048 — Mitch Spano: The hard truths about career progression!

Mitch Spano, Senior Application Engineering Manager at Google, shares his journey in the Salesforce ecosystem and discusses his early experiences with Salesforce, the importance of an engineering mindset, and how to advance your career in tech.

He outlines the typical role structures in technology companies, from junior to VP levels, and emphasizes the need for continuous learning and adaptation to avoid career stagnation. Mitch also shares hard truths about career growth and the importance of taking initiative to create new opportunities.

Jack and Mitch share their insights, emphasizing the importance of identifying opportunities, key traits for success, the significance of organizational culture, and the necessity of setting ambitious goals.

They also discuss how to navigate workplace dynamics, the value of mentorship, and the need for self-awareness and resilience in the face of challenges. The conversation culminates in actionable advice for listeners to track their progress and to set high aspirations for their careers.

Learn more:
- Automate Salesforce releases with Pipelines
- How to analyze your Apex code
- How to document processes in large Salesforce teams

About DevOps Diaries:
Salesforce DevOps Advocate Jack McCurdy chats to members of the Salesforce community about their experience in the Salesforce ecosystem. Expect to hear and learn from inspirational stories of personal growth and business success, whilst discovering all the trials, tribulations, and joy that comes with delivering Salesforce for companies of all shapes and sizes. New episodes bi-weekly on YouTube as well as on your preferred podcast platform.

Podcast produced and sponsored by Gearset. Learn more about Gearset.

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About Gearset:
Gearset is the leading Salesforce DevOps platform, with powerful solutions for metadata and CPQ deployments, CI/CD, automated testing, sandbox seeding and backups. It helps Salesforce teams apply DevOps best practices to their development and release process, so they can rapidly and securely deliver higher-quality projects. Get full access to all of Gearset's features for free with a 30-day trial.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Mitch Spano and his journey
03:57 Career Advancement in the Salesforce ecosystem
08:59 Understanding role structures in tech companies
15:09 The path from Senior to Director and VP
23:02 Hard truths about career growth
29:33 Identifying opportunities in your career
39:21 Key traits for career growth
46:28 Building and transforming organizational culture
53:55 Setting ambitious career goals