Welcome Sarah Amin – Girly Geek of the Week!
This week I am a little biased because I actually know Sarah. Sarah is part of my WIT Chapter here in NC. I first met Sarah last year before DF14 for a paint night I held. She was very pregnant and still went to Dreamforce – even with food allergies from her pregnancy. And to add, this year she was a nursing mom at DF15 – Much Respect for this woman!! 
Sarah is triple certified (2 of those certs were achieved in the same day), super intelligent, working mom of 2 beautiful children and aspires to be a Salesforce Trainer one day. This is a WIT I have mad respect for!
Me: How & when did you start working with Salesforce?
Sarah: The year was 2013, and I was working as a Technical Support Supervisor and Sales Administrator for AbD Serotec. Our company was acquired while I was on maternity leave, and upon my return, we were starting systems migration. I was acting as interim SalesLogix administrator, so I was chosen to lead the CRM migration to Salesforce. Our locations in Germany were on MS Dynamics and Cobra, while our headquarters in the UK and our US office were on SalesLogix. All three systems were quite different from Salesforce, so I had to quickly learn its capabilities to be able to advise the CRM team not only about our business process and data model, but also how they could fit us into their existing Salesforce org without reinventing the wheel. The SalesLogix licenses were expiring so we had a limited timeline. Let me tell you, CRM Migration under the pressure of a short timeline isn’t something I would wish on my worst enemy and I never wanted to do again. (For those of you who know me, you’ll know that this entire saga repeats itself with different players only a year and a half later.) Ha! one more time and you will have a pattern on your hands! 😉
Me: What is your current role working with Salesforce?
Sarah: I’m a Junior Consultant with North Peak Solutions, a Salesforce consulting firm working exclusively with nonprofit organizations. Congrats! This is a new position for Sarah that she landed just before Dreamforce15.
Me: What is your favorite thing to do in Salesforce and why?
Sarah: I might be a glutton for punishment, but I LOVE automation, the more complex the better. I’m a stickler for efficiency and data integrity, and automation plays really well with both of those. Workflow… Process Builder… Visual Workflow… They’re all so powerful for different reasons. ❤ love automation – but not too much, just enough 🙂
Me: Are you currently certified? And if so what certifications do you hold?
Sarah: Yes. I got my Admin Certification July of 2014, and Advanced Admin and Developer Certifications in July 2015. I’m nervous about it because it’s so new, but the next one on my docket is the Force.com App Builder Certification. Yes, that is correct, Sarah took 2 certs in one day and passed both – not something I would even consider! #RockStar – Oh and here is a pic of the 3 WIT who won our #SummerOfTrailhead day in NC – Sarah came in 1st place 🙂
Me: What are some of your aspirations and/or goals when it comes to Salesforce?
Sarah: I’d love to go to Dreamforce and actually make it to the Gala. lol me too!
Really though, I’d love to someday be a Salesforce instructor. It’s really cool to see that “ah ha” moment when helping someone learn a new feature on the platform. Fingers crossed! I think you would be great at that!
Me: Do you have any advice for women working with Salesforce?
Sarah: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. There are so many awesome Salesforce MVPs and other Salesforce users that are really excited to help. The platform is too big and broad for any one person to know everything, so it’ll never be perceived as weakness. #Truth
Me: What kinds of things are you involved in, and/or do you like to do outside of the Salesforce world?
Sarah: I love to be crafty, especially if I can involve my kids. Most of the time, that means knitting or crocheting, but I can also be found making homemade play dough or baking. I think it all taps into that desire to teach others. Watching my kids experience something for the first time is one of the coolest things about being a mom. And Sarah’s kids are gorgeous, I might add 🙂
Me: Are you part of a Girly Geeks Chapter?
Sarah: Yep. I’m a regular attendee of the “Raleigh RTP Women in Tech Girly Geeks” events. Eh Hem *Clears Throat* That would be my chapter 😀 !!
It was a pleasure getting to know you Sarah and thank you very much for sharing!
You are definitely an inspiration!
For those of you that want to follow Sarah, here are her links:
LinkedIn
Twitter: @SarahAminNC
Success Community
Power of Us Hub
SaaSyForce.com 