Zero to Ranger in 56 Days

I changed jobs last summer, leaving the workers’ compensation industry for Big Tech. I love my new company and it’s hard to find anything negative to say about it. It’s huge — there are 62,000 employees globally — and the onboarding process is no joke. In addition to the normal computer-based training that centers on compliance, security and other “CYA” topics, there’s a ton of information thrown at you about the company’s culture, which is omnipresent in everything you do in the organization. And while you don’t have to remember where to go for everything you need (e.g., changing 401k contributions, ordering a new mouse) you do have to know how and where to find answers, so a significant amount of time is spent on this as well. It’s truly the most robust and successful onboarding I’ve ever seen.

Much of the training is delivered through the company’s online training system that its customers also use. Of course, there’s internal-only training as well, but we also use the same educational materials as our customers to learn about Salesforce as a platform and best practices for its use. The training platform uses levels to gamify the learning experience, and it’s a big deal to make Ranger internally. My team has a requirement that employees must do it within 18 months of being hired.

During the first few months, in addition to the rigorous onboarding, I also had a full-time workload and was preparing for the launch of a new team, my own. This involved identifying, defining, and documenting all of the master business processes, and then reviewing them for feedback with the leadership team.

Still I managed to make ranger in 56 days.

My teammates asked me how, and honestly, I wasn’t going to share my secret. But I’ll share it with you. At some point early on, I realized you can take Trails on your mobile device. And since I get up early one weekend day each week while my wife sleeps in, I was able to knock out 10-15 Trails while my three-year-old daughter watched Frozen for the 7000th time. Easy peasy. And now yow you know.

PS: They even give you a sweet hoodie when you make Ranger!