Yvette, who lives in Los Angeles County, has owned her own environmentally friendly cleaning service for about 12 years. There were ups and downs, good times and bad, but she was making it work until the pandemic came. Then everything crashed.
“We had a lot of cancellations,” Yvette said. “I was struggling, and I was looking for ways to improve the business. That’s when I discovered Salesforce, as a platform I could run my business on.”
Salesforce was great, but “the business wasn’t going to grow during the pandemic, so I needed to transition to something, and the more I learned about Customer Relationship Management software, the more I realized that if I could do this for my own business, I could do this as a job, too.”
She saw that Calbright was offering free programs to prepare for a professional Salesforce certification, “so I went for it.”
“This is something I need to do, I need to pivot into a new career,” she said. “I can skill up, participate in the workforce, earn some money, and then if I want to go back and put it all back into my own business, I can. But right now I need to do something new.”
Calbright works for her. More than that, Yvette says, it’s the only way she could make this work.
“Calbright works with my schedule, which is all over the place. My clients all want me at the same times and sometimes they’re canceling at the same times. If I went to a traditional school, I would have to be missing classes all the time or giving up income. But at Calbright, I can take my classes at midnight if I want to. It works very well.”
Getting set up at Calbright and taking classes has been a good experience for her. “It was smooth, and it really was on my schedule. It was great. My counselor has been awesome.”
She also appreciates the way in which Calbright helps her with her resume and supports her job search, too.
“Resumes have changed since I graduated from college! Now everybody wants a one page resume where you have the key terms or you’re not even looked at. That’s new. Understanding changes like that are one of the things that makes Calbright so beneficial for older adults who are trying to pivot in the workforce. Calbright’s Career Services has been awesome in helping me build a transitional resume. It’s really hard to showcase your skills when you’ve been self-employed, but we’ve been able to highlight the skills that will be useful for a CRM career.”
Yvette has completed her coursework, and is now preparing for the practice exams. After that, she’ll take the exams for her Salesforce certification.
“I’m building up my profile, polishing my resume and cover letters, and then looking for jobs. Which is great, because you guys have it all. A one stop shop for a new career,” she says. “I’m telling people I know about Calbright. It’s great. It’s what we need.”
