How One Futureforce Intern Found His Passion at Salesforce

As a new Computer Engineering graduate in 2021, Edgar López Valdés had plenty of options to carve his career path - but he knew he wanted to land at Salesforce. “I first heard of Salesforce on a family trip to San Francisco some years before graduating, and after that I was always very attentive to job postings. I actually applied a few times before being accepted to the Futureforce program, but I didn’t let rejection drive me away.”

Pivoting to the right career path

Edgar joined the Futureforce program as a Solutions Engineering intern, spending his first few weeks settling in and getting to work on his Salesforce certifications to prepare for his role. While nervous at first, he quickly settled into the team but soon realized that his particular role may not be the right fit. 

“My next few months were spent getting acquainted with the opportunity process before moving on to the SE stage of the program. I began preparing… but halfway through, I realized that I didn’t like the idea of becoming a Solutions Engineer - it just wasn’t for me.”

While it can be nerve-wracking to pivot and learn new skills in a new role, at Salesforce, Edgar felt free to express how he felt to his manager. “He told me that, while it would be harder to find a full-time job on the technical teams, he would support me until the end of my internship and introduce me to the right people to hopefully secure a better fitting role.”

For Edgar, the wider teams’ support was the boost of confidence he needed. “It was amazing to have the teams’ trust to speak about these things out loud, and I had so many team members trying to help find the right team for me, by either giving advice or even talking with managers and recruiters to see if they had any open positions I could apply for.”

At the end of his internship, Edgar secured a role on the Customer Success Group (CSG) team as a technical consultant, and even worked his way up to a role as Associate Demo Engineer earlier this year.

For Edgar, the benefits of working at Salesforce are endless, and he’s just getting started on his professional journey. “It’s a place where trust is valued and feedback is encouraged. I felt that developing professionally at Salesforce [after my internship] would be a great opportunity to keep learning without being afraid of messing up as a junior or asking questions. I’ve even gotten the chance to study for my Masters degree with the education reimbursement, which I feel is a huge step in my development.”

Edgar has gotten the chance to gain experience as a developer, using Agile methodology to structure his work and building his people skills to “bring the Wow Factor to potential clients” as a demo engineer. What’s next for him at Salesforce? “I’d like to keep nurturing my career, potentially on the architecture side. I’d also love to put everything I’ve learned as an employee to practice and hopefully encourage some new interns to find their passion at Salesforce.”

The Futureforce program finds interns and new graduates from universities around the world with the beginner’s mindset to propel Salesforce innovation forward. Interns like Edgar bring fresh perspective, openness to learning, and eagerness to get the job done to the team - could you be the next addition? Check out our university recruiting programs and find out more about why so many interns choose Futureforce.