Career Path of a Slack Onboarding Learning Manager at Salesforce
Initially pursuing a career in therapy, Halimah's college experience in human development led to a nonprofit role where "presenting and teaching" sparked a passion for facilitation. This organically evolved through various roles at a diversity, equity, and inclusion nonprofit and then Slack, ultimately culminating in Halimah's current position as a Learning Manager at Salesforce, a journey marked by unexpected managerial responsibilities and navigating a massive company acquisition.
Career Development, Communication, Facilitation, Teamwork, Overcoming Challenges
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Halimah Jones
Learning Manager, Slack Global Onboarding
Salesforce
Northwestern University, 2016
N/A
Psychology
Technology
Human Resources (HR)
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Halimah's career path highlights a willingness to explore different roles and adapt to new challenges. Initially aiming for therapy, she transitioned to fields leveraging her skills in teaching and presentation, showcasing adaptability.
2. Her experience at a diversity, equity and inclusion nonprofit, where she moved from executive assistant to a facilitator, demonstrates the possibility of career growth within an organization by actively seeking opportunities and showcasing strengths.
3. Her journey from a learning development specialist at a smaller company to a Learning Manager at Salesforce post-acquisition illustrates the ability to scale one's expertise and leadership to meet the demands of a much larger organization.
Transcript
Could you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college? Please include any internships or jobs you had before your current role.
When I was in college, I was in the School of Education, majoring in human development and psychological services. I originally wanted to be a therapist, but halfway through the program, I realized I couldn't deal with other people's problems and decided not to pursue that.
However, I loved the idea of human development. In college, I'd often volunteer for presentations. I was in a nonprofit where I taught health lessons to eighth graders. During the summer, I worked as a summer school teacher and really enjoyed the presenting and teaching aspects, though I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a full-time teacher.
Once I graduated, I decided to get a job and figure things out. I worked at a nonprofit as an executive assistant to the VP of programs. She told me I wouldn't be an executive assistant forever, and that the role allowed me to learn about different aspects of programming to find my focus.
A few months in, I was presenting on a new agenda template when she told me I was great at presenting and might be good at facilitating. I didn't know what that meant, so she explained it involves talking, thinking, knowing where you're going, and listening to people all at the same time. I realized that's just how my brain worked, and I hadn't known it wasn't the same for everyone.
That's how I started facilitating. We were a diversity, equity, and inclusion nonprofit, and I began facilitating for our partner companies before moving into that team full-time. I did that for about a year and a half before joining Slack.
When I first joined Slack, I was a learning development specialist, focusing on general learning development. I did manager trainings, interview trainings, inclusion trainings, and communication trainings. A few months later, they asked me to help with onboarding and facilitate some of our onboarding sessions. Slowly, I took over the entire onboarding program, running it completely. This became my full-time role in February 2020, just before the pandemic.
We took the program completely remote over the first year of the pandemic. I also became a manager and grew a team, which I never thought I would do or was interested in. Once I started managing, I realized it was a different way of facilitating; the coaching aspect gave me a lot of energy. I enjoyed seeing my team facilitate and building content. In a smaller company, you're building things and also applying them and seeing others grow.
About a year and a half into the pandemic, we were acquired by Salesforce. The first thing to change was onboarding; the week the deal closed, our onboarding program changed overnight. I then helped support the Salesforce onboarding team. This was a huge scale change, going from a 3000-person company to an 80,000-person company, with a very different vibe, processes, and teams. This experience has led me to my current role as a learning manager at Salesforce.