What Does It Take to Become a Kicksaw Salesforce Admin?

Let’s start by stating the obvious: jobs are so much more than what you find in a job description. The day-to-day professional lives of folks working in the Salesforce ecosystem are far more nuanced than any one job posting can capture, so we figured we’d invite you to take a deeper dive into a few of the roles we hire for here at Kicksaw, starting with Salesforce Admin!

At Kicksaw, we pride ourselves on our ability to offer richer, more fulfilling experiences than you might find at other consulting firms. One of the main reasons we’re able to do this is that we do business differently, and that’s not just something we say to try to get you to check us out. Our Fractional Operations business model is truly unique, radical, and (we think) the better way to work. This video gives a good overview of what Fractional Operations are and how they create a better product for clients, while providing a more fulfilling opportunity for our employees.

With the Fractional Operations way of doing business as our bedrock, we build the Salesforce Admin experience from there, starting by assigning them to a Pod. 

Pods are the internal consulting teams at Kicksaw. Each Pod is made up of a Salesforce Consultant, a Solution Architect, and the Salesforce Admin. The Pods manage their own books of business, and typically work with two-four clients at a time, depending on the size and complexity of the client. 

While each Pod member has unique responsibilities and duties, they are hardly solo players. The Salesforce Consultant works closely with the client to understand their business needs, the Solution Architect designs the best solution to meet those needs, and the Salesforce Admin puts in the hands-on-keyboard work to create the solution, but none of those tasks happen in a vacuum. Pods are teams. They collaborate closely and lean on each other to create excellent solutions for their clients — one of the Kicksaw core values is Work Together, and we take it seriously. You’ll get your alone time (we know you crave it), but you’ll also have dedicated teammates at your side to help you meet and exceed your goals. 

Unlike conventional in-house roles, being a Salesforce Admin at Kicksaw is like becoming a globetrotter in the business world. We journey across a kaleidoscope of industries, challenges, and solutions, honing our skills and broadening our horizons.
— Dennison Adad, Kicksaw Salesforce Admin

What sets the Salesforce Admin role apart? 

The biggest difference between the Salesforce Admin (we’ll just call them Admin going forward) and the Salesforce Consultant (SC) and Solution Architect (SA) is that Admins usually don’t talk to clients. Most of the time, the only Pod members who speak to clients through meetings and email/Slack are the SC and SA. So, if you’re the sort of person who enjoys a nice to-do list without a looming client meeting on the horizon threatening to break your concentration, Admin might be the role for you.

A typical work day for an Admin might look like this: 

Your Morning:

‍You set your own schedule and determine the best way to spend your time in order to finish the work that you’ve been given. You might spend your morning working on one or more of these three tasks: 

• Investigating and resolving Salesforce application issues: This could involve diagnosing issues with the Salesforce Mobile Publisher app, resolving configuration problems related to Salesforce multi-factor authentication (MFA), or dealing with errors reported by users.
• Managing Salesforce data: The administrator would update data fields, manage data migration, and investigate data-related issues. This could include updating the historical map component data in Salesforce via ETL or managing data migration for Salesforce Open Opportunity Data.
• Working with third-party integrations: This involves configuring, updating, and troubleshooting issues with integrated systems like Conga, DocuSign, TaskRay, and Pardot, among others.

11:30 - 12:00 PM

Take a break from your heads-down work to attend a Pod standup meeting to discuss client work, problem-solve, and connect on issues that are important to the Pod, the clients, and Kicksaw.

Lunch

Today you’ve arranged to do a virtual lunch with one of your favorite Kicksaw coworkers, but for her it’s virtual breakfast because you live in different time zones (yay remote teams!).

Your Afternoon

It’s up to you to determine how best to structure the rest of your day. Before you dive back into the nitty gritty stuff, though, you’ve opted to spend an hour contributing volunteer PTO to a cause you believe in. (Kicksaw offers 24 hrs of paid volunteer time to every employee, every year.) Once you’ve wrapped up your volunteer hour, you might spend the rest of your workday working on one or more of these tasks:

• Conducting research and development tasks: This could include researching new features or modules in Salesforce, like the Salesforce Mobile Publisher app or Salesforce duplication management, and developing proof of concept (POC) configurations.
• Overseeing automation tasks: This would entail setting up and troubleshooting Salesforce automation for various processes such as Task Automation and Lead and Contact Statuses.
• Building and revising Salesforce configurations: This task involves creating and updating various Salesforce modules such as Salesforce CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote), Salesforce Lead Process, and other UI enhancements.

5:00 PM - TBD

It’s quittin’ time, but today you’ve opted to spend some of your non-work time with your Kicksaw coworkers during Virtual Happy Hour with the Kicksaw team — Lara’s bringing the trivia today, so brush up on your little-known facts!

Other items that might pop up on your to-do list could include: 

1. Managing security and permissions: For instance, configuring Salesforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and auditing the Salesforce org for security compliance.
2. Creating and managing templates: This could involve working with Conga Templates or Salesforce CPQ Quotes Templates, including their creation, revision, and deployment.
3. Conducting training or presentations: Demonstrating new features or configurations to other team members or stakeholders, such as demoing Data Importer or providing feedback on Salesforce CPQ demos.
4. Participating in project management activities: This could be taking part in a steering committee, coordinating with other teams (such as other Pods), or managing work streams in a shared sandbox environment.

Every day and every client is different, and will require different work from an Admin. The important thing to remember about the Admin role is that it’s the most HOK-heavy role at Kicksaw. And if that’s your jam, we might be your band. 

Typical consulting firms have aggressive utilization metrics that limit time away from our computers. Kicksaw allows us to complete our work without feeling pressured or guilty if we spend time with our family and friends.
— Ian Devlin, Kicksaw Salesforce Admin

What does career growth look like for a Salesforce Admin?

There are four tiers for Admins at Kicksaw, and we like to break them down this way: 

• Tier 1: Associate — Can tie a knot, and participates when others tie complex knots.
• Tier 2: Mid/Developing — Ties complex knots, calculates rope strength, and knows a lot about knots of all sorts
• Tier 3: Senior — Creates their own knots, teaches others how to tie these new knots, and uses these new knots strategically
• Tier 4: Principal — Uses their extensive knowledge of knots to solve complicated problems that affect their Pod/department and result in positive change for Kicksaw

We utilize a performance-management platform that makes it simple for employees and managers to keep in touch, and we conduct performance reviews on a biannual basis. Knowing where you stand at Kicksaw is as easy as referencing the internal rubric for measuring tiers within each role. Salary ranges are also available for internal reference in a separate document. 

Additionally, every role at Kicksaw has a documented career progression track both for those who want to pursue a management role, and for those who do not anticipate wanting to take on a management role. We call the non-management track the “individual contributor track.” Both tracks are equally weighted — you don’t have to become a manager to experience career success at Kicksaw. 

We also provide support for employees who want to take classes to improve their skill sets, attend conferences (such as Dreamforce or other Salesforce events), or otherwise expand their professional abilities. Support includes reimbursement (there is a cap), an annual tech stipend, access to internal resources to help you find classes, etc, and more. 

Essentially, you can go as far as you see fit as an Admin at Kicksaw! 

Be prepared to face new challenges every day, and know that it's OK to not know everything, because Kicksaw is full of amazing resources.
— Kendra Ramey, Kicksaw Salesforce Admin

How should I prepare for an interview for the Salesforce Admin role?

Certs are great, but if we’re being honest…experience is better. If you’ve never worked in a live Salesforce org before, we are probably not a great fit for you right now. 

Once you’ve gone through an initial screening, if we want to proceed with you as a candidate, you will be given a technical Admin Assessment to better gauge your capacity as a Salesforce Admin. Without giving too much away, topics you’ll probably want to be pretty familiar with include: 

1. App Building
2. Data Migration
3. Data Quality
4. Flows

The best way you can prepare for an interview for the Salesforce Admin role at Kicksaw, though, is to simply be you. We mentioned our Work Together core value earlier in this post, but the interview process is all about another one of our core values: Be You. It’s important. We’re hiring people, not button-pushers. Our core values are integral to our identity and community as a company, and It’s important that you embody all four of our core values: Work Together, Be You, Own It, and Keep It Simple. 

We know that Kicksaw owes its success to the people who work here. We’ve worked hard to create a culture that truly puts people first, and not just the people who are paying us — we put our people first as well. It’s why we started our profit sharing program, and why we work so hard to add additional employee benefits and programs at every opportunity. And it’s why it is so important to us that we hire folks who align with our core values and who will contribute to that culture by bringing their own unique talents, energy, and passions to their role. 

All that being said…send us your resumé! We know it can be intimidating to apply for a new role, but we promise you — real people are going to read your application, and we take every submission under consideration. The Salesforce Admin role is an exciting opportunity for folks who love to build things, love to solve problems, get nerdy about flows and validation rules, and are hungry for an opportunity to grow their career at a truly unique consulting firm. 

We look forward to hearing from you!