Transcript of Mock Interview for Salesforce Developer Role
SeyitBek
0:00Warren thank you so much for coming into0:01today I'm so excited to talk to you all0:05right0:06thank you for having me I'm super0:07excited about this interview great0:10before we jump into the interview I'd0:12like to tell you a bit about myself and0:15the company I work for so we are a0:18medium-sized epic shape app exchange app0:22maker and I'm gonna leave developer0:25there and we're looking for more0:27developers to join a team so that we can0:29continue to deliver an awesome product0:31for thousands of our customers so that's0:36a basic about me and my company and I0:39would love to hear more about you please0:41tell me about yourself cool yeah my name0:44is Warren Walters I have a background in0:47computer science I've been in the0:49Salesforce space for about four years0:52now0:52and I'm super excited that you guys have0:55afforded me the opportunity to interview0:57with you a little bit more I've been in1:00a few different role development roles1:03and my most recent role was as a1:06Salesforce consultant at a mouse a1:10startup company for being the main1:12development resource there so you're a1:15sales consultant or this was developers1:17um mainly I would say a developer but1:21I've been leaning a little bit on the1:22consultant skills as well it's1:24definitely joining that startup help me1:26build those skills up okay and what do1:30you do as a developer what kind of tasks1:32projects do you work on generally it's1:36code development Apex Lightning web1:38components you name it I've probably1:39worked on it at least in some capacity1:42I'm generally a little bit better in the1:45backend side of things so with Apex but1:48I'm very dangerous when it comes to1:50visualforce pages and some of the newer1:52technologies like aura as a computer1:56scientist science bag and I think you're1:58one of the few people typically a lot of2:01the developers cells for developers2:03sales consultants I know are career2:06changers so coming from a computer2:12science background you had an off2:14in between being probably front-end2:17developer a Java developer or something2:20else why did you choose Salesforce yeah2:24so there's a few different reasons2:26behind that one of the main reasons was2:29my internship in college it was at a2:33company that had Salesforce and I in2:37turn learn Salesforce admin and2:39development there and I just kind of ran2:42with it2:43on top of that so I had that internship2:45but when I graduated I did have the2:47option to move between going to like a2:51front-end or back-end development2:53position and another technology but2:55something that really stuck with me what2:57Salesforce is the flexibility and speed3:00to market a lot of traditional3:03development takes a lot of time you'll3:06have to have back-end people spin up a3:08server set up your sequel database and3:11your front-end people build all the3:13forms and things like that with3:14Salesforce everything is kind of baked3:16in together3:17you'll have your configuration and all3:20of your development when you need it and3:22you can do things like spin up a website3:23or community pretty quickly so all of3:26that was a lot of the reasons that made3:28me stick with Salesforce did you ever3:31regret sticking with Salesforce maybe3:33some of your friends in other fields are3:36making more or growing faster um I don't3:40really regret it I've had a very healthy3:43career inside of Salesforce and in the3:45ecosystem I Salesforce does allow you to3:49work with a lot of the hot technologies3:51especially web-based things so you do3:54get to use a lot of the skills that are3:55all over the place and you know people3:58are doing better than me great for them4:00and you know I want to learn from them4:01but I'm definitely happy where I am4:03yep definitely you you seem to have done4:05well being a senior developer in four4:10years all right so let's talk about4:15coding a bit can you tell me what are4:18you the best practices you adhere to4:20with Apex sure a lot of the best4:25practices with Apex stem or4:27some of the 15 commandments that are out4:30there but a lot of that is around like4:33not putting sequel queries inside of4:36loops and making sure your overall data4:40architecture and code architecture is up4:42to snuff so for example that's having4:45one trigger per object and enabling your4:48admins to be able to access your code in4:53things like custom settings you also4:55have some of the gotchas like avoiding4:58hard coatings of any IDs and then one of5:02the big ones is using maps for a lot of5:05your information and your gathering of a5:08lot of your coding in general inside of5:10Salesforce you're going to use a map for5:12it why is it important to use Maps yeah5:17maps are really important because they5:19allow you to easily sort and store your5:24information inside of Salesforce so take5:27for example you have the you're working5:29on a list of accounts and you know every5:33object or every account has a specific5:35unique ID and you have the object itself5:37so you can put that ID or that account5:42in a key value pair inside of the map5:45which will make it a lot easier to5:47generate and search for that specific5:50account and do a lot of other things as5:52well so searching is one of the main5:54ones instead of writing a for loop every5:57time you want to look through a list of5:59a list of accounts you can just put all6:02of those inside of a map and do your6:05searching that way with the ID there's6:08also short hands that you can call when6:10creating a map to pretty much store6:13everything that you call from a Socko6:16query into that map which is very6:18helpful and then it you know the the6:22overall structure of reducing the search6:24times is what really makes it a lot6:26easier and a lot better to use pretty6:29much everything you can do with a list6:31you can do with a map6:33and why that's always use that Maps why6:36do we use lists lists gener6:39you want to use them when you don't have6:40the ID so say you're just you just6:43created the record and you don't have6:45the ID or you you know your own you're6:49gonna iterate through all of the items6:51then you can go ahead and use that list6:55for those section or you don't have a6:56unique key you want to group everything6:58together in some sort of by the status7:02or you know everybody in the status and7:03one in one specific list something like7:05that okay okay so we talked about the7:08best practices and best practices with7:11epics can you tell me about the best7:14practices the three best practices you7:16adhere to with triggers yeah one of the7:20main ones with triggers is just7:22multiplication so making sure that you7:25are using you're not just doing or7:28inputting your trigger logic on one7:30specific item you're you're able to do7:32it on multiple items generally that7:35falls in the line of 200 items at a time7:38also keeping your trigger logic outside7:42of the trigger itself so making sure to7:47call it handler classes that will do a7:49lot of the filtering and the information7:53parsing that is there and this all kind7:56of wraps together with like a trigger7:58framework that you could use so making8:01sure that you're using the correct type8:03of trigger framework for your8:04organization maybe that's a really8:06elaborate one if you have a complex org8:09or even a lighter one that you'll need8:13to use in cases of just you know being8:16able to turn off the trigger really8:17quickly and along with that goes the8:22trigger context as well so using the8:24context variables like trigger new and8:27the new map or even things like its8:31before to making to make sure that you8:34are calling your code correctly in the8:36correct order when you want to add logic8:39into a trigger into the trigger Handler8:43mmm how do you decide whether to put it8:46in there before or after right this is a8:50good question it comes up often8:54generally you want to have things in the8:57before trigger when things have not8:59saved to the database yet so that's9:01doing validation and updating that9:05specific that same record before it gets9:08saved to the database so that's like9:11changing if the status gets changed9:13let's say for example we're also9:15updating a different field on that9:18specific object when we want to move9:20into the after trigger is when we are9:24updating related objects or we want to9:26do some sort of action after the9:29database has been saved so moving that9:32information once it's actually saved we9:35can call a different record or call a9:37related list related object to update9:41information there so what if if I have a9:44trigger at the account object and I'm9:50doing some updates today can't record9:53but I also want to update the child9:57contact records mm-hmm where would I put10:00that logic I would say to put that logic10:04on the after trigger just in case we are10:09doing updates so we can use the before10:12and we'll have the account ID from that10:14but we want to make sure that the10:16database is up-to-date with all the10:18information that we need if this was10:20like a before insert then we wouldn't10:22have the correct IDs to query the system10:27to update the contact so we're gonna do10:29this on the actor trigger okay but if10:34we're doing an update we can put it on10:36the before we can put that on the before10:39if we are doing an update and we will10:41have the ideas by that time what what do10:49you do when you've stuck a lot of times10:53when I am stuck I'll reach out to the10:55community to see what else they have10:58going on if there is any other resources11:01out there11:02you know the Stack Exchange and Google11:05has been a part of my you know journey11:08through Salesforce so and there's plenty11:10of resources out there and a lot smarter11:12people than me that can definitely11:14answer a lot of these questions but the11:17first thing I'll do is reaching out and11:19searching to see if I can find any other11:21examples or anything else that I can11:23find because I definitely don't know11:25everything that's out there so you use11:28Salesforce type exchange a lot yeah I'm11:31pretty much on it every day company11:34reputation points do have on this tax11:36exchange11:37I'm actually pretty bad I maybe only11:40have like a hundred points on there so I11:43don't answer as many questions as I do11:45review but when I get the chance to you11:48want I do try to update them okay okay11:54do you also read some Salesforce blogs11:59yeah I'm pretty frequently on blogs in12:03the morning so there's people like David12:05Liu or even Salesforce chef which I like12:08to check all the time and making sure12:10that I'm up-to-date on my development12:12things there's also things like12:15Salesforce Ben which is more in the12:17admin side but they do definitely have12:20really good content all the time and as12:22a Salesforce developer it's really good12:24to make sure that you are up to snuff on12:28your administrative side as well as12:31development and how do you ensure that12:35you stay up to date on the latest12:37Salesforce updates there's so much12:41coming out every with every release do12:45you have some strategies on how you know12:47the latest and greatest so that your12:49code does make use of those that are12:54relevant part of it is staying12:57up-to-date with the release notes12:58there's a s FTC Exchange discord which13:02does a really good abridge Salesforce13:05notes and then being on trail head as13:08well and whenever I have free time13:11making sure that I'm13:13I'm getting new badges and staying up to13:15date from there13:16good you also the Salesforce developer13:20community meetings yeah I go to the13:23community events pretty often you know13:25they're held once a month so I try to13:27get there when I can and making sure13:30that I'm out there with the community13:32and meeting other developers and seeing13:35how they're thinking and that's even a13:36place where you can get help when needed13:39if you need that you know face to face13:40time and you can get to somebody okay13:43great do you do you work in your current13:46job to work with Salesforce admins13:47yeah we have a few admins at our current13:50job and it is something that we13:53definitely have to build for is working13:56with admins and having them you know be13:58able to interact with code14:00what has you into actually being like14:02with admins do you feel like you need to14:03teach them help them and through the14:07Salesforce challenges how do you find14:12how do you find it working with them14:13yeah so a lot of times it really depends14:17on their level so for more junior admins14:19I do like to coach them since I've seen14:22a good amount of Salesforce related14:25issues and problems and problems to14:28solve but for more senior admins a lot14:32of times they may be more knowledgeable14:34than me so we bounce ideas off of each14:36other and work together to make sure14:38that we're building the best solution to14:41empower Salesforce admin DSN strategies14:46generally with the empowerment of admins14:51I like to use custom settings and14:53metadata types which they're able to14:56edit in configuration also you can build15:00in vocable methods or creating multiple15:02methods so that admins can access your15:05code from process builders or inside of15:11flows even so this gives them the power15:14and control to kind of you know build15:17their own little triggers inside of15:18process builders call the code that you15:20need you can make it as robust or as15:23simple as you need with a few different15:26and making sure that they have access to15:29a lot of the information and to call the15:31code that they need15:32great great all right that's pretty much15:35it with my questions did you have some15:38questions for me about the company yeah15:41can you tell me a little bit about your15:43background and how you got started in15:45Salesforce yeah unlike you I do not have15:49a computer science background but I had15:52that fortune of accidentally running15:54across Salesforce after I finished my15:57MBA and I fell in love with it I saw how16:00powerful sales forces with just a few16:02clicks you can make someone's life16:04easier you can boost their sales you can16:08improve their customer experiences so I16:10said forget about all this business16:13consulting I did before I want to become16:16a Salesforce professional I want to16:18become a Salesforce developer and so16:22that was about four and a half years ago16:24and it's been a bit of a bit over a year16:29that I'm in my current role in this16:31company hmm it's a very exciting company16:35we have a lot of customers a lot of16:37smart customers across different16:40geographies different industries from16:42all around the world and our APIs they16:46use new space of the app is growing very16:48fast and I think we have very exciting16:51opportunities here and then an16:54additional question that I have is what16:57does the team kind of look like and what16:59would my role be in this team yeah so we17:03have about six developers in total three17:09of them are unsure three of them are17:11offshore and we're looking for an17:15additional developer to join our own17:17short team and the key improvements we17:21are working on in their app in our17:23twofold one is we want to make our app17:26more Enterprise ready because we are17:28getting a lot of new big customers and17:32second improvement we were tuna is17:35converting our visualforce pages into17:38lightning web17:39awesome so these are the two areas that17:42the team is tackling currently okay and17:45then I have a few more questions but I17:50know we are running out of time I guess17:53the last question I have is when can I17:55expect to hear back from you yes so I17:58took down notes on our discussion I want18:01to discuss you can't deceive with our18:04CTO and we have been interviewing a18:07couple of people and I will let you know18:11our decision within three days awesome18:14awesome18:15so I think that's it that definitely18:17works with my timeline and you know I'm18:21super excited about this and thank you18:23so much for taking the time out to18:24interview me yeah thank you so much word18:26talk to you soon all right it's I have a18:29good one
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