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Ruxandra, Senior Salesforce Developer, on Balancing Competitiveness and Sensitivity

Today we invited a special guest: Ruxandra Oprea, Senior Salesforce Developer at Fortech. Ruxandra is an impressive colleague who excels in the very technical field of Salesforce while wearing the softer hat of mother & wife at home. She gives us a valuable life lesson about successfully combining competitiveness and sensitivity.

Get a glimpse of #BehindTheCode. Find out how Ruxandra found an inspirational blend of passion and work in her professional Salesforce career.

Ruxandra Oprea Salesforce Developer Fortech

Hello, Ruxandra, and welcome to the #BehindTheCode series stage. We are happy to have you as our guest. Please describe your career journey in Fortech. What do you do at Fortech?

Hello, thanks for your invitation. I am honored to be part of the Behind the Code series. Well, let’s start with the beginning. I have a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Pitesti. In college, I worked as a Web Developer, up to a moment when life introduced me to Salesforce. I started with a Bootcamp program, and I really enjoyed Salesforce. I combined my Salesforce passion with the increasing demand for this technology. Salesforce certifications were the next steps to follow in my career path: hard work and patience, and more hard work and patience 😊. I was lucky enough to like what I was doing for a living. I still do after so many years.

As for Fortech, I started my activity here about a year ago. Initially, I was a sub-contractor, but later I decided to become employed. I was brought to Fortech via headhunting. Salesforce is a particular field; finding good and experienced people can be challenging. I did not plan to change my workplace then, but something about Fortech “spoke” to me 😊. I am happy I made this decision, and I am now part of the Fortech team as a Senior Salesforce Developer.

We are glad to have you here at Fortech and to work together. Please share with us your secret to achieving success in such a competitive environment.

Success can come in many ways; I don’t know if I really have a secret 😊. What I can tell you is that determination really helps. You must know what you want and go for it. Perseverance, hard work, and patience. Not to forget about passion. And then success follows.

We are curious to know how you chose the IT field. Did you feel a “call” or just a coincidence?

From a very young age, I got many hints that my career choice would be one focused on logic. My favorite games were Lego and Puzzle. My mind is very analytical, and I like challenges, solving problems, and finding solutions. I want to understand. Later, in the tenth grade, I saw a friend coding. That was when my passion for technology started. I have also enjoyed movies and books with hackers; I was fascinated by their expertise and by the mystery around them 😊.

Could you please describe the project you are currently working on?

I work in the Automotive industry. Our project is exciting: it deals with Logistics; the final goal is to compute the best delivery/inspection on addresses and to schedule them according to the available slots. It also considers the final customer and the inspection. For instance: “My car has a scratch; I need to get an inspection.”

What is your favorite thing about this project? What about the most challenging one?

The best things in this project are all team related 😊. The relationships between our team members and the client are excellent. The atmosphere is very relaxed; we have our jokes. When we face challenges (ex. changing the specifications repeatedly), we use our sense of humor to take it easy and move on.

The most challenging part is deadlines, but we always find ways to meet them.

Tell us more about the team. What is the vibe in there?

Our team has six members. We are more like a family, and this feeling is wonderful. We feel at home; we work, play, and make jokes. There is no wrong answer and no wrong question. We celebrate birthdays and have lots of fun together. We even have an unwritten law that says that while attending a wedding / baptize / party, we need to send a picture of the starters on the WhatsApp team group 😊. Aren’t shared experiences the best?

We mainly work remotely but still enjoy dinners together while visiting our clients.

Ruxandra and her team

Ruxandra and her colleagues at a team event in Brasov.

What comes next in your career journey?

Salesforce has a particular dynamic, very different from other technologies. Because it is such a narrow specialization on increasing market demand, there is already a Salesforce community that we are part of. I am now a Senior Salesforce Developer, aiming to become an Expert Level Salesforce Developer and, eventually, Salesforce Architect. I am confident I will get there since no project will scare me. Even if I don’t have the answer to a specific question today, I know how to find it, and tomorrow I will have the best answer possible.

In the end, let’s talk a little bit about Ruxandra as a person. What are your passions and hobbies? How do you spend your spare time?

First of all, I must tell you that I have a 2-year-old boy, whom I am very proud of. As a mother, I spent most of my spare time with my little one and my family. I try to find a balance between my work and family. Sometimes, things get challenging. I had meetings attended by my son and got plenty of hand waves while listening to the client’s requests 😊. It does not happen often, but it did, and we managed it successfully.

As for passions and hobbies… [laughter] here, things get complicated. I grew up practicing kickboxing and skydiving with a parachute (guided by my father). Now I like watching cartoons with my son and doing manual work (adult coloring books, sewing on paintings). I guess I also have a competitive side and a sensitive one. They work together well both in my personal life and on the job.

What advice would you give someone interested in starting a Salesforce career in Fortech? Why join Fortech?

For me, Salesforce is passion and work. For anyone who wants to start and pursue a career in Salesforce, my advice would be to befriend patience. Many young professionals are thinking only about the payment figure (big salaries from the start), which in the beginning is a mistake. You must work, learn, work, learn and give yourself time to take all the steps. Do not burn stages, as success comes to those who work and build their expertise step by step.

And why choose Salesforce at Fortech? Fortech is among the best-rated IT companies for opportunities and growth. You get the chance to craft and grow. Let’s craft and grow together. And as a bonus, people in Fortech are open-minded, funny, and understanding. There really isn’t any reason not to join Fortech.

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