It’s been almost a week since the Career Services Center welcomed Peter Ryan of CloudMasonry to share insights and advice during a webinar for students interested in starting a career in IT and consulting.
Many of our students shared great questions with our guest speaker and, while we didn’t have time to get to all of them during the webinar itself, Peter’s taken time to directly answer all your submitted questions below!
For those of you who are interested in learning more about Peter’s company, check out CloudMasonry Salesforce consulting. For those of you who like what you heard and want to start your IT & Consulting career with Salesforce, check out Salesforce Foundations, offered by Camp4, an Illinois Tech career education partner. The course is offered in Spring 2025. For students who are concerned that the course is not part of their degree, contact iit@camp4network.com to get assistance with the credit transfer process.
| Questions for Peter | Peter’s Answers |
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1. For students and recent graduates, what advice would he give on building a career in Salesforce consulting? 2. What key skills and experiences does CloudMasonry look for when hiring entry-level consultants? 3. How can someone with a background in ITSM transition smoothly into a Salesforce consulting role? |
1. Treat consulting as a skill just like Selling or Project Management and take any opportunity given to learn / build that skill. 2. There is no specific background we are looking for. We look at your background, and how you interview to make a determination if we think you will be successful in the role. 3. There is no smooth transition into consulting. If you are doing it correctly, consulting is uncomfortable. As you are just starting it will most likely feel like you are drinking from a fire hose. |
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1. CloudMasonry is known for delivering highly tailored salesforce solutions. I want to understand what type of processes does your team use to ensure customer centric consulting during different stages of a project? 2. For aspiring consultants such as myself who has in fact applied for roles at CloudMasonry, what qualities or experiences are required or suited to thrive at a firm like yours? |
1. We leverage an agile / iterative approach to project delivery. This provides our clients numerous opportunities for feedback and refinement of anything we are building. 2. We are looking for smart, collaborative individuals who have a passion for delivering impact through the implementation of technology. |
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1. What is the ideal way to apply/go into Consulting? 2. What is the scope of being a Technical consultant as an International Student? |
1. You can either apply directly to a consulting firm and if you are lucky can be accepted in an entry level role. Otherwise, it is a matter of developing the skills they are looking for with other roles outisde of consulting. 2. It is the same the scope as that of non-international student and that is delver impactful results for your clients through the implementation of technology. |
| Steps and procedure to secure position as International student | As an international student I would focus my effort on the Global System Integrators (Accenture, IBM, etc.)as they are best suited to navigate the US visa / immigration system (assuming you wish to stay in the US). |
| Which consulting companies to target as an international student with 5+ years of experience ? | As an international student I would focus my effort on the Global System Integrators (Accenture, IBM, etc.)as they are best suited to navigate the US visa / immigration system (assuming you wish to stay in the US). |
| What is the ratio of asian woman in your company? | Currently it is 6%. |
| With multiple services on the Salesforce platform and constant innovation, how do Salesforce consultants keep themselves up to date? | Each Salesforce consultant needs to establish a basic foundational knowledge of the tool and with that in hand, then choose specific areas to specialize in (CPQ, FSL, Industry Clouds, etc). You then spend your effort staying current on that specialty. |
| How do you start a consulting firm, like yours? How do you get clients when your company is new to the market? | I started it with 8 years of consulting experience to feel confident building a practice that employed other consultants. You can do it with substially less experience if you are looking to build a practice of one (you). |
| I want to know opportunities regarding Salesforce domain as I have basic knowledge on Salesforce and looking forward to work on the same. | I would build experience with tools such as Salesforce Trailhead and then search for an entry level role as a Salesforce Admin or as a Business Analyst within a consulting firm. |
| What is the biggest challenge your company face in the last 2 years? How did you solve it? How would you solve it if you faced that again? | The biggest challenge we face is something we have to solve over and over again and that is how we continue to deliver impactful work as we get larger as a busines. While faced by every growing company, its solved through a mix of business process, technology and change management. |
| What growth and opportunities do you see for Salesforce workforce? | The release of tools such as Agentforce show there is still tremendous value to be discovered with the Salesforce platform as technology is better able to leverage the customer data already found on the platform. |
| What kind of growth and opportunities do you see from Salesforce? | The release of tools such as Agentforce show there is still tremendous value to be discovered with the Salesforce platform as technology is better able to leverage the customer data already found on the platform. |
| Which digital transformation skills are clients demanding from consultants? | There are never enough people who BOTH understand the challenges faced by a businesses AND the technology available to help solve those challenges. You combine that with excellent communication skills and followthrough and you will never need to look for a job. People will seek you out. |
| While hiring for Business Analysts at CloudMasonry, what are some skills you look for in candidates? | We are looking for smart, collaborative individuals who have a passion for delivering impact through the implementation of technology. |
| Where does Cybersecurity play a role in the your industry and in your line of work | While still a concern for us on each project, leveraging cloud-based technology such as Salesforce and Google help reduce our points of vulnerability. |
| What advice would you give a graduate student with no work experience to do in order to get some real life experience. | You just have to find that first job. Do the thing no one else wants to do, and do it really well, and other roles will come your way. |
