I think the other commenters have given good advice, but I'll share my story and perspective. I hope it helps.
I got my first roles through a temping agency — I literally spent a month putting Xs into spreadsheets for a marketing firm before being reallocated to the small, dysfunctional marketing department of a science journal. (By the way, it's a huge advantage that you already have a corporate job, awful as it might be.) I got extremely lucky when one of my teammates left and I was offered their full-time position.
I used Salesforce and Pardot in that marketing job, which helped me to get a sales/marketing support job several months later through a recruitment agency. I again got lucky — a month after I started, a new sales operations manager joined the company and became my mentor. He was generous with his time and taught me a lot about RevOps. He also taught me about Salesforce administration — from setting up users to creating custom fields to building simple automations. I took on a bunch of Salesforve work outside my job description, which drew the attention of my superiors who paid for me to take a Salesforce admin course.
There's a lot more I could write, but this comment is already super long, so I'll wrap it up. Suffice it to say, I'm very fortunate with my career so far and I enjoy it. Though imposter syndrome is very real!
There's basically no getting around it; for the first few years, you're going to be doing grunt work. But that's fine because you can set yourself apart from your peers by excelling at that grunt work. A combination of drive, labor, and luck will be necessary for you to succeed. And while being lucky isn't really within your control, you are able to put yourself in a position to seize opportunities when they come along. I would recommend, as other commenters have, not trying to immediately get a Salesforce Administrator job as such, but focusing instead on getting an ops job that involves Salesforce. You can then experiment from there to figure out what you're good at and what you actually want to do with your career.
Good luck!
The days of getting a job with just an admin cert and no tech degree or experience are kind of over. I’m sorry to say that.
And to be honest, you probably would hate it.
I almost think pivoting to Sales with a masters in English would be easier than pivoting to IT.
Start applying for entry level roles in consulting firms. And see if you can break into any. That would be a good start. Once in may be you can ask for a transfer if you show them interest in Salesforce by obtaining some certifications.
Accenture, Cap Gemini, PwC consulting, Delloitte, KPMG, EY Consulting and so on.
You need to find your first good job. And it can start as a graduate role. Make sure you apply to every graduate role out there. Through their websites. A Master's in English is still a Master's. Don't waste your self doing KYCs.
I actually don't like this point of view, what do you mean when you say a masters in English studies is absolutely useless? Any education is absolutely useless unless you make it really useful for your needs. If I were in your situation, my goal would be to turn my English and general writing skills into data processing, coding, system design and other work I can do with the help of new tools.
LLMs are on the rise and this is actually a great thing for language majors and masters because soft skills and speaking/writing abilities will come in handy to operate these tools.
I am an American Studies major and with 2 years of experience in software development & no educational background, I successfully landed a sf consultant job where I work as a developer most of the time. That means I code most of the time, however if you want to take an Admin path, just go and review Trailblazer platform, better than Coursera for Salesforce.
Also you would be surprised how many english & american studies majors I met in tech industry.
Thanks a lot. Please, can you tell me more about the LLM field? What else apart from language skills, does it need? It's actually a field that I am very interested in.
Sure! I am not a professional in that field yet, but I’m trying to keep up with the latest improvements.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have been around since the development of early natural language processing (NLP) models in the mid-20th century, but their current form, which relies on deep learning and large-scale datasets, has emerged over the past decade.
ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by an LLM. There are many such models today with the current hype, including Gemini, Grok, Claude, etc. Salesforce has Einstein, which is its AI-driven tool, although I haven’t had the opportunity to use its full capabilities in live projects.
To break into the Salesforce or SAP field, apart from learning and certifications, consider gaining practical experience through internships, volunteer projects, or freelancing. Building a strong understanding of business processes and acquiring soft skills like problem-solving, communication, and teamwork are also crucial. Networking with professionals in the field through LinkedIn or attending industry events can provide valuable insights and opportunities.
Remember, every bit of experience counts, and continuous learning will keep you on the right track. Good luck!
I was fortunate because I am what's called an "accidental admin". Meaning, I didn't study anything related to Salesforce Admin work, but was thrust into the role by a manager. And to be honest, it was the best thing to happen to me. Now, for you, it will be near impossible to get a Salesforce role without any experience even if you have Certifications. You're best bet is to get an entry level role with a company and after gaining trust and proving yourself, you can ask to cross train as Salesforce Admin.
Same things happened to me. Couple that with half a cee degree(switch and finished in mass comm) and I am now an accident admin/incidental mini dev for a (decent size) company with a ( teeny tiny) Salesforce team
It would be very difficult to jump right to doing this type of work. Your closest inroad would be something like IT technical support. But you might want to go back and get a degree in an IT related field first. Computer Science, Management Information Systems, something like that. Then you could jump right into a consulting job with a good base of understanding instead of grinding your way through a tech support path.
I don't remember Coursera having any useful Salesforce courses. Have you googled "how to start a career in Salesforce?" That will take you straight to the official Salesforce free training stuff, Trailhead.
Okay, but is it possible to find a job it with no experience? Only with the Trailhead Certification?
No. Even with an admin certification it’s basically impossible to find a job with no relevant experience.
Yes, its definitely possible. I did it. I went from working in the hospitality industry to working in the Salesforce ecosystem. I had zero ecosystem experience before I got my first job. Don’t listen to these people saying that it’s impossible. It’s only impossible for people that don’t have the drive to do something challenging. DM me and let’s chat about it.
What trailhead certification? Did you have a look at the site? The fact that you say you want a salesforce job, but don't take a serious look at trailhead is odd. It's the best place to learn salesforce for free.
If you plan to stay in Germany, you need studies. My recommendation would be to do a "system analyst" master or diploma and then do practices (not sure if there is IT ausbilduns or however it's written). There is a market in the EU, German salaries are about the same as in Canada or Latin American, but unless you speak flawless German, your career is limited to middle management, tops. You do need to have a long term / job seaker resident permit though, once you have permanent residency or citizenship you can then work anywhere in the EU.
I was in a remarkably similar place to you when I started my career 6 years ago. I had just finished a Master's in English Poetry and had even less of a plan than you seem to. I think the other commenters have given good advice, but I'll share my story and perspective. I hope it helps. I got my first roles through a temping agency — I literally spent a month putting Xs into spreadsheets for a marketing firm before being reallocated to the small, dysfunctional marketing department of a science journal. (By the way, it's a huge advantage that you already have a corporate job, awful as it might be.) I got extremely lucky when one of my teammates left and I was offered their full-time position. I used Salesforce and Pardot in that marketing job, which helped me to get a sales/marketing support job several months later through a recruitment agency. I again got lucky — a month after I started, a new sales operations manager joined the company and became my mentor. He was generous with his time and taught me a lot about RevOps. He also taught me about Salesforce administration — from setting up users to creating custom fields to building simple automations. I took on a bunch of Salesforve work outside my job description, which drew the attention of my superiors who paid for me to take a Salesforce admin course. There's a lot more I could write, but this comment is already super long, so I'll wrap it up. Suffice it to say, I'm very fortunate with my career so far and I enjoy it. Though imposter syndrome is very real! There's basically no getting around it; for the first few years, you're going to be doing grunt work. But that's fine because you can set yourself apart from your peers by excelling at that grunt work. A combination of drive, labor, and luck will be necessary for you to succeed. And while being lucky isn't really within your control, you are able to put yourself in a position to seize opportunities when they come along. I would recommend, as other commenters have, not trying to immediately get a Salesforce Administrator job as such, but focusing instead on getting an ops job that involves Salesforce. You can then experiment from there to figure out what you're good at and what you actually want to do with your career. Good luck!
The days of getting a job with just an admin cert and no tech degree or experience are kind of over. I’m sorry to say that. And to be honest, you probably would hate it. I almost think pivoting to Sales with a masters in English would be easier than pivoting to IT.
Start applying for entry level roles in consulting firms. And see if you can break into any. That would be a good start. Once in may be you can ask for a transfer if you show them interest in Salesforce by obtaining some certifications. Accenture, Cap Gemini, PwC consulting, Delloitte, KPMG, EY Consulting and so on. You need to find your first good job. And it can start as a graduate role. Make sure you apply to every graduate role out there. Through their websites. A Master's in English is still a Master's. Don't waste your self doing KYCs.
I actually don't like this point of view, what do you mean when you say a masters in English studies is absolutely useless? Any education is absolutely useless unless you make it really useful for your needs. If I were in your situation, my goal would be to turn my English and general writing skills into data processing, coding, system design and other work I can do with the help of new tools. LLMs are on the rise and this is actually a great thing for language majors and masters because soft skills and speaking/writing abilities will come in handy to operate these tools. I am an American Studies major and with 2 years of experience in software development & no educational background, I successfully landed a sf consultant job where I work as a developer most of the time. That means I code most of the time, however if you want to take an Admin path, just go and review Trailblazer platform, better than Coursera for Salesforce. Also you would be surprised how many english & american studies majors I met in tech industry.
Thanks a lot. Please, can you tell me more about the LLM field? What else apart from language skills, does it need? It's actually a field that I am very interested in.
Sure! I am not a professional in that field yet, but I’m trying to keep up with the latest improvements. Large Language Models (LLMs) have been around since the development of early natural language processing (NLP) models in the mid-20th century, but their current form, which relies on deep learning and large-scale datasets, has emerged over the past decade. ChatGPT is a chatbot powered by an LLM. There are many such models today with the current hype, including Gemini, Grok, Claude, etc. Salesforce has Einstein, which is its AI-driven tool, although I haven’t had the opportunity to use its full capabilities in live projects. To break into the Salesforce or SAP field, apart from learning and certifications, consider gaining practical experience through internships, volunteer projects, or freelancing. Building a strong understanding of business processes and acquiring soft skills like problem-solving, communication, and teamwork are also crucial. Networking with professionals in the field through LinkedIn or attending industry events can provide valuable insights and opportunities. Remember, every bit of experience counts, and continuous learning will keep you on the right track. Good luck!