A day in the life of a Salesforce Developer

For part 2 of the “Day in the life” series Talent Hub spoke with Stephano Rose, an experienced Salesforce Developer. Stephano has provided us with some valuable insights into a day in the life of a Salesforce Developer and also provides readers with some information on his career to date, his dreams and his life away from the office.

Over to Stephano:

 

Salesforce has become a dominant key player in the Enterprise Cloud ecosystem. Being a Salesforce Developer means I get to have loads of fun and I am constantly being challenged. First things first, I firmly believe, as a Developer or Technologist in this ecosystem it is really important that you are outstanding at what you do and a game changing asset to your employer/client. It is becoming vital that you are cross-skilled with technology and communication skills are now “condicio sine qua non” (Absolutely essential), especially in some of the more client facing Developer roles.

We as techies, are output oriented. Implementing and getting things up and running quickly becomes and addiction for many of us. Some Developers do the whole cycle – from gathering requirements in workshops, writing code, show and tells, testing and deploying. Others end up striking their power on specific stages of the development lifecycle. Your role as a Developer is definitely driven by the project nature, whether you have a big team or not and the project methodology/approach being adopted.

For me it has been 3 amazing, crazy years working with Salesforce on some massive projects. My journey started with humble beginnings in Mauritius as a Java Developer. I then ramped up and got Salesforce certified lightning fast.  From there I got the chance to embark on my first complex Apex/Visualforce development tasks, I had the chance to deliver value to a great Client by building their key solution on a project. My next project saw me become the go-to guy for any outstanding custom development delivered to my clients’ requirements and now here I am 3 years later, in Sydney as a Senior Salesforce Developer.

 

System.debug(‘Dive into my day’);

 

Wake up at 7.30

Until I reach the clients office, I spend my time on the train scanning linkedin, facebook and twitter for articles for new tech in the Salesforce news, mobile, IoT, field service, AI, Integration, Aviation. This is a good time for some great information upload.

8.35ish

Get a punch of inspiration looking at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera house.

9.15

First stand-up, sharing quick brief updates on the previous days accomplished tasks and targets/action items for today.

Let’s really wake up with a coffee after the stand-up, and few minutes of chit chat with colleagues.

9.30am – 10.25

Let’s build and test. Cross skills put to work at its best. Build an integration flow fetching records from a Webservice to create and update Contacts and convert Leads in Salesforce. Requirements being a bit tricky, I can’t convert Lead directly using an out of the box feature from Mulesoft. After some “discussions” with peers, I go for exposing a synchronous REST service class from Salesforce to handle the complex process.

10.30 – 11.30

Half of the flow built, after a quick walk around to unlock my spine, I switch to writing my Apex class to search and convert the leads. Adding more challenge, this whole chain has to scale to larger volume, reply fast and adhere to Salesforce best practices (staying within the so famous Governor limits). By the way, this also applies to the Mulesoft app that will run in the Cloud (Cloudhub). Some further admin tasks, in the Salesforce org to set right permissions for classes and fields I use in this integration, and I start some quick tests from my Mulesoft studio while planning for my test classes. Exciting right?!

11:30 – 12:00

I have scheduled a quick meeting with the Business to validate a test result and do a quick demo. I note down feedback, and try to propose some nice-to-haves

12:00-12:30

We have a quick 2nd stand-up, which is joined by a few team members both onshore and offshore working on the same matter to throw some updates and impediments and discuss/resolve issues.

12:30-13:00

I use a quick lunch break to catch up on my dreams, reading aviation articles and aeronautical industry news. I am fascinated by Bombardier & Boeing, so I ensure that I read their updates every day. Connected Aircrafts, it’s the next big thing and I definitely see Salesforce & field service packages like Servicemax at work in this industry, as planes will be “smart” enough to order their parts and schedule their maintenance while still cruising at 35000 feet. Surely this might bring me closer to my dream of working with planes one day. In the meantime, I’m fine tuning my flying skills at weekends and working towards becoming a qualified pilot.

13:00-13:30

The non-stopping build & test iterates. Its days like today that you need a laptop or PC like a Ferrari or else you might lose half of your day waiting for it as it’s “… Not Responding”.

13:30-14:00

I connect to a peer to resolve some technical issues, clarify a requirement and then we go downstairs to grab a coffee. It’s another good time to get my body moving a bit, that’s crucial, as I don’t want to end up at the chiro on a weekly basis!

14:00 and onwards

While I am progressing through the same morning build, which is likely to be on my plate for the next 2-3 days, a new requirement has popped up. The requirements are to have records coming from On Premise flowing seamlessly to Salesforce every 15 minutes or less. My mind is boiling with ideas for the next task already.

A heavy afternoon of build and I look up at the clock and it’s 6pm already, it’s the best part of the day. I know I worked on cool stuff and I totally smashed my targets.

18:00 and onwards

While catching my bus, I can see everyone going to the gym. I was never a gym lover so I am off to bachata & salsa classes.

If you think I am in bed for 10pm, you are totally wrong! Dedication pushes me to go and read more, try a new piece of code or feature in the platform, think about some certifications, read some blogs, some articles. It’s the perfect time for ideas to pop up on my mind.

I am definitely going to bed after midnight. Sometimes, I feel 24 hours is not enough in a day. That’s why I guess techies sleep and wake up the same day.

I live my dreams in the cloud!