The importance of bringing your work to an interview.

In learning a little more about Sylvester Stallone’s story of how he was able to get his “lucky” break in show business, it reminded me of how you could apply the same approach in landing your first/next Salesforce position.

Before Sylvester became a big-time name, he was actively going to casting calls to audition for parts, and during this time, he also decided to write the screen play for Rocky, which he states took 3 days to write after being inspired by a Muhammad Ali fight that he watched previously.

After writing the screenplay and as he was auditioning, he decided to tell the producers about his story, which sparked their interest.  They asked to see it and one thing led to another, the movie was made, Sylvester took the lead (after a long negotiation process), and the movie ended up being the highest grossing film of 1976, along with having 10 Oscar nominations (winning 3) and further producing a series of Rocky films grossing over $1 billion.

In the case of your Salesforce career, you’re actively auditioning/interviewing and speaking to your experience. In addition to this, you might want to also by like Sly and bring some examples of your work.

It doesn’t have to be in perfect condition, only about 10% of Sly’s original screenplay made it to production as most of it was trivial.

But it’s a start and shows that you’ve been able to produce tangible results and allows you to have a meaningful conversation that a hiring manager can connect to and ask questions about.

Occasionally, I hear, “Chris, I might not have internet access during the interview to show my Dev org”. Please don’t let that stop you as there’s plenty of ways to demonstrate your work through screen mock-ups, wireframes or a process flow using editing tools.  

Check out: https://www.justinmind.com/ or https://www.avonnicreator.com/. 

Another idea, if you wanted to show a real-time demo is to ask ahead of time if there is a guest internet login in the office or even using your cell phone’s personal hotspot.

I also understand the hiring manager or interviewing panel might not have time to see your work during your interview, so another option is to ask if it’s OK to send it to them before the interview or inquire if there will be time allotted to be able to do a demo or to review what you’ve previously sent.

The point in this exercise is:

To demonstrate your work which allows further conversations to be had and additional opportunities to arise.

The Rocky series may have never produced the global fame it has today, if Sylvester Stallone didn’t ask to show his screenplay.

ADRIAN!!!