At 22 years old, Jonathan Vu felt uncertain about his future.

At the time, he was attending an online business program at Western Governors University during the day and bartending and bussing tables at night to support himself. He envisioned himself landing a job in tech, but when it came time to find the right opportunity, he felt restricted by a heavy class schedule and two part-time jobs. And when he did get an interview, he never seemed to catch the break he was hoping for. He faced multiple rejections from employers who required more job experience — job experience that he didn’t have, and didn’t know how to get. He couldn’t devote the kind of time he thought he needed to land the job of his dreams.

“At the time, I felt like I would be bartending and waiting tables forever,” recalled Jonathan. “It was tough because I couldn’t afford to take on any unpaid internships to gain the type of experience I needed. And the more time that passed, the more I felt I was falling behind.”

Jonathan continued working at the bar and restaurant, applying to jobs and hoping for a career opportunity to come his way. Finally, one company gave him a chance. The healthy meal delivery startup, Sun Basket, based out of San Francisco, California, offered Jonathan a position on their customer support team. Part of the job was learning Salesforce, and Jonathan dove right in — so much so that he quickly became the go-to for all Salesforce questions at the company.

We sat down with Jonathan to talk about his career journey from bartender to Salesforce Admin. Here’s his story:

Q: With no prior experience, how did you learn Salesforce?

The funny thing is, I actually attended Dreamforce three years ago with a free Expo+ pass and walked around the campground with no clue what I was experiencing. So that was my first experience: I had no idea what Salesforce was but I knew it had a big presence in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Fast forward a couple years, and I was working at Sun Basket using Desk.com (a customer service solution for small businesses that was later acquired by Salesforce) to answer support tickets. That’s when I first started using Trailhead to ramp up my customer service skills.

Sun Basket grew quickly, so we migrated to Service Cloud Classic and then Service Cloud Lightning. I was the only Salesforce Admin at Sun Basket, and no one else on the team had experience with Service Cloud yet. Trailhead and the Trailblazer Community were the resources I turned to most when I had an unanswered question. I kept coming back to learn new solutions to the challenges my team faced.

Q: What were some challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

My most difficult challenge was leading the implementation of Service Cloud. I had to learn the new platform fast, while juggling the implementation logistics and onboarding new members.

When we first moved to Service Cloud, we were apprehensive about having such a robust platform. Sun Basket is still a growing company, so there was a lot of functionality available to us that we hadn’t mastered yet. But once we dove in, we realized that we could customize the platform to work for us.

The next daunting task was the sheer number of people to move onto Service Cloud. After some deliberation, I decided to train everyone in waves with weekly workshops. Training my team incrementally in small groups made it less intimidating for me, and my team enjoyed having the one-on-one help. We didn’t rush things and invested time into ramping up each individual.

Q: How did you manage such a big change across a growing organization?

Giving people the time and guidance to learn helped the most, and making efficiency the #1 value proposition and incentive for others to learn the new platform. I set expectations up front that I’m a friend, not a foe, and that all the tools we use (including Salesforce) are our allies.

Part of that was getting the whole customer service team involved in building out our Salesforce org from the beginning. I collected feedback on what areas needed to be automated or adjusted and prioritized developing an org that directly answered their biggest concerns. That way our team could experience the time savings and benefits of Salesforce right away, and the platform’s value was clear.

Q: What’s been your favorite skill you’ve picked up along the way?

Definitely implementing workflow automation using Process Builder. When you work at a startup, you start looking for ways to work smarter. Being the only Salesforce Admin, I would get the same repetitive questions from my team. There wasn’t anyone else to rely on, so the Process Automation Trail in Trailhead got me started on Process Builder, which allowed me to bypass those manual steps and take on different requests.

Two Words of Advice to New Grads Just Starting Out in Tech

Today, Jonathan has been running the Salesforce org at Sun Basket for nearly three years. He not only feels like he joined a supportive team, he’s also happy with the technology career he’s been able to cultivate for himself.

“It hasn’t always been easy. I’ve had some late nights, putting in extra hours to teach myself the platform,” he said. “The key for me is to stay excited about the new skills I’m learning, and to never stop exploring.”

Throughout Jonathan’s endless exploration of how Salesforce can transform Sun Basket’s business, he’s picked up some helpful advice for others who are dreaming of careers in technology. Here are two tips Jonathan would give to new grads struggling to trade in their side job for a career in tech:

1. Never Stop Learning: Becoming a lifelong learner requires a constant thirst for new knowledge and skills. There are so many things to learn across the Salesforce ecosystem, and it truly pays to stay motivated and keep exploring.

2. Respect Your Ohana: Ohana is the Hawaiian word for “family,” and it’s a term Salesforce uses frequently to describe the shared culture of trust and support amongst employees, customers, and partners. Convincing your team to trust in your abilities requires first showing them the same respect — a very Ohana approach to achieving success together.

Drive your career forward by learning on Trailhead like Jonathan, and check out the “Trailhead Basics” module for everything you need to know to get started on your Salesforce journey.

This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting the many voices and stories that make up Salesforce’s diverse community of Trailblazers.