The support the WIT community provides is a strong energetic undercurrent. There is always a cheerleader/mentor/extra hand around to help with any questions. You can reach out on Twitter, LinkedIn, or the Trailblazer community and someone will always be able to find someone who can help you along. I’ve never experienced that in my career until I joined the Salesforce ecosystem. The WIT community is like having hundreds of best friends who understand what you do and genuinely want to help and see you succeed. I was thrilled when the community announced WitnessSuccess 2017 because we would all get to come together to share knowledge and support each other in an environment dedicated to us.
The inaugural WitnessSucess was a catalyst for personal change for me. It was the first time I spoke at an official Salesforce community event and helped build my confidence to speak at Dreamforce . It also changed my career path.
Leslie Gestautus and I worked hard on our resume workshop for WitnessSuccess because we knew it would help other WIT move towards their ideal roles. It felt urgent to us to provide tools and tactics to build a strong competitive resume. We still get feedback on how the workshop helped attendees. And any nerves I had about facilitating the workshop and public speaking subsided once I saw realized how engaged the attendees were.
The 2nd change was around my career. During the lunch I decided I should visit the sponsors and thank them for sponsoring the first WitnessSuccess. I had no idea that my conversation with Silverline (2018 C-Level Sponsor) would lead to a new role with them. Two months after the conference I left my job to join Silverline. I’m proud to have joined an organization that supports WIT and WitnessSuccess. It is fulfilling to be with a company where my values and the company’s values are closely aligned.
2017 was such a huge success; I can’t imagine what the 2018 conference will bring. I’m eager to pull together new content to help other WIT on their career journeys; I’m also excited to learn some new things. But mostly, I’m looking forward to being surrounds by amazing WIT and Allies for a couple of days sharing ideas with them and seeing what unexpected things will come out of the event.
Twitter: @lizzhellinga
