you're listening to accelerate a service Now podcast series about achieving your business outcomes where we talk about how to get the most value from the now platform hey everyone this is Crystal cger and this is Dri we're your hosts and excited to talk to you about service now value acceleration solutions that include expert Services training and impact hey D nice to have you back on the show hey Crystal thanks for having me again I always enjoy our conversations together with our awesome guests I know so today we're joined by Charles mulbach Charles actually was introduced to us by way of a quker of arts and marketing um that happens to be related to Charles so hi Charles nice to have you hi Crystal thank you for having me D nice to talk to you again yeah likewise Charles we're excited to have you on today really appreciate the time oh not a problem Charles you have a really interesting rise up story but before you tell us about it what is your professional background so I was in the Army for for 12 years I uh did a few things I was a tank mechanic working on Abrams for a little bit I was an Army recruiter and I ended my army career as a Geo spatial intelligence imagery analyst oh that's awesome man so you're in the Army and I know that you wanted to return to civilian life at some point and start a new career so I'd love to hear about how you heard about service now and what we do and really how to get going on a career with us yes so I uh was I was uh faced with the decision whether to stay in and uh do my 20 years in the Army uh and look at getting out and doing something else I was weighing my options of doing something that I've already done or trying to go into something uh that I always wanted to do which was going to Tech um I started to reach out to people go on Facebook groups and um I reached out to my aunt uh which is your coworker and she told me about service now once I learned about that I started to do more research find out about what service now did and I basically just wanted to go down that that rabbit hole of of uh going into service now I reached out to the nextg program uh leader and was able to get accepted into the nextg cohort uh earlier this year so talk to us a little bit about NextGen if we don't know what it is if someone who's listening doesn't know what it is yes so uh the NextGen program it helps transitioning service members uh veterans and also military spouses get into Tech it doesn't matter what you did prior they basically walk you uh from the ground up and learn the service now platform focusing on uh getting your certified uh system administrator Ser uh also certified application developer and you learn itsm and a lot of other functions that service now does got it so then Charles so you you got started with service now through the NextGen program were there any specific courses that you took and this is a two-part question I'd love to First hear about specific courses that you took through our learning uh platform and then second to that you know now that you're sort of in the ecosystem you're you're in in as a professional in the service now ecosystem you know how has this really changed your life from you know going from the Army to now into a civilian role and and you know how's that had an impact on you oh definitely so as far as the courses um taking we took probably 10 12 different courses uh one of the things that stood out was the administration fundamentals course that was really the one that helped me understand all the aspects of of service now the platform it helped me uh actually get my certification and in turn that helped me land my first position also the application development fundamentals was another huge one for me uh scripting and service now that helped me learn uh how to actually script on the platform itself we also took a Java Script course which gave us a high level overview of scripting then service now courses uh helped me hone in on what was actually going used on the platform and uh that led me to my first position that I have currently with soft tack Solutions uh service now developer role and everything that I learned in the course helped me actually with day-to-day operations at my in my current position so you got your service n administrator uh certification and then you applied for this developer job at your current company that that's how you got the job right because you were certified correct yeah I applied while still in the cohort and uh I got the service now um Administration uh CT probably week eight of the course uh and that gave me the confidence to actually start applying and uh I felt like I had enough knowledge like halfway through the course to be able to start interviewing that's awesome Charles so so now that you're in this role right and you're you're getting comfortable uh in the service now ecosystem you know what plans do you have for the future I mean where do you kind of go from here as you grow further in your career uh with with the service now platform yeah so now now that I'm currently in a roll uh I think that I'm going to stay with the developer rout and continue to get the certifications in order to become a certified technical architect and uh that's that's probably my main goal as of right now and just keep growing as a as a developer that's great that's great so do you have any advice for someone else who is in a similar position who wants to get started in Tech and really doesn't have a technical background at all and wants to be involved with service now so I would say since mainly my background is the army ever since I was 18 I've been in my whole adult life uh I know that I never really had the confidence uh even to go to college for it uh I thought that maybe I was just you know stuck in the Army until you know I retired but I think that if if I didn't challenge myself and take the leap uh to go into this program and actually get out of the army I probably wouldn't have been able to get into into attack and into this role that I I've uh got myself into so I would say if anyone's in my same situation maybe maybe just do do some research on what you truly want to do if you want to go into Tech and specifically service now nextg program is is topnotch uh the community uh was great had great uh class mates uh great instructors and Great Courses to learn from very easy to understand and not having a technical background uh I was able to succeed and and land a position uh even before the cohort ended so going from you know thinking that I couldn't do it to learning everything I needed to learn and uh Landing my first position and with a smooth transition out of the the military uh it was just a complete life Cher for me and it wouldn't be possible uh without service now that's that's great to hear Charles and I love your story and how you persevered and worked hard and gotten to the position that you wanted to get to and rise up with service now is all about that right it's about opening up doors for someone who either wants to switch careers just starting their career or anybody who's looking to get into the service now ecosystem so it's really nice to hear how you've done it and how you continue to succeed and I'm looking forward to hearing when you get get that CTA that you mentioned earlier that that'll be really great so yeah I mean this this is great Charles thank you so so much for sharing your story with us Crystal any any closing remarks no I'm thrilled you could share that story with both of us and our audience thank you I wish you the best of luck with the next certification and any other courses you take through service now and and your new job of course yes I I definitely appreciate you guys having me on and the well wishes thank you very much I'm Crystal Clevenger and I'm D adri and this is the service now accelerate podcast series you can find us another service Now podcast in the service now community at community. servicenow.com be sure to follow us in your favorite podcast app so you don't miss our next episode