Last week saw the latest get together of the Bristol Salesforce Developers’ User Group (also known as FxFW). This is a user group run by the Salesforce.com developer team at Desynit, for other developers in the area.
Every couple of months, the group gets together, in a pub, and discusses a topic relevant to developers on the platform. This time around, the focus was on getting certified as a developer.
Chris and Simon, the group organisers, have written posts on the evening’s presentations “Becoming a Certified Force.com Developer”and “How I passed the Advanced Developer Certification” on their own respective blogs. Taking a look at these posts should give you an insight into the type of content covered.
Salesforce.com Certification not your thing? That’s only one in a range of topics that have been covered and will be coming up in the future. Here are a few more reasons why you might want to come along to this meet up in the future:-
Thinking of a new career direction?
If you are thinking of a career change, then this is a great way to find out more before you make your move. Salesforce provide a great training structure for developers (and non-devs) getting to work on Force.com, whatever level you start out on. So whether you think that being a Salesforce Administrator sounds like you, or you’re planning to make Salesforce Architect by 2015, it’s good to hear from others who are already on that route.
Learn from others
“During the evening, the discussion evolved, to include change sets, single sign-on, the metadata API and preferred development environments, among other topics.”
If that sounds interesting, you should come along and join the conversation. It’s hard being the only Salesforce developer on the block, and these groups are great for sharing knowledge and comparing notes.
If that sounds like a foreign language, then you should also come along – this is a great way to get up to speed.
Extend your network
The universe of Salesforce.com developers in Bristol is not huge. Joining a local group can mean being in touch with a hefty proportion of the entire dev network in your area in one hit. That’s a useful grapevine to be on, if you are looking for an opportunity, or for additional expertise for your own team.
Sociable
Dev groups are informal, fun and friendly and a good chance for a chat over a drink. At FXFW we buy the beers too, so that’s got to be a good reason to go along.
If you want to stay in touch and come along to future FXFW events, then you can either join the Meetup group, follow on Twitter @FxFWBarman, or check out Desynit’s events pages. Alternatively, if you want to find a group in your area, a good place to start is on the Salesforce Developer User Group page.
Forget joining…go and present! Nothing teaches you like teaching others!