Disclaimer: This article is not meant to guarantee a job in ANY way possible. I just wanted to share what my insights are on what is popular on the market right now

Introduction

Coronavirus has impacted millions of people across the world. In the United States alone, over 20 million people have applied for unemployment. In a post from LinkedIn over 2,000 students said they had their summer internship or full-time offer canceled due to the Coronavirus. Seeing that post hit me hard because I knew that those students worked so hard in their classes, prepping for their interviews, leet coding, and researching the companies that they wanted to intern/work at. I decided to write this article to hopefully shed some light on those who may not be Software Engineers and who are struggling to find a job or internship in this “Coronaconomy.”

The Data Job Suite (R/Python/SQL)

“Data is the new oil.” This is a quote that stuck with me ever since I heard it back in 2018 when I took a tour of the Tableau office in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, WA. Having skills in analyzing data through programming languages like R/Python and SQL isn’t anything new at all. Data Science has been one of the hottest jobs in the industry for years now and knowing libraries like dplyr in R and NumPy/pandas in python can get you jobs as Data Analysts and Scientists for FAANG and other tech companies.

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One thing that a lot of people may not know though is the fact that other jobs require these skills as well. Knowing how to create dashboards in Tableau is something that is a valuable skill for roles like Business Analysts to use too. A Business Analyst is an umbrella term (sort of like Product/Project and Program manager at a lot of companies) for XYZ Analyst. In some cases, Business Analysts are Data Analysts, in others, they may be like Junior Product Managers. Business Analysts within certain teams in Amazon, for example, will have queries created for them by BIE’s (Business Intelligence Engineers or Data Engineers) and make reports out of those queries using Excel. They take the raw data and utilize VLOOKUPS and Pivot Tables to make sense of the information and present it to Sr. Managers and even directors. I know this because I did this for almost a year at Amazon!

TLDR; Knowing how to work with data in any sort of way, even if it’s by making pivot tables and using VLOOKUPS in excel is still a VERY valuable skill to have!

Resources: Lambda School, Udemy, Excel for Data Analysis

Salesforce Administrator/Consultant

Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff has said numerous times that we are living in what he likes to call, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

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What’s meant by this is that we’re living in a time where we’re more connected now more than ever. And with the current situation, we are seriously connected now more than we were a few months ago. Salesforce has climbed its way up the ladder in the tech world. Salesforce started by revolutionizing the way we sell through Sales Cloud. It then jumped into the realm of service by automating ways to provide world-class customer service. And recently they’ve found ways to use AI to create marketing campaigns to get more customers. All of this is to ensure that companies have a full 360-degree view of their customers at all times.

An admin comes in by managing the Salesforce instance a company may have (similar to a ServiceNow Admin). As an admin, you use declarative point and click adjustments (in other cases you’d have to code it out) to create a customized instance in Salesforce for the company you’re working for. Some of the things that a Salesforce Admin gets to do are:

• Create reports and dashboards to give key stakeholders insights into how the business is performing, and what customers saying about their business.
• Administering permissions and security rights to users in Salesforce so that customer information is being viewed by the appropriate people
• Build self-service portals that allow customers to find answers on their own through FAQ articles or by implementing an omnichannel communication service.
• Utilize the power of AI to give salespeople intelligent insights on what their next steps should be when they’re working with a lead. Use AI to answer questions customers may have through implementing a chatbot on their website.
• Connect Salesforce to external data sources and applications by using products like Salesforce Connect, Heroku, and Mulesoft.

To be a successful Salesforce admin you will need those skills and many more if you want to ensure that the company you’re working for is keeping the customer at the center of everything they do. You get to use business skills, product & design skills, and some technical skills to make business-critical decisions in Salesforce. The best part is that you can create almost everything listed above without having to write a single line of code! Salesforce has an amazing product called Trailhead where you can learn everything about Salesforce for free! Like ServiceNow, you will have to get a certification ($200 for the exam) if you want to be a desirable candidate for an admin job, but it’s 100% worth it. A job as an admin can start you off with a solid hourly rate of $30–40/hr (depending on locations of course). It also can lead to massive growth in your career. Many admins have ended up becoming Technical/Solution Architects in the Salesforce ecosystem where your hourly rate can increase 5 to 6 times what you’re originally making! You can start your journey to becoming a Salesforce Admin by visiting trailhead.salesforce.com today.

Resources: Trailhead, Udemy, Salesforce.com

ServiceNow Administrator

ServiceNow (SN for short) is one of the hottest SaaS products on the market right now. It’s used mainly by IT teams at companies and universities to track tickets that the IT Team handle. However, it’s becoming very popular in the customer service world as well as for case management. Even teams at large companies like Expedia utilize it to manage any HR and Payroll tickets internally.

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As a ServiceNow administrator, you help with setting the teams that are using ServiceNow up for success. You are responsible for automating manual tasks that these support teams may have. To be a successful admin you’ll need to:

• Understand the User Interface & Navigation of the SN Platform
• Know how users within SN can collaborate and have visibility on each others performance
• Database Administration, how are certain objects and items in SN are related to one another
• Process Automation, taking those manual tedious tasks that teams may have dealt with in case-management before SN Implementation and automating them
• Some scripting and development

The criteria I listed above are what you’ll need to know in order to be a successful SN Admin and to pass the certification exam. Certification Exam? Yes, that’s right, if you want a higher chance of getting an SN Admin job you should get the certification so that people know you’re qualified and knowledgable in the SN ecosystem. The exam costs $150 and to prepare for the exam, I’ve left some resources (some free and some paid) below.

One of the awesome things about being an SN admin is that if you decide to go freelance with this role and be a contractor, you can start by charging $30–40/hr by being a junior admin. As you work your way up, you can charge triple or even quadruple that rate depending on who the client may be (Please note that due to the current economic situation we are in, you may see rates be lowered). A ServiceNow Admin gig is a great remote job not only for the situation we are in right now but also for the future once the situation we’re all in settles down.

Resources: Udemy Course, ServiceNow Website

Conclusion

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To wrap things up, you are in control of what you want to do in the future. The world you and I are living in right now is a total shift from the way of life we’ve been living for however long both of us have been alive for. Soon, we are going to be in a world that will be digitally connected even more than we are right now, and a lot of that will be powered by automation and data. Knowing how to wrangle data, make sense of it, and make intelligent insights using it will get you far in your tech career.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and Check out my YouTube video about working at Amazon!