Behind the Certs – Aanchal Bhatia

SG – Let’s get started. Why don’t we begin at the beginning? Please tell us about your education/ career before coming into the Salesforce ecosystem response. AB – I completed my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, India, in 2015. I started my career at SaaSfocus as an associate software engineer, focusing on analytics oriented tools and clients. I decided to join SaaSfocus because it was one of the fastest-growing Salesforce consulting partners in India. One of my friends told me about the growth opportunities in the Salesforce ecosystem, which seemed exciting, turned out to be accurate and is still the case. SG – That’s awesome. We’d love to know the tipping point, that moment when you said ‘I want to make this change’ and what was the trigger? AB – Initially, I learnt about Salesforce core clouds (Sales and Service), as I think everyone does when starting out. Later that year, Salesforce launched its analytics capability; it was called Wave. This was terrific for me as I found the whole Salesforce ecosystem fascinating already. Then merging my keen interest in crunching numbers and love for mathematics with this new analytics capability drove my learning and excitement for the platform even deeper. I was one of the first professionals to ride the wave and begin working on Einstein Analytics. This experience later helped me land a job at Salesforce; I managed the global sales dashboards used by all Sales Leaders and Account Executives worldwide. Fun fact – Salesforce has changed the name of this capability three times now – initially, it was Wave Analytics, then it changed to Einstein Analytics, and now it is known as Tableau CRM. SG – You achieved many certs along the way. Can you share three things with us,

1. why you value certs
2. challenges associated with the process and,
3. your top tips for being successful in cert exams?

AB – Why I value certs Certifications help extend your knowledge, test your skills, and highlight learning gaps that keep you up to date and current; as we all know, Salesforce is constantly evolving its products. My customers also feel more comfortable knowing they are in certified hands; it gives them great confidence when delivering outcomes for them. Challenges I found The biggest challenge for me is to find the time to study for the cert, given you are always busy working on a client project, sometimes across multiple technologies. My top tips

1. My number one tip is to book your exam first; this sets a deadline and forces you to plan for it accordingly.
2. I always reach out to my colleagues who have prior experience with the exam to get insights on how to best prepare for it.
3. I always focus on taking as many practise exams as possible before the actual exam date, which helps me in two ways:
   • it gives me a good idea of the type of questions that will be asked and identifies gaps in my knowledge
   • it helps me get into a rhythm when doing the actual exam; being familiar with the number of questions and the types of questions help me with my time management, which removes stress and keeps me calm on exam day.

SG – What do you enjoy most about your work as a certified Salesforce professional? AB – I love how I can help businesses make decisions based on data instead of a lousy spreadsheet or someone’s ‘gut feeling. They move from guessing to knowing; data is such an important and influential asset for any business. Being able to access it readily and sharing insights makes it even more helpful. As a company, I am happy that Salesforce understands this and heavily invests in tools like Einstein Analytics. Salesforce’s recent acquisition of Tableau gives me excellent opportunities to expand my horizons further, as well as staying inside the Salesforce ecosystem. SG – Time for gratitude!! Finally, is there anyone (individual or company) you would like to take this opportunity to thank for their role in helping you along your journey? If Yes, what was their role in your success? AB – Special thanks to Sumit Pachnanda for introducing me to the Salesforce analytics world and giving me my first opportunity. Bhaskar Chaturvedi and Deepti Dawar – My mentors, both of you have always shown trust in me and helped me enormously along the way. Both let me single-handedly implement most of my projects, which helped me grow quickly as a professional and built my confidence to work with enterprise clients. Bridie, Steve and Graham for my current opportunity at Aware Services in Sydney. Thank you for fostering a fantastic work culture and coaching and mentoring different technologies, laying a path for extraordinary career growth.