From Trainee to Trailblazer: My Journey with the Clarity Campus Programme!
Blog
The Clarity Campus 2024 team session in September!
About the Clarity Campus programme:
In September 2023, I joined the Clarity Campus Programme with three other trainees. The goal: to prepare us for solutions delivery on the Salesforce platform. The initial training focused on building our understanding of the Salesforce system. Then to develop the hard and soft skills necessary to deliver solutions for our clients.
We started with an intensive training programme in preparation for the Salesforce Admin Certification. Under the guidance of Katie Ross, we spent four weeks learning all about Salesforce. This meant us working as a team – sharing notes, revision tips, and supporting each another as we prepared.
By the end, we had not only developed our system knowledge but (thankfully) managed to pass the exam on our first attempt!
With this theoretical foundation in place, it was time to develop my hands-on skills. This meant working with experienced functional consultants such as: Anna Phillips, who walked us through real-world use of Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). We explored common client issues, potential challenges, and configuration best practice. Additionally, Shaun Bridges introduced me to Giveclarity’s custom accelerators and how they are being used.
Both Anna and Shaun were incredibly knowledgeable and supportive, and I picked up invaluable tricks and tools that I still use daily (shoutout to Salesforce Inspector!). But – of course – the learning didn’t stop there.
Shortly after, I began preparing for the Salesforce Business Analyst Certification. Under the supervision of Safiyyah Gareeboo, this theory transformed into practical skills. Though this meant hours of exacting exercises, presentations, and in-depth discussions, Safiyyah’s guidance helped me pass the certification on my first attempt.
After this, I started working on my first projects as part of the functional team. Our initial project supported the development of our Giveclarity Org Configuration Solution (GcOC) – a data dictionary tool that improved change visibility in Salesforce orgs. We conducted interviews with key stakeholders and translated them into user acceptance criteria. These were then built into a functional tool on the system by my fellow trainee, Bethani Gourlay.
During this time, I also handled client tickets through our support desk. This started with problem-solving and soon evolved to providing complex solutions and making sure client’s deployed best practice wherever possible. By this time, six months had passed since starting my journey with Giveclarity. And things would not slow down in the time ahead.
Since then, I’ve supported Global Health Advocates (GHA) in a pro-bono build case. I received expert-led test training from Shipra Dixit and executed tests across a range of projects. And even ran the Belfast Marathon as part of our relay team to raise money for DePaul NI.
The Belfast team at our 10 year anniversary event in October!
Most recently, I travelled to Brussels to support the team in delivering discovery workshops for Plan Belgium. Currently, I am supporting Trussell Trust manage their Salesforce platform and assisting with ongoing build and testing work with UNHCR.
Looking back, it’s amazing to see how much ground we all have covered since starting the Clarity Campus programme. One year has seen us go from starting our Salesforce journey to confidently designing, building, and deploying end-to-end solutions for clients.
All of which makes me very excited to see what the next year has in store 😊
Jack Geary is an Associate Functional Consultant at Giveclarity Northern Ireland.