Continuing our series in which we get to meet and learn more about the Cloud Galacticos team, say ‘hello’ to Rhiannon McCorkindale, one of our Lead Developers. I caught up with Rhiannon via email to find out more about her and her experiences.
Rhiannon McCorkindale, Lead Developer
Hi Rhiannon, thanks for finding a few minutes to help people learn a bit more about you. Can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your history with Salesforce?
I started working with Salesforce over 12 years ago when the nonprofit I worked for implemented it to replace an onsite server and custom-built CRM. I was involved in the requirements gathering process and quickly trained up to become the Systems Administrator. Since then I have learnt Apex code and other programming languages, and recently sat one of the Architect exams.
Wow, that is a long time working with Salesforce! So how did you find Phil and the Cloud Galacticos?
I met Phil through my colleague (and fellow Galacticos) Neel when I was working as a Salesforce Developer at an Investment Management company in London. I wanted to do something different so moved into consultancy and started working for Phil.
Aside from Salesforce and working at Cloud Galacticos, what else do you enjoy doing?
I moved house recently so most of my spare time has been spent decorating and learning how to garden. I also play an instrument called a tzouras (a small bouzouki). It is used to play rebetiko music, which is also known as the ‘greek blues’.
Rhi, Emma, and Val at World Tour London
Can you tell us a bit more about your role as a Lead Developer and what that involves?
At Cloud Galacticos we can sometimes wear a few different hats and it is different for each project too. I can be involved in requirements gathering, architecture and design, implementing declarative development, documenting systems and then of course coding.
What tips would you have in working with clients remotely? Or working remotely in general?
I think it is important to have a routine and a separate space for working if you can. I always make time for a break to go for a walk in the day. Communication when working remotely is key. Some meetings definitely require a face-to-face approach, although at the moment this all has to happen over zoom or other conferencing tools. We generally keep in touch using messaging systems such as slack.
With all your experience of working with Salesforce do you have a favourite and least favourite feature?
As most of my earlier experience was really coding on the core CRM modules, I think using a Trigger Handler Framework brings a lot of benefits especially for clients who don’t have them implemented and therefore don’t have much control over the order of execution. I wouldn’t say least favourite, but there are always challenges when clients have previously used a combination of process builders, flows and code.
Paul, Neel, Rhi, and Phil at Inspire East
Finally, what about tips for anyone starting out with Salesforce?
Trailhead is really useful. It didn’t exist as a resource when I first started using Salesforce, the hands-on modules and trying things out in playgrounds means you can gain some experience in things you haven’t used before.
Thanks Rhiannon for your time and insight into your life. We have quite a few other team members to interview in due course. Watch this space.
