I interviewed at B&H Photo 4 years ago with the hopes of moving to an IT role – a childhood dream.
However, I was offered a position in Customer Service. Mike Engelman, my first real manager showered the department with attention and motivation – making moving on very difficult. Meilich really set an example on dealing with people professionally and respectfully.
Joining the IS department under Leiby Markovits, I am thankful for the trust I was given upon joining the team and the ability to truly understand hands on – the inner workings of the back-end system that runs the company.
When B&H began implementing Salesforce, I was very eager to get involved. I knew my knowledge and experience as a customer service agent would help transform the Software which would be in front of every call centre agent across the company.
When Gaurav Hemdev pulled me aside one day and asked if I could help test a few bugs and join meetings to provide a perspective from the business side – I could not have been more excited! I was determined to prove I could be the anchor the project needed and I am continuously thankful for this opportunity.
I remember my first meeting with some Acumen and B&H folk writing down Salesforce terms that where not in the vernacular I was accustomed to. Googling these words enlightened me to a huge community of Salesforce users, developers and employees – all trying to do very similar stuff with the application. Wow!
The day Gaurav asked me if I would like to speak at Dreamforce is a day I will always remember. Dreamforce is incredible and it was amazing to be a part of a community of Salesforce conference attendees. 150,000 close friends!
Under the tutelage of Gaurav, I really learned and experienced the real life of an IT professional – working hard with heavy responsibility helped form me into a lot of who I am. When I was informed that Joel Weber would take over from Gaurav, as my manager, I was anxious.
However, after hours of fierce conversations we started to break the ice and develop a relationship. My relationship now far supersedes the manager-employee type and I often look to Joel for mentorship, guidance and direction. Joel’s ability to ask introspective questions really helped prepare me in how to deal with many different people and situations.
I was therefore devastated to learn that Joel Weber was moving positions and would consequently no longer be my manager. Avrum Weinberger, straight from Microsoft would transition into the position as manager of my team. At this point I felt the same apprehension as when Joel took over from Gaurav as my manager.
From day one, I quickly learned that Avrum’s level of dedication is of the highest level – coming from a non-Salesforce background, his thirst for knowledge and understanding was evident. Regardless of what was going on, or the time of day – Avrum kept me on my toes with constant ‘updates’ and ‘requests for updates’ via email, text and phone (often all at the same time!). If you ever find me asking what an alert is or if this is actionable – you’ll know who to thank!
Shlome Seidenfeld taught me that you achieve most by interacting positively. Employee satisfaction is greatly influenced by having a positive relationship with your manager. During my time in IS, even in extenuating circumstances, Shlome exemplified this to the tee
Throughout my time in at B&H, I was very lucky to be very involved with our support, success and sales team at Salesforce. The relationships I formed help me understand Salesforce as a product, culture and work ethic – especially the attention we received from such a huge corporation. Ron Uslaner – our go to person for escalations – claimed to be a ‘nobody’ but taught me actions speak a lot louder than words – especially when every time we reached out to him we saw immediate results.
In conclusion – it’s never easy to say good bye – but I know I don’t have to. I look forward to continuing the awesome relationships created here at B&H. It’s easy to get lost in a company of B&H’s size and I’d like to say I didn’t.
I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone.
– Shmuel Chaikin
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