Dreamforce Hangover

Dreamforce is over…

The Dreamforce Hangover is the real deal. I’m slowly getting back to life and work a week after Dreamforce. It was so surreal to attend as an employee this year.

This was my 14th Dreamforce and 2nd time speaking. I presented my session Misty Jones and Jet Kasinger 4 times in the Trailhead theaters and a 1 time extended version on the Admin breakout track.

There were so many great stories of Trailblazers. I enjoyed sticker trading Trailmojis with my Ohana.

The best part of Dreamforce is that I get to spend time with my teammates. We all pretty much work remote across the county. Nothing is better than a hug from your teammate right before you go on stage to speak.

If you didn’t catch Certification Preparation: Where To Begin at Dreamforce, you can watch it here:

Certification Preparation: Where To Begin

Whether you’ve already begun your journey to become Salesforce certified or are unsure of where to even start your certification preparation, join us for a look at the tools and resources available to you and learn why certifications and hands-on skills are essential to your career path. This session has everything you need to take your certification preparation to the next level.

Sharing my story of certification

I shared something personal this year in my journey to becoming certified. I’m dyslexic. It doesn’t define me but it is a part of me. As a kid, I had no idea that I actually had a learning disability. I knew I wasn’t the fastest reader and work seemed to take me longer than others.  Mostly I found myself daydreaming instead of doing the work in front of me. I loved reading which is always interesting to me that I figure out coping mechanisms to keep doing what I loved. I would get in trouble at school all the time for “talking out loud”; which was my way of reading so I comprehended what was on the page. I also would stop when I found a word that didn’t make sense and look it up. Now I can just Google.

This learning disability also made it difficult to spell. I still have a great deal of shame admitting that I do not spell well and have a very hard time pronouncing words. I had a teacher tell me to sound it out over and over… I just looked at her and said my brain doesn’t work that way. I’m so grateful for technology in today’s world. I have so many accommodations and coping skills now that I use daily.

To this day it is very hard for me when someone points out my disability. I have to remember to take a breath. This person doesn’t always know that I have a learning disability. This causes me great stress to type in a live setting with others watching. For this reason, I have Chrome extensions for spelling and grammar.

I urge anyone that has a disability to swallow your pride and ask for help. There are many accommodations that can be provided. As I tell my son, asking for help is smart; not asking is suffering. To those of you who don’t have a disability; please take a min with those of us who do. Joking or teasing us about it makes it difficult to trust that you are a safe person to have in our circle. Everyone is different and we need to choose kindness.

If you have a disability and need help taking an exam please reach out to the team via the Special Accommodations for Certification Exams.

Tips that help me

• Schedule your exam at the very end of the day.
  • This gives me time to prepare myself to take the exam.
  • I zen the whole day before an exam.
  • Eat a good breakfast.
  • Workout
  • Do a short review of topics I have a hard time with.
• Go to a testing location near you.
  • Scout out your location.
  • Do they have a private room?
  • Earplugs are a must
• Asking for accommodations – Do a case with the Trailhead team
  • Do they have a private room to test?
  • Can I adjust the screen prior to starting?
  • Can I have more time?
  • Is there a person that can read the questions to me?
  • Can I use a screen reader to read the questions?
• Tips for testing
  • Use your paper to brain dump prior to clicking the start button
  • Number a paper from 1 – 60 to track your progress.
  • Take a min to breathe before you start.
  • Read out loud the questions and answers (Private room or whisper to yourself.)
  • Read the question, all the answers and read the question again.
  • If you don’t know within 30 secs, guess, mark for review and move on.
  • Celebrate! Pass or fail; celebrate that you did it. You tried and that is what counts.

May the Force be with you!