Vanisha Kheterpal’s Journey in Salesforce With Trailhead and saasguru

My name is Vanisha Kheterpal, and I am 14 years old. I live in Jaipur, India. I study in 9th standard at Maharaja Sawai Man Singh Vidyalaya. Basically, I’m a tech-savvy person, and I love exploring new technologies and gadgets – I try out things on the Internet in my spare time. I’ve already done a few courses on Artificial Intelligence, Digital Marketing, and Python programming. And then, I happened to hear my dad always speaking about Salesforce, so that got me excited to learn more about this platform.

I attended a few Salesforce webinars and decided to explore more. I started with the Trailhead platform – it’s a gamified, self-learning platform to learn many skills and it’s not just limited to Salesforce. I love how one can earn badges and credentials on Trailhead, and that’s what got me hooked on learning various modules on Salesforce. 

How Was My Salesforce Journey From Preparation To The Day Of Certification?

To be honest, when I started learning Salesforce, it was more of an experiment, and I thought to give it a try. I wasn’t even sure if I would continue or lose interest in a few weeks. So, it was like a beautiful journey from the moment I started getting excited about this platform to the day I got certified as a Salesforce Administrator. 

It all started with Trailhead. The small & simple modules helped me get a feel of the platform. I have started doing some of the more core Salesforce platform-related badges related to the Admin track. thereafter. 

It was a dream come true moment when I hit the milestone of 100 badges and received an appreciation note and swag from Salesforce for the Students team. Then I started thinking about it quite seriously and started serious preparation for the Admin exam with Admin Trailmix and practice tests on saasguru. The confidence I got from saasguru’s practice tests is incomparable, and I decided to appear for the admin exam by January end, and yes, I nailed it!

I am currently working towards achieving 200 badges and hoping to complete this milestone by March end.

How Did Trailhead and saasguru Help Me In Achieving This Victory?

I started getting excited about the Salesforce platform with Trailhead. I loved the way how Trailhead is gamified as a learning platform. Each time I earn a badge, it gives me a feeling of learning something new and being able to showcase it. I believe that aspect of Trailhead motivates a lot of people who’re learning Salesforce to learn new skills continuously. 

I also like how Trailhead requires hands-on expertise for some of its concepts as part of certain modules. So, there’s no boredom of learning just theory. You also get a chance to apply what you have learnt. 

Trailhead laid a strong foundation in me, and saasguru was a great way to reinforce some of those learnings and get me in an exam-ready state. I took multiple practice tests, and when I started scoring reasonably well, I was confident of appearing for the Admin exam. 

I believe saasguru compliments Trailhead in reinforcing key learning concepts, and I’m excited to be a school ambassador for the saasguru program.

What Are My Future Aspirations?

I’ll graduate high school in the next three years, and then I’m hoping to study Computer Science at an Ivy League institution in the US. I believe that women should be offered equal opportunities in the tech industry, and I aspire to be a strong proponent of the women in technology movement. 

Meanwhile, I’m excited about attending the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington and New York City by June 2022. I am thrilled to be among the few students selected from India, and I’ve also been offered a partial scholarship for this prestigious event. 

Beyond Thank You: My Deepest Gratitude 

I want to thank Salesforce for building Trailhead – it has allowed students like me to learn new skills. I want to thank the saasguru team & Amit Choudhary Sir for their constant support and encouragement that helped me polish what I have learnt and get me exam-ready. 

I want to thank my dad – Gaurav Kheterpal, who helped me develop a study plan and assisted in resolving my doubts from time to time. I also want to thank a few people from Salesforce without whose support this would not have been possible – Bhanu Dasgupta and Renita Ferreira from the Salesforce for Students program, who constantly motivated me. 

When I posted about my achievement on Linkedin and Twitter, I received a lot of support. Still, I also got trolled by many people for my age, my looks, for being an Indian – it was then when a lot of people I don’t know personally supported me. I even received words of encouragement from Arundhati Bhattacharya – Salesforce India CEO, and Sarah Franklin – President & Chief Marketing Officer from Salesforce. 

I will be forever thankful to every single person who’s supported me in this journey.