This week I embark on a new adventure partnering and volunteering with a great non-profit called Veterans2Work. I first met John Reynolds (Founder & Executive Director) of Veterans2Work in November 2013 at Salesforce.com’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco in which John was interviewed on the big stage during the conference. John is a passionate, driven and hard working Vietnam veteran who knows how to work with US Veterans and the corporate world. John has been running this non-profit for over 6 years, which focuses on matching and getting US Veterans placed in the new corporate world of today among some other services his non-profit provides to vets and companies looking to hire vets. Last year Salesforce.com partnered with Veterans2Work on getting veterans trained on the admin essentials of the Salesforce.com platform and certified in platform. The eventual goal is to get the vets placed in an internship and eventually a career working with Salesforce.com technology. While the first cohort was a success, the second cohort (‘Cohort 2’) of veterans start their new Salesforce.com admin training this week in San Francisco and I am honored to be a part of this. My role will vary as needed based on my experience, but for sure I will mentor and assist the class over the next few weeks in San Francisco.
The focus over the next few weeks in San Francisco will be to ensure the incoming class of vets know the ‘essentials’ of being a Salesforce.com admin and prepare them for corporate world as much as we can. With my 7 years of Salesforce.com experience in managing a large Salesforce.com practice, this is a natural fit for me to give back. Although I have extensive Salesforce.com experience (strategic & technical), I am also committed to sharpening my own technical Salesforce.com skills as well. With that being said, I will also take the Salesforce.com admin class with the other vets with a goal of procuring the Salesforce.com admin certification and a few other certifications in the months to come. The end goal with this training initiative is to provide the right tools to the US veterans in this class to not only become a certified administrators, but to be a productive, outstanding member of the corporate world upon completion. The market demand for Salesforce.com talent has never been higher and with some hard work and determination, these vets will succeed.
This is especially important to me as I am a US Veteran having served in the US Air Force. I was a medic and nurse from 1990-1994, then stayed on at the same military hospital (Wilford Hall) in San Antonio until 1997. Once I completed my obligations to my country, I embarked to the University of Texas and have been in the technology industry for the last 15 years. To come full circle and be a part of something like Veterans2Work and helping with my real-world corporate experience is a true honor. If you are interested in learning more about this program, looking to place a vet at your company or even have a Salesforce.com project (consulting work) at your company in which you want to staff it with vets, do reach out to me. And for those of you in the San Francisco & Silicon Valley area we will be hosting an “Employer Mixer” on March 26th at Sens Restaurant at 5PM to get potential employers introduced to the “Cohort 2” class of veterans going through the Salesforce.com training this month.
Hector Perez Jr.
- Tags: Salesforce, Veterans
