Origins: The Story of Donald Bohrisch

Today, I am excited to have a new post in the Origins series where we hear from Admin Heroes on how they got their start with Salesforce. Today’s story comes from Donald Bohrisch. I think that you are really going to enjoy this inspiring story. Donald, thank you for your service to our country. 

Salesforce… it was my game changer and it should be yours! This rings true especially if you are like me and your career in the military so far has only provided a Combat Arms background. I went from pulling triggers in the Infantry to developing triggers with Apex in just over 6 months.

Over the past almost 9 years I have held many positions in the Air Force and Army but they were all Combat Arms related which, unless you want to go into Security or the Police force, doesn’t help much on the civilian side. While still in High School I enlisted thru the Delayed Entry Program and two weeks after graduating High School I began my military career in the Air Force. I was a Security Forces Team Member at Beale AFB.

I went Army in 2007 as an Infantryman where I was called for 2 deployments performing Convoy Security. I broke my leg in 2 places at the very beginning of the first deployment, but I was able to finish the second after completing Physical Therapy at Ft Benning. Along with serving in Iraq, as a California Guardsman I was called for the SoCal Fire mission in San Diego and was also able to lead a team training the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough experience for an amazing job that was in high demand in the civilian sector.

While serving in WI on Active Duty thru Sep’13 I began exploring Careers 4 Vets and that’s when I found Salesforce In Feb’14 I started my Salesforce training via Veterans2Work, part of the Salesforce Foundation’s VetForce program. I was lucky enough to be accepted into Cohort 2 of this amazing program, which was still in its infancy, and I haven’t looked back. Salesforce is nothing like its namesake. Being a Salesforce Admin is actually a Career in IT… like being a Database Administrator with the power of the Force.

Shortly after graduating the program I began my Paid Internship with Vision-E, founded and still managed by a retired Air Force MSG, supporting over 1500 Active Users. Utilizing LinkedIn I found my next position with DTI Global where I was put in charge of a 125 User Org. This was only a contract position as the original Admin was going on Maternity leave.

Less than 6 months after finishing the Salesforce VetForce program via Veterans2Work, I was constantly receiving calls from recruiters begging me to fill their positions. One was a former Navy Veteran, Michael Bourdon of Career Strategies (CSi). Since he was a veteran, I gave him the time of day. After 3 simple phone/Skype conversations, I was working for Conversant – managing a 900 User Org!

Working for Conversant last year under the tutelage of Rick Dunn was almost like a dream. It provided great pay, benefits, and the satisfaction that I was contributing to a much larger mission, made successful through my hard work with various teams and levels of management. In Oct’14, I was sent to DreamForce’14. This was an amazing experience where I got to learn so much more than I thought I already knew thru the seminars during the day. The learning that went on at night with Apptus, Zuora, Financial Force, and other AppExchange partners was on another level… epic.

The most beneficial seminar I attended was from David Liu of Google, #AnyoneCanCode. He taught me how to start writing Apex Triggers and helped me write code for production. Conversant was acquired earlier this year by Epsilon, under the ADS umbrella, and since I am still needed by the company and my team I come to work and Charlie Mike.

After graduating the VetForce program and earning my ADM201 I am now utilizing my corporate experience as a volunteer within the VetForce program. Working with Dan Streetman, Cliff McQuirter, Hector Perez, Ann Weeby, and Dave Gowel of RockTech I am serving as the Communities Manager helping further the Salesforce education of fellow veterans through collaboration. Utilizing Chris Duarte’s TrailHead feature, developer.salesforce.com/trailhead, I am continuing to enhance my Salesforce career as an #AwesomeAdmin.

Continually inspired by David Liu, my new mentor and creator of sfdc99.com, I am also currently studying for my Dev401 and learning Apex. While still serving as a proud member of the California Army National Guard I am looking forward to taking on this challenge and better utilizing my analytical and leadership background in my new Salesforce career. If this OIF Grunt with bad knees and a bad back who grew up in foster/group homes can do all this, there’s no reason you can’t too!

For more information on VetForce please check out https://veterans.force.com !