From the desk of: Shirley Lafuente

Thanks for visiting spunkysquirrelsplayground.com. I created this website as a place for me to improve my coding skills while sharing my thoughts and give insight as to who I am and what I am hoping to accomplish in my next career endeavor. Having recently resigned from a Salesforce Consultant role, I will begin by focusing on how I got started and what eventually helped me to make my decision to take the leap of faith and move on.

My first real job in the Salesforce Econsystem was as a user in Inside Sales. Who would have known it would eventually pave the way for the rest of my career. I love working with Salesforce. In less than 20 years, they hve been named one of the most innovative companies by Forbes 5 years in a row.

While I enjoyed the user side experience, I eventually transitioned into a Salesforce Administrator role which has been exciting, challenging, and sometimes downright painful at times however I wouldn't trade it for the world. As an Administrator, I've worked with some of the best sales reps one could only imagine. I've supported changes and development that one might think impossible. Through it all, I can honestly say the best part of working with Salesforce is being part of a community of Salesforce professionals (like myself) that are always willing to help one another. That is the best reward!

With over 8 years of solid Salesforce experience under my belt, I was offered a full time Salesforce Consultant position with a small systems integrator. My role was to join the team as a combination "Consultant and Business Analyst". I had taken a course back in 2014 which gave me the "Business Analyst Certification" credential so I felt like this naturally was the direction I should go. Having never been a consultant or a full time analyst (except for a short stint back in 2010) I had no idea what to expect. Boy was I in for a surprise!

After months with more idle time than I prefer (they say this is part of the "consulting cycle") due to lack of projects, I started to wonder if in fact I had made the best decision. Notice I said "best" and not "right". I believe I made both the right and best decision and here is why. I realized that as a "Business Analyst" my method of gathering requirements is much different as a "consultant" vs an "employee" of the company. I prefer the slow, getting to know each stakeholder, getting to watch and often times "get in and do the job" to understand the business processes was more my style. This is not what you do as a consultant. As a consultant, you have an agreed number of hours (billable) that you must work to get the job done. What that means in a nutshell is that any over and above items (unless they have been written into the scope of work) are not going to happen. So any "above and beyond" or "going the extra mile" is not going to happen. And for me that was where I drew the line. I always want to go the extra mile. That has been part of my DNA since I started my career.

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