foreign [Music] [Music] thank you for joining us I am so excited to be here today this is a wonderful occasion to share with you real Journeys real stories of people who have gone through the service now getting started program The Rise Up program to to really get their kick start their careers I'm joined today with Daniella and Teresa and I'm going to let them tell you their stories but first some introductions Danielle if you would let us know who you are thanks Chuck my name is Daniela Casas and I'm I'm currently living in Sydney Australia that's pretty good and um I'm working with sevis now as a part of their program so I'm employed with a recruitment agency called megt and working with them alongside with the host employer called federa and I'm currently being trained as an as an engagement manager so that's currently my role that I'm playing at and yeah um that's kind of all I can really say about me a few of my hobbies I would say is I enjoy playing badminton I have a wonderful puppy his name is Oreo so he's been um using my time basically these holidays and yeah and that's uh all for me and Teresa hi my name is Teresa Coe um I'm also living in Sydney Australia and I work alongside Danny at uh third era um employed at megt as a partner for the next gen program that we're both a part of um I am a mother of three in the middle of a career change um and so that's how I got started in service now um uh my two older kids are a lot older at the moment so I don't have to worry too much about them they're 20 and 18 years old already but I do have a nine-year-old that I still have to run around after um and uh yeah before servicenow I was in Customer Service for about 20 odd years and needed a change but the first change was to become a restaurant or but unfortunately covert put a quick end to that after about four years so I found myself sort of you know uh in a position a fortunate position to sort of think about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life um and uh it was something that I've always been really really interested in and passionate about um and whichever job I had so that was sort of the natural progression if you made her get into the I.T sector but um you know being as I said uh it's a career change um I'm uh what we call a mature aged worker here in Australia um and uh it was difficult thinking about going back to school at that point and um so I made a start by going to sort of what we call a Tafe he which is like Community College and um looking for data it's not bad sorry entry-level jobs into it and I found this training ship for servicenow and that's how I got started with it that's it for me well Teresa you mentioned you were in customer service what what sort of customer service were you doing and and how is that tied into what you've learned what can you bring to the servicenow ecosystem with that sure so um with the customer experience roles I had was mainly for contact centers I worked in lots of different sectors everything from Fashion to technology to environmental waste so it's for me you know customer experiences customer experience um the products May differ but that's what I did for about 20 odd years um I started out as a customer service agent on phones um and towards the end of that career I was running contact centers um and doing training and all that sort of stuff I've been sent all over the world to train other contact centers and things like that but uh yeah it's needed a break from that um but with that experience I've been able to sort of get really stuck into uh that side of things with servicenow being able to uh put my skills to work as an engagement manager without having too much training but at the same time I'm learning uh sort of how the ecosystem Works uh and things like that um whilst trying to develop my development skills on servicenow all right and Danny what is your uh origin story if we use a movie term here um well for me previously while I was in high school I was working as a baristata cafe and when I graduated in 2021 I decided that you know I think there's other Pathways um that are there for me I didn't want to do uni um all my peers decided to either do you know uni College um but I really wanted some you know hands-on experience for myself I really wanted to get into the um into the corporate world straight away so for me I had a friend who was actually really doing something similar so he was doing an apprenticeship and he recommended to me oh you know what how about you go ahead and try to search for something in your lane that is similar to an apprenticeship so I did my research I looked at um different websites and um fortunately I came across this program originally actually it was a recipe for a different company but you know I would say that I'm quite grateful that I did end up Landing um this program with service now this next gen so it's been really great um the process for applying was actually really quick and it's something that I didn't expect um it's not a program that's advertised um greatly and broadly so um it's quite a Hidden Gem and since then it's been really enjoyable uh for me like Teresa you know it's just a continuous process of growing and learning and improving your skills and uh that's just what's been quite motivating throughout this process so that's kind of my origin story and how I got into this program now when you when you say this program are you talking about the next gen program or something else yes correct this next gen program okay okay yeah I know that uh Teresa you also mentioned before we started recording that this is part of the next gen program as well so you've both been through the program uh what was your I'm gonna go back to you real quick Danny what was your uh motivation was it that friend that that kind of kicked you in the pants that said hey you should find something how did you how did you get your start on the servicenow platform um my motivation was I think I've always been interested in I.T in the first place um it's quite an interesting career path so I really wanted to explore um my curiosity and I want to see what I can do in this space so um him giving me that Kickstart um and the idea of searching for a similar uh style of getting to this career path and getting my phone to the door through this traineeship program and that was the first thing but um servicenow itself this ecosystem is um is quite a motivating motivating factor um itself uh it's really um there's a there's a lot to do here there's so much uh opportunities um so much places to go so uh that itself is What's um giving me the push I would say uh Teresa you said you've got three children what the oldest was 20 years old yes you might want to think about getting him involved with this pretty soon too he's going to need a steady job pretty quick well I am so heartbroken but none of my children are interested in Tech uh it's because it's something that I've always been interested in and I know sort of the prospects uh work-wise have always been really good but my eldest she's a girl um she is an artist and a very very good one um so she's not very technically inclined uh in that sense so she doesn't want to do that and um my son is just finding his way now the 18 year old so um I he likes computers and things but more so just playing games rather than actually anything else on that platform so um yeah as I said I've been quite Heartbreaker that none of them want to follow in my footsteps on that but uh that's okay uh they could live their lives um I still have a nine-year-old so you made it sound like there's still hope at the end of that race [Laughter] I hope the nine-year-old's not watching no pressure no pressure yeah well she loves she loves her you know little bits of Technology now and things like that you know I try to get into it but I don't have too much hope there's a sliver of hope maybe but since she's still mine but she's more um uh athletic she's into her gymnastics and she's very good at that as well so as a parent your best bet is expose them to many different things whether it's music sports or whatever let them choose and encourage them you know whatever definitely with them oh now we mentioned the next gen program and I should back up a little bit because that may be a new term for some of the viewers that's that's our program to uh tied in with rise up but it's really uh uh military people are a very popular Community for this and underserved communities that that are trying to get into the ecosystem a change of career that's that's really the strong position for that so I just wanted to Define that in case anybody's scratching their head or Google searching it right now Teresa did you have any additional training on top of the or or prior to or was that the the suite that guy the engine going so prior to this everything was sort of self-taught self-learning um that's just sort of how I drive and motivate myself is by learning I love to learn new things um and uh just with the jobs that I had in the past um because of I started with a um a mobile phone company back in 2000 so the technology there that was just growing and growing growing at that point was insane and that's where sort of I started picking up that interest but it was more so um when uh I had to start doing lots of different reports and things like that and I this may not be a popular opinion but I love Excel always loved using that platform that sort of just that little first step into things like um you know learning how to write macros and stuff like that to automate things make make lives easier um and that's just always been something that I've always been interested in from that point on uh from there um after the reporting and things like that I got into um sort of doing a bit of web development for some other companies because they were smaller companies or always you know a few different hats and I taught myself you know HTML CSS uh to be able to build so the knowledge base was used internally and externally so I was quite proud of that and it's just something I've always played around with um then when I was when I owned my own businesses restaurants and things like that um you know I played around with building the websites ordering systems uh and things like that so that's why when I was in that position to go okay I can actually do anything I want to do now what is it that I want to do and it was quite quickly that it was certainly that yes I should get into it and um I did actually stumble on to servicenow it wasn't a thought process to go yes that's what I want to do um I was just looking for entry-level jobs that's what I typed into our job search uh website and um the traineeship came up and two training ships came up one was for another platform and one was for servicenow the other platforms uh more well known so I actually registered for that one but then it was through the same training company and they were like well do you want to go for this and at that point I was like anything will do um but uh I went through the interviews and everything and that's how I got started with servicenow but having done that now I'm so thankful that I didn't get the other one or I didn't actually go for the other one um because ever since I started with service now everyone that I've told that is in the I.T industry have gone oh my God that is such a good space to be it is uh you know growing so quickly it's so widespread and having been in it um there's so much you can do it's not just one thing it's not just I.T in the sense that all you're doing is you know coding and things like that there's such a big world in service now for everybody um and um I find I just found that uh fantastic and it was exactly what I was looking for at that point in my life um to go this is my foot in the door um I can still bring the skills that I've honed for the past two decades um to assist me along in this journey as well and it was it was it's it's it was great still great and I'm looking forward to the future with Service app for sure so it sounds like you're more in slanted towards a technical career at this point Danny you said you were an engagement manager at this point or you were uh so that's what I'm currently doing right now okay so what uh so we've got a technical person and an engagement manager is the person that lines up the resources make sure the project is on track on time correct yes correct okay good I was in Professional Services many moons ago so just want to make sure things haven't changed drastically in the last eight years so tell me a little bit about um you know what resources you went through because the next gen program is is really about getting the the familiarity getting the basics down for Administration a little light development how has that applied to or what additional resources have you used to do your current job because not everything has to be I'm going to be a developer in in this case yeah yeah correct so for me um well part of this program anyways we're um also doing coverage so um here in Sydney and we're doing teeth and so we're currently studying um an IT course but that also works alongside a bit the servicenow fundamentals so a lot of our assessments are based on that and different content um is mixed around for that course so um with that I'm able to gain skills on a few like few assessments that are to do with how to manage some uh projects how you're going to manage you know your teams and aside from that as well there's a lot of resources that servicenow provides such as in now learning there's a lot of different courses there as well as the past the pathways that you can take um I took a few courses that are that are called like for business process Consulting and that actually helped immensely with um with being an engagement manager even though it's a different um role but it does work alongside with learning different Avenues um that the roles actually do and what they work on so that has helped um a lot so even with the community actually um Jive genuinely use that during my time here and seeing a lot of different um input from individuals in the community has helped with assisting me on how I'm going to gain certain knowledge how I'm going to but where to find certain resources so that's what's been helpful for me and where do you see your career going from here Danny um for me I hope I see a bright future continuously um as an engagement manager I really enjoy being in the client-facing role and working alongside customers and seeing how um servicenow just um uh works with these individual uh different um businesses you know your summer from you know Metal Manufacturing some are in the healthcare sector so it's really fun I'm really enjoying it so I really hope that it continues um because it's quite an exciting space it really is and there's so much to explore uh which gets me to my next question for you Teresa uh what where do you see your career going and and what do you feel it's going to take to get there sure so um I want to be a developer uh and maybe in the future a Solutions architect um because I do love solving problems um I tell someone this once it's um I like to be creative but I don't have a creative bow to my body when it comes to uh like art and things like that I I couldn't draw a stick figure to save my life but being able to create say a web page or a program or an application just from lines of code that is my type of creativity and that's what I absolutely love to do so um that is uh the path that I want to be on hopefully as I said as a Solutions architect exactly what that says you know to be able to provide solutions for any type of problems or issues or challenges that clients are facing um on the surface our platform or that the service now platform can provide for them that you know they didn't know that they knew that kind of thing um and uh to be able to do that obviously um we've had our year of college and Tafe which is just sort of the I.T Basics and fundamentals um but alongside that as Daddy said we use the now learning um site uh quite a lot um one especially if you get our certifications um like our supplied system administrator um I'm trying to get the implementation specialist and the applications developer certification hopefully in the next couple of months and um just the amount of information that is on uh now learning is incredible um for anyone to be able to sort of just get started it's all in very simple language as well um in order for people to be able to understand so someone that even though I've dabbled in technology I don't have that background in studying technology so sometimes things like when you go to other sites to try and learn things as well they uh I think a lot of them assume that you have prior knowledge or prior experience so they use a lot of jargon and acronyms and you're kind of like I don't understand what's going on and then half the time you spend you know Googling what those things mean in order to understand what's there but that's not um servicenow now learning that is it's everything there is easy to understand they've got lots of um uh Labs which allow you to have practical experience working the um site sites just allow you to be able to get that practical experience uh you're provided with what they call a personal developer instance so you can play to your heart's content without being afraid of breaking something um so that's always amazing rather than just reading about something um and even now with work when I'm doing uh any of the development work I am working with experienced developers but they're not always available so uh the now community site is where I go that's where that's where I live basically um you know just trying to find answers on just how to do simple things and it is an amazing Community with lots of different and with an answer to pretty much any question you could pose um service now so it's amazing it's it's a wonderful resource and when you started answering the question that you talked about creativity and that's something that I've I've preached for decades is you know they may call it computer science but there really is an art and that's one of the things that I absolutely love about this is you're you're working both halves of the brain the logic side and the creativity side because there's no one right solution for a given outcome and it really is a is a very creative process to get there it's one of the things I absolutely love about Building Solutions software development creating on the servicenow platform it's a great time and and you also touched on something about the learning path the the journey that you take in once you master the fundamentals you know the basics of of the system fundamentals and a little bit of development you could really Choose Your Own Adventure at that point do I want to Branch off into security or operations management or back-end design or front-end implementation there's so many areas to specialize and explore and become the the expert in that area is Danny you said the same thing there's a there's a lot of different things you could explore uh what are some of the resources that that you use Danny to to keep up with the latest information we're coming out with a release every six months so there's always that challenge yeah you're correct so um for me it's the same thing still was so Stout really out of service now the community service now now learning um developer sites that's where I keep myself up to date with things um you know service now is always um they're always release the new updates and always notify the members um when there is one so um that's where I keep myself in tune with what's new what's next so yeah that's where I keep myself updated and Theresa you mentioned the community as well any additional resources um also the documents site um as well which is just all the technical documents on um servicenow and uh I love that it's um sorts itself into the different releases because obviously different clients are on different releases so sometimes you need to know the same thing but you know there might be a bit different um in each release so you being able to sort through that technical documentation by release as well has been fantastic too but as I said there's really nothing you can not Google um on servicenow and find on their servicenow sites such as now Community now learning or the documents Pages um in terms of something that you're trying to find there's so much information out there um you just need to kind of know what you're looking for um but as long as you know the question the answers are usually there for you and if you're looking for some in-person uh conferencing or or get-togethers I'm going to throw a couple other resources out there there are the servicenow user groups are snugs for in-person get-togethers presentations knowledge sharing it's a great way to get together look for those in your area there's also developer meetups which is a nice safe haven no sales pitch no recruiting for developers to share ideas what are you working on uh there's the developer portal developer.servicenow.com I I'd be remiss if I wouldn't be doing my job as a developer Advocate if I didn't mention that at least once so yeah lots of great resources out there to take advantage of so I encourage anybody who's watching anybody who's thinking about this which leads me to my next question for you Teresa what words of wisdom do you have so for somebody who's possibly thinking about getting into service now or not even from the tech industry you know such as you were not too long ago what what words of wisdom do you have for that very simple just do it um it's easy to get into it's easy to do um and if tech is something that you want to uh get into um servicenow is the absolute perfect place to be in terms of just the uh variety of roles that you can play um and all the things that you can learn um and it's constant because they're constantly updating their platforms so there's always new things to do and learn with servicenow so yeah it's simple just do it if it's something that you're interested in just do it and Danny anything to add to that words of experience or or something that somebody new to the ecosystem or sitting on the fence wondering if they showed or shouldn't yeah so for me um I really want to you know encourage those especially young people like myself someone you know freshly out of high school if you're not unsure and you're you know that your heart's inclined with it even like Jesus said go for it you know um don't hold yourself back no matter your age as well um uh it's easy to get into like she said as long as you have that desire um that motivation to learn new things and be open to learning new things especially in service now then it's 100 the right path to take and um uh it's a really great opportunity to learn new things because service now is ever growing um so it's definitely not a place where you're going to get poured too easily so um yeah that's my words of this term to just go for it don't hesitate and if the viewer is watching if you need any more incentive our ecosystem is hungry for talent that's where the whole Rise Up program came from is our customers our partners were saying more we need more not just more developers more engagement managers more process owners more platform owners every business analyst everybody in the ecosystem we need more of that otherwise we can't move forward we can't improve we can't change the way the way the world works and make it a better world so thank you both wonderful ladies Danny Teresa thank you so much for sharing your stories and advice [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]