Tips and tricks to succeed at your Salesforce internship

How big of a role do internships play in shaping your career? I believe they’re the cornerstone of your career. Your internship will lead you into your first job, it will be the first ‘experience’ you put on your resume, it will set a tone for all the future jobs you look for! And don’t you want this first real-world experience to be the best? Especially if you could land an internship at an incredible company such as Salesforce? Of course you do, which is why I am dedicating this blog to help you succeed at your first step and help you set the strongest foundation for your career :)

You will see a lot of blogs and articles that help you land an internship at Salesforce. Today, we move one step ahead. Considering that you got an offer to work as an intern at Salesforce, what next? This blog will help you with all the tips and tricks you need to ensure that you give your absolute best and shine the brightest as an intern!

Be bold and stand out!

Salesforce has the best recruiting team and they ensure that everyone gets a chance to stand out. Throughout your internship, you’ll be given many chances to show your talents, your enthusiasm and to ensure that you’re seen and heard!. My advice - make the most of every opportunity! As you step into the corporate world, you may be a bit shy to express yourself, to participate in events or even to ask small questions. But step out of your comfort zone, it’s time to be bold and courageous!

Few examples of what I did to ‘stand out’ -

• Participated in VTOs (volunteering events)
• Never stopped myself from asking questions in Slack channels and Futureforce calls
• Answered a number of questions that other interns had asked on help channels
• Helped Futureforce team welcome a group of interns that joined after me

These are just a few examples, but there will be a number of such opportunities you will get during your internship as well. Make sure that you make the most of it. This is your chance to stand out!

Be involved with your team

During your internship, you will be assigned a manager and a mentor (we have a cute term here for this - a trailguide!) They will be your first points of contact when you join as an intern. Gradually you will be introduced to the team. Your first instinct may be to only converse with your manager and trailguide because that’s more comfortable and easy. That’s what you need to change. Bonding with your team members will ensure that everyone knows you, trusts you and most importantly, roots for you! This will increase your chances of getting back into the team in a full-time role!

One feedback I had directly received from my manager was that it is very important to always share your accomplishments with your team. Unless you share what you have achieved, the team won’t be aware of what you have worked on. Sharing it improves your position in the team. You can share it via small documents or simply send a slack message!

As Salesforce has moved into a “flex” work routine, it may be difficult to talk to your team members if they’re working remotely.

Here are a few things I did to be more involved with my team -

• Joined all team calls and always participated in informal conversations about work, life, interests, etc.
• (If you’re a tech intern) Asked all team members (not just my mentor) to review my pull requests
• Documented a missing work flow voluntarily to help new recruits in my team with onboarding
• Actively helped out team members if they were stuck on tasks that I had completed previously
• Had calls with different team members on issues I was facing during my project
• Presented my project to the team separately, before the official Futureforce project presentation

Again I would like to emphasize how important it is to stand out during your internship. Team members have their own set of tasks and showing them that you’re a valuable and active employee will always help you in the long run!

Be proactive

During the first or second week, you will be assigned a fixed project you will need to work on for the duration of your internship. You can either rely on your mentor/manager to constantly help you with this project or you can be proactive and manage tasks on your own! I would really recommend the latter. Being proactive shows that you can be trusted to handle tasks independently and that you are actually interested in completing the project.

Here’s a few tips to be proactive -

• Prepare your own ‘project timeline/roadmap’ after the project is discussed with you
• Keep documenting the tasks you accomplished during your project
• Do your own research and come up with innovative ideas for improving the project
• If you’re stuck on an issue, try to figure out the solution for a few hours before approaching your mentor (one way is to search slack to check if anyone else has faced the same issue)
• Prepare a formal project documentation/demo video and share it with the team before your internship ends
• Read existing documentation about processes/flows/projects in your team before asking your mentor/team

These are the little things to ensure that your team members know how interested you are in your project and your internship. Now be proactive and think of more ways to be proactive!

Network with other interns

There are so many reasons why networking with other interns is important during your internship. It helps you gain more perspective on what they’re doing differently in their internship, what measures they’re taking to stand out or how you can help them out with their tasks! Many interns may be working on a similar project as you are and you can help each other out with your tasks. Other interns may be aware of events or opportunities you could have possibly missed. Attending Futureforce events with fellow interns is much more fun too! If you’ve relocated during your internship, you can even explore the new place with them!

Here’s a few ways to network with other interns -

• If the Futureforce team organizes intern networking events prior to your internship, make sure you attend all of them
• Talk to as many interns as you can during orientation/welcome events at the beginning of your internship
• Ask your manager/mentor about other interns joining in the same team
• If your internship is office flex, make sure you visit the office frequently to connect with other interns

These are just a few ways but you can always just send them a message on slack to see how they’re doing!

...and attend all Futureforce events

During your internship, the Futureforce University Recruiting team will organize a number of events for you to relax and have fun. This could also include amazing volunteering opportunities. I would recommend you to attend as many Futureforce events as possible! Not only are they a great way to network with the Futureforce team and other interns, but it is also a very good way to take a break from your project to have fun! Salesforce emphasizes a lot on wellness, and attending Futureforce events is a big source of enjoyment outside of work. There are a lot of insightful speaker series by top Salesforce leaders as well that you should definitely attend!

Few of the amazing Futureforce events I attended -

• Futureforce interns’ welcome event
• A wellness walk on the Embarcadero street in San Francisco
• A San Francisco city foodie tour!
• In-person speaker session by Bret Taylor (Co-CEO of Salesforce)

Futureforce events are definitely one of the top highlights of my internship and I loved every event I attended! They always give out lots of food and swag during these events that make them even more fun to attend!

TL;DR

• Be bold and never feel shy to stand out and express yourself.
• Be active in your team conversations and stand out in your team as an invaluable asset.
• Be proactive about your project plan, tasks, issues and improvements
• Network with other interns to gain a better understanding of their projects, teams and ideas.
• Attend all the Futureforce events to enjoy your internship and to improve networking skills

That’s all I have to say today! I hope this blog helps you out. Interning at Salesforce in itself is an amazing start to your career but you also need to ensure that you’re taking every possible step to make the most out of it.

Good luck with your internship and I hope you enjoy it!