Pivoting to Salesforce: A Career Transformation
Ishrat Bhatti spent most of her career in hospital administration, where she drove impactful program evaluations and quality improvement initiatives that elevated patient care standards and streamlined organizational performance. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a significant change in her career path. During this time, she took on a COVID Specialist role for the Texas Department of State Health Services, where she worked on projects related to contact tracing, COVID case management, and more. In this role, she was introduced to Service Cloud and quickly became a fan of the comprehensive, flexible, and scalable platform.
After discovering the potential of Service Cloud, Ishrat quickly pivoted her career toward Salesforce. She immersed herself in learning on Trailhead and joined a 10-week cohort at Amplify, where she gained hands-on experience with Salesforce and the Salesforce Platform. Her connections in the Trailblazer Community led to her role with the Women’s Empowerment Institute, where she built nonprofit solutions. Encouraged by her mentors in the Trailblazer Community, Ishrat became Salesforce certified, launching her career as a Salesforce Administrator and Salesforce Consultant. Today, as a Senior Technology Analyst at the Salesforce Center of Excellence (CoE) at Southwest Airlines, Ishrat empowers the Southwest Business Community by driving collaborative best practices, promoting knowledge sharing, and providing targeted support to maximize the company’s Salesforce investment.
The continual learning, overcoming challenges, and unwavering support from the community have been instrumental in shaping my career. I now see technology not just as a tool but as a catalyst propelling business success and innovation.
Ishrat BhattiSenior Technology Analyst, Salesforce CoE, Southwest Airlines
Driving AI Growth and Mentorship in the Salesforce Ecosystem
Outside of her work at Southwest Airlines, Ishrat is committed to giving back to the Trailblazer Community, supporting underrepresented groups in tech, and continuing her personal learning journey through the pursuit of additional Salesforce certifications. She is passionate about empowering the Trailblazer Community to advance their skills with a recent focus on Salesforce AI technology, actively inviting experts to present on topics like Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Prompt Builder at local community meetups, and encouraging members to pursue Salesforce AI certifications. Ishrat is excited about Salesforce’s focus on AI technology as she thinks it has the potential to revolutionize enterprise solutions by enabling smarter, more efficient workflows.
Ishrat feels that Agentforce could anticipate customer needs rather than merely responding to them, elevating service to a proactive level. This innovation promises to transform team operations by automating repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on meaningful, strategic work. Additionally, Agentforce’s personalization capabilities could empower businesses to tailor every customer interaction, making each one feel natural and intuitive, and ensuring customers feel seen and valued. Ishrat is passionate about skilling up the Frisco Admin Community Group — where she serves as a Community Group Leader — on this technology as it can help companies rethink both small tasks and bigger-picture strategies. In addition to her work with the Frisco Admin Group, Ishrat organizes monthly Salesforce Saturdays in North Dallas and holds key roles as a board member of Amplify and Salesforce Coach at Clicked, where she helps certified professionals gain hands-on experience through collaborative projects. Through these efforts, Ishrat consistently supports the growth and development of others in the community.