Spotlight Series: Rachel Park

Rachel is a Salesforce Certified Administrator and has worked with numerous non-profits that are near & dear to her heart. A Salesforce Analyst at Slalom, with experience as an on-staff admin, Rachel is a “transplanted” New Yorker living in Los Angeles, so she misses good bagels and walking everywhere, which is why whenever Sex and the City is on, she just HAS to watch — it reminds her of her home in New York City. She recently had the incredible privilege of being the inaugural guest on the SF Campfire Stories podcast hosted by Justice Sikakane & Stacey Cogswell, sharing stories of Salesforce Trailblazers discussing their journeys with Trailhead. Rachel has quite a few other things going on besides Salesforce; she is a tie designer and triple-negative breast cancer survivor. After over a year of 15 rounds of chemotherapy, three surgeries and 32 radiation treatments, she’s thankful to have just passed three years cancer-free! During treatment, she used her sewing skills to create the ParkPuff™, a stylish chest-comforting, go-anywhere seatbelt pillow for breast cancer (and more!) patients worldwide. Ladies Be Architects founder, Gemma Emmett, had the honour of receiving one of Rachel’s ParkPuffs to aid in her recovery from a double mastectomy.

This is Rachel’s pet pug, who was instrumental in her healing process.

Tell us how you heard about Ladies Be Architects?

I started seeing the #LadiesBeArchitects thread on Twitter and wanted to learn more

What feelings did Ladies Be Architects inspire within you?

Empowerment! It’s such an encouraging and supportive group of AMAZING women.

Tell us why the CTA journey is important to you...

As a woman in tech — especially a woman of color — it’s important for me to share our underrepresented success stories in the community. Representation matters!

What’s the next step for you on your Journey to CTA?

I am currently part of an Amplify (formerly Girlforce) Platform App Builder Certification Study Group and hope to be certified soon!

As a huge introvert, that CTA Review Board sounds terrifying! That’s why it’s so great to see Gemma and Charly documenting their CTA jorneys, so it is demystified and less scary for the rest of us. Bravo, ladies!

Spotlight Series: Anchal Sharma

We are very pleased to introduce you to Anchal Sharma! Anchal works as a developer on the core product team at ServiceMax. A passionate innovator and developer with 7+ years experience working for an Independent Software Vendor (ISV), Anchal is part of ServiceMax’s core product team in Bangalore, India, where she evaluates Salesforce features, using them to innovate enhancements to ServiceMax’s product offerings.

I am so proud that I built my career on Salesforce with ServiceMax.

Staying safe and in shape is at the core of Anchal’s hobbies. She is a big fan of martial arts, so kickboxing helps her conquer both concerns at the same time. And when it comes to lightness of everyday life; she enjoys sitting on a rocking chair, listening to soft music, watching the sunset and sipping chai in silence.

How did you hear about us?

“At Dreamforce ’17, I attended almost all of the Meetups and sessions that happened for Certified Technical Architect (CTA). In all that buzz around CTA, I heard Suzanne Ford mentioning #LadiesBeArchitects and I just followed it. Good thing I did!”

What feelings did Ladies Be Architects inspire within you?

“Never Give up” is my mantra and the “Ladies Be Architects” community is a perfect example of it. The commitment, vision and the passion of giving back to the community is just amazing. Ladies Be Architects encourages me to keep up the momentum and focus on my #JourneyToCTA.”

Tell us why the CTA journey is important to you

“During this time last year, I was trying to figure out “What is next for me, in terms of a technical challenge? What’s the area unexplored by me? How can I grow?”

“After all those hit-and-miss trials, I found that the CTA is exactly what I am looking forward for. It helps me enhance my domain knowledge, understand product requirements from a technical perspective, design solutions that follow the best security/integration practices and contribute to the Product roadmap. “Since the day I took my first certification on the #JourneyToCTA, everything has changed. I am showered with opportunities to grow myself professionally and there is no looking back!! To me, success is trekking the CTA mountain; reaching the top of it and then basking in the glory of having done that! Alright, Alright, Alright!! Go get it girl!”

What’s the next step for you on your Journey to CTA?

“I am currently working on the Data Architecture and Management Designer Certification; with that I will complete my Certified Application Architect (CAA). After this I have 2 more certifications to go to achieve Certified System Architect (CSA). I am targeting to complete my CSA and CAA by July 2018 and planning to take my CTA by end of this year.”

What are the biggest challenges you’re facing on your Journey to CTA?

“Currently, the challenge I am facing is with hands on experience and exposure in solving the business requirements. As an ISV core product team, we have limited areas where we can wear multiple hats in a project. It will be really helpful if we can get guidance on getting these hands-on experiences, like participating in non- profit projects.”