In 2014, while pursuing a part-time master’s program at Carnegie Mellon University, Adam Olshansky was introduced to Salesforce by a guest lecturer in his cloud computing class. Around the same time, he received a promotion at Honeywell that required him to work with Salesforce despite having little prior knowledge. (Adam jokes he didn’t even know what “CRM” stood for.) This crossover of academic studies and professional responsibilities marked the beginning of Adam’s journey as a Trailblazer — one that gained momentum at a Salesforce event.

With his new role in mind, Adam attended Dreamforce later that year to deepen his understanding of Salesforce. During the conference, he attended a session led by a former email marketer who had transitioned to a Salesforce career and landed a job at Google. Inspired by the speaker’s journey, Adam saw Salesforce as a pathway to fulfilling his dream of working at a top tech company. After introducing himself to the speaker, he left the session confident in attaining his goals. Adam began building his expertise by earning certifications, utilizing Honeywell’s training resources, and leveraging Trailhead to earn five certifications quickly.