Every passion has its community, where you will find like-minded people for whom the language you use at work does not sound like blah, blah, blah (shoutout to my wife, who hears me like that when I talk about my work – I will teach you Salesforce one day, honey). Just as Metallica fans have their meetups and concerts, and motorcycle enthusiasts have their events, so do we.
But let us start first with people. After all, it is us, the users, administrators, developers, architects, and many, many others who create new products and configurations and share ideas – yes, it is us who are the community. What is definitely unique in these groups is the willingness to help. During my adventure with Salesforce, I noticed that people from different international communities, when they meet, talk like old friends even though they are meeting each other for the first time. I remember my first Salesforce World Tour in Warsaw, where I met many people who I had read from on various groups or had given virtual high fives on LinkedIn. It was incredible. After constantly hearing that corporations are an eternal rat race, I saw that it was not true. These people were helpful, always wanted to help, and always did.
So, what exactly is a community? It is a collection of people, of various ages, origins, and genders, with one interest – in our case, Salesforce. There are local communities: in my case, the local community is formed across cities such as Kraków, Warsaw, Lublin, and many other Polish cities (I’ll take this opportunity to greet you all!). However, the Salesforce community is not limited to a city, country, or continent. We operate worldwide – so if you have a question or can’t deal with something, just search for the problem, and I guarantee you that one of the first results will be discussions in the community, where the topic has been broken down into atoms and put back together to be solved. If the problem isn’t there because of a Salesforce limitation, that problem will definitely be solved.
What do I encourage you to do? Well, look for such a community in your city and your country. Why? Because it will really give you a lot. You can be an extrovert or an introvert – it does not matter, because from such a community, you can not only draw information and job offers but create friendships with people, which will be something more important than a few more dollars in your account.
For example, the group where I met my esteemed co-author – Krzysztof Nowacki – was a group of Salesforce enthusiasts founded by him. It is called Salesforce Careers Poland, and it is where we discuss topics related to Salesforce and IT, but also very human topics, related to the country, family, and many others. So, we invite you to join the group!
The second equally important community is the Trailblazer Community. I think I do not need to remind you about Trailheads. Currently, it is one of the best encyclopedias of knowledge about Salesforce. However, the Trailblazer Community consists of discussion groups created to discuss specific topics in specific places around the world.
To start your adventure with the Trailblazer Community, go to https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com/, which looks as follows:
Figure 13.2: Trailblazer Community