From literature graduate to Salesforce innovator: Frederik Pardon’s career story

When you look up Frederik Pardon’s LinkedIn profile, you can only be impressed by the variety in his career path. With a background in literature, Frederik didn’t follow the traditional route into IT. Yet today, as a Salesforce Architect, he is one of the go-to people at UPEO when you want to take a technical deep-dive into Salesforce’s inner workings. 

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What does a typical working day look like for you at UPEO?
Frederik: I don’t really have a typical day. It depends entirely on the project I’m working on. I plan my days myself, and that flexibility is one of the things I appreciate most here. Ideally, I like to start early, around 7 a.m., because those first two hours before everyone else is online are my most productive. With a young girl in the house, that has become a bit more difficult though.

We don’t have a lot of fixed meetings, so I can organise my work in the way that makes the most sense for me. I am a bit chaotic, so I don’t plan a lot beforehand. UPEO gives me the flexibility to work when it suits me best. We are judged on the results, not on being present from 9 to 5. 

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Insights and experience

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You’ve worked both on the client side and in consultancy. What do you enjoy most about consultancy?
Frederik: Definitely the variety. You get to work in many different industries, with very different ways of working. It’s a crash course in understanding hierarchical structures and organisations. In-house roles have their advantages too, as you can work on projects with a longer-term horizon. Sometimes I miss that long-term horizon, but consultancy is still the most exciting for me at this point in my career. 

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How has your client-side experience helped you as a consultant?
Frederik: It gave me an insight into the realities clients face. For us, as consultants, a project is our main focus. But for the client, it’s often something on top of their regular work. Having been on that side, I understand the pressures they’re under and the fact that they might not be fully dedicated to the project every day. That perspective helps me approach projects more empathetically. 

If you start as a consultant fresh from school, you don’t have these insights and that makes the learning curve a lot steeper. Mind you, I didn’t know everything either when I became a consultant. Sometimes you work for an industry where you don’t have any experience at all and you have to learn a lot of new things. But that is what makes being a consultant such a rich experience. 

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You joined UPEO from the start. Didn’t you find that risky?
Frederik: I didn’t see it as a risk at all. I was ready for a change and already had a great working relationship with Sara, one of the founders. Perhaps, in the beginning, I was a bit worried what my CV would look like if I worked at a start-up that did not prosper, but I’m past that now. The flexibility in roles and the freedom to shape how we approach projects here is very different from larger organisations, and I really enjoy that. I would definitely recommend family and friends to join UPEO. In fact, I was instrumental in hiring Lucy as a consultant. 

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You must really like working with Salesforce, having plenty of Salesforce certifications. What makes Salesforce so attractive to you?
Frederik: It’s very well-documented, which makes it easy to learn and master. Reading documentation may initially not sound like something that makes you all warm on the inside. But when you’ve worked with systems where documentation is poor, you realise how valuable it is. Salesforce is flexible, approachable and fun to build on. Studying to get different certifications was an accelerator to get to know as much as possible about Salesforce. 

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Your academic background is in literature, that may explain why you like to spend that much time reading documentation. But how did you end up in IT and Salesforce in the first place?
Frederik: It wasn’t a grand plan. My first jobs were in copywriting and logistics, and I gradually started digitizing and automating small tasks, mostly in Excel at first. That led to bigger projects, and eventually I was asked to join a team working on a Salesforce migration. I discovered I absolutely enjoyed it. Salesforce felt like a building set I could use to create all kinds of solutions. Working out a solution is like building a puzzle with all these building blocks. When I was able to make that puzzle, that’s how I define a good day. 

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Claire, Sam and the Salesforce AppExchange

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How satisfying is it that you were able to build your own products at UPEO that are now in the Salesforce AppExchange? 

Frederik: I am very proud that I have been able to build these products and can now see them in the Salesforce AppExchange. Most of these products started from a passion to build a specific solution and that, in the end, turned out to be much bigger than originally planned. 

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Two of your products are AI-projects, Claire and Sam. What’s your take on the role that AI will play in your job. Do you feel threatened by AI?

Frederik: It doesn’t keep me awake at night just yet. I’m convinced that the people who are already working with AI and who understand the limitations of it, will always have a job. People who are refusing to work with AI or wait until the ‘hype’ blows over, will probably be left out in one way or another. For me personally, AI makes me a lot more productive. Things that took me a full day previously, now take significantly less time. But as I said, there are still limitations and you have to know how to use it. When it comes to code, AI can be an incredible time saver if you take enough time to think through the architecture, patterns and design beforehand and let AI help you with the execution of your thought process. 

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What qualities are most important for your role?
Frederik: Curiosity, above all. You need to be interested in how things work and why they work that way. Not just on the technical side, but also in understanding the client’s context. Curiosity naturally leads to learning, listening and adapting, which are all crucial when you’re working closely with clients.

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How do you know when you’ve made an impact for a client?
Frederik: One of the best moments is during training or just after a project goes live, when people who weren’t directly involved in the build start using the solution. When you see the light go on in their eyes, when they realise how it will make their work easier,  that’s incredibly rewarding.

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How do you deal with resistance to change from clients?
Frederik: It’s common at the start of a project. I actually enjoy those conversations, because they’re a chance to explain why doing something differently can be a good thing. It’s harder when resistance only appears during training, because some people haven’t been involved in shaping the solution. That’s why change management within the client organisation is so important.

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What advice would you give to someone just out of school who’s starting their career?
Frederik: Start as low as possible on the corporate ladder. My own career began in jobs that weren’t glamorous. I spent a lot of time between shipping containers at Katoennatie. But that taught me a lot, especially the value of speaking to people at all levels, from the shop floor to the boardroom. That experience gives you perspective, keeps you grounded and makes you much better at understanding how organisations really work.

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