Today on the Salesforce Admins Podcast, we talk to Bradley Condon, Technology and Systems Specialist at Waste Solution Services. Join us as we chat about his Dreamforce presentation and the custom apps Bradley built to help him land his next role.

You should subscribe for the full episode, but here are a few takeaways from our conversation with Bradley Condon.

From customer service rep to the Dreamforce stage

This year was the first Dreamforce Bradley was able to attend, and also his first time giving a presentation—I’d say he’s off to a great start.

Bradley started his career as a Service Cloud user who got curious about the platform. He clicked on the Help Section, ended up on Trailhead, “and by the end of the day, I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,” he says.

However, when he started looking for jobs, he ran into a common problem. How can you show that you have hands-on experience without landing that crucial first Salesforce role? 

Using personal projects to stand out

Bradley decided that the best approach was to build custom apps in Salesforce and reference them on his resume. But what to build? As he explains, “I realized that in order for me to make time for it, I needed to build something I was passionate about that I wanted to use.”

One thing he was definitely focused on was passing his Admin Certification exam. So he made an app to help him study by texting him a practice question every day. He also wanted to attend more Salesforce events, which led to another app that helped match Trailblazers with each other to save on accommodations.

Bradley listed all of his personal projects on his resume and also shared them on Experience Cloud so interviewers could see his solutions in action.

How to pick a side project

In the course of building (and debugging) these projects, Bradley was able to learn by experience. By the time he was finished, he was able to sit for the Platform App Builder Certification without needing to study and pass it with flying colors.

As for what to work on, Bradley encourages you to work with what you know. Can you think of an app that would help you in your day-to-day? Or, if you’re interviewing in a specific industry, something that would solve a common problem they might face?

We want to hear about your side projects, so tell us about them on our socials. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Salesforce Admins Podcast to catch us in your feed every Thursday.

Podcast swag

• Salesforce Admins on the Trailhead Store

Learn more

• Automate This!: Boost Your Salesforce Certification Study Routine with Flows & Email-to-Text Gateways | Automate This!

Admin Trailblazers Group

• Admin Trailblazers Community Group

Social

• Bradley on LinkedIn


• Salesforce Admins on LinkedIn


• Salesforce Admins on X


• Mike on Bluesky social


• Mike on Threads


• Mike on X

Full show transcript

Mike:

Welcome to Salesforce Admins Podcast. This week I’m chatting with Bradley Condon, a first-time Dreamforce presenter who has a powerful story about self-starting service cloud and personal projects that pack a punch. Now, Bradley shared this at Dreamforce about how building custom apps on the side helped him land a role and prep for certifications, and it was even something really cool he could do for a friend in a tough time.

Now, Bradley’s journey starts from a call center agent, all the way to creating experience cloud solutions that he could share with future employers when he was interviewing. So if you’re curious about why you should do Salesforce projects on the side and do personal projects, Bradley’s story is for you. So let’s get Bradley on the podcast.

So Bradley, welcome to the podcast.

Bradley Condon:

Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Mike:

Yeah, well, it’s exciting, you are a first-time presenter, as I learned before we pressed record, at Dreamforce, and you’re going to talk about building personal projects, which I’ve done quite a few on the side, and I think that’s really cool. I can’t wait to see your presentation, but let’s learn a little bit about you. Tell me how you got started in the Salesforce ecosystem and what you do.

Bradley Condon:

Yeah, of course. So I got started in the ecosystem as actually a call center agent using Service Cloud, working for a furniture company, just handling warranty issues and whatnot. And I got really interested in it and wanted to learn more about it, so I clicked on the Help section and ended up on Trailhead, and by the end of the day I was like, “You know what? I know what I want to do with the rest of my life,” and started to make the transition to learn all I could about Salesforce and eventually, got my certification, landed a role, and then after that role, I had some time in between that I was trying to find the next one, and that’s when I started building personal projects to really fill in that gap that I had to get my next role.

Mike:

Wow, okay. I think you might be the first person that started off in Service Cloud.

Bradley Condon:

Yeah, really?

Mike:

Yeah. A lot of admins I know, I’m not saying nobody, but admins I know always start off in sales, and you were in Service Cloud, so that was really cool. You had to have been just a dream. I’m just sitting here back thinking of what that admin must’ve been like when you were like, “Hey, I clicked on Help and I’m starting to do some Trailhead modules.” I would’ve looked over and been like, “Bradley, I’m going to buy you lunch right now,” because-

Bradley Condon:

Yeah, we didn’t have an admin.

Mike:

Oh, okay. Oh, you just burst my bubble. That’s all right. Well, you probably became the admin then, defunct. I started off doing because when you get excited with Salesforce stuff, you’re probably like me, and I was doing a whole bunch of things. I was like, “Oh, I could probably track that in Salesforce. Oh, I could probably track that in Salesforce.” I think I had three or four dev orgs that all had different things in it. Personal projects, you know you’re doing Trailhead stuff, you’re working. First of all, how did you just find time to do extra projects on the side?

Bradley Condon:

Well, so it all started when I was looking for another role and I was having trouble really getting my foot in the door for interviews, and I think it’s because I was just looking like everyone else on paper. And I thought, “Okay, I need a different strategy. I need to do something that’s going to help me standout.” And that’s when I decided, “You know what? I’m going to just start building, and that way, I have something to showcase during your interviews.”

Mike:

I like that. Did, as you were interviewing, change and modify the org? I’m assuming you shared credentials with your Mike.

Bradley Condon:

Well, so I actually would make it so that it was available on Experience Cloud-

Mike:

Ooh.

Bradley Condon:

So that way, it also showed experience in cloud skills and made it available for them to use and made the flows available. So not only could they just see what I worked on, but they could actually play with it themselves.

Mi