Salesforce Certifications: A Guide to Improving Your Career
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 6:55 am
Salesforce certifications and how to get them are one of the most frequently asked questions I get from my students. I am currently studying for my eleventh certification on the platform and after obtaining the architect certification, I think it is a good time to offer my point of view and help if you are trying to get certified in Salesforce, or have questions about how it works.
At the request of my students, I have included below a guide on which certifications are more difficult to obtain or which of them are aimed at sales/marketing/management professionals or programmers. If you have already been certified in any of them, I would love for you to share your opinion and personal experience.
Despite having worked for Salesforce for many years, I had not considered getting certified. The truth is that I didn't see the reason for investing so much time or the point in getting them: after all, I was already working on projects that required ongoing training.
My opinion changed little by little, when I realized the value that a certification brings, to me personally and to other professionals in my environment.
Obtaining a certification is often a source of pride for many professionals. It is difficult not to be infected by everyone's enthusiasm and desire to improve. At an international level, you can follow the hashtag #SalesforceCerts and you will see how it is celebrated every time a user achieves a new goal. It is part of the culture of collaboration and atmosphere at Salesforce, with its great #Ohana family.
Another thing that has changed my impression over time is the experience that the certifications themselves can provide you with. I consider some of them to be little gems of training. You can see the care and detail that has been put into making them. They allow you to learn from real cases and environments in which you have not yet worked. In fact, over time you will see that many questions are taken from real support cases asked by users.
How much job demand really exists?
But let's get to the heart of the matter: Does a certification help improve your professional career? The answer can only be a resounding yes. As you can see in the following image, it is estimated that up to 3.3 million jobs will be created around the platform. It is true that there are no miracles in this life and everything is achieved based on effort, but it is true that including your certification in your LinkedIn profile is one of the surest ways for a Headhunter to call you offering a change in your job. If you are already working, it is a way to demonstrate your knowledge of the platform in your company and to highlight your job.
3.3 million jobs will be created around Salesforce
salesforce economy
However, my recommendation is that you don't get carried away by the current peak in demand for professionals in the Salesforce environment, but rather consider that it is a very important investment in time and decide to work in an area that you really like (Salesforce has many).
Which certification is most appropriate for my profile and where should I start?
I'll give you my personal opinion, since you will probably have to invest a lot of time in this training. From my point of view, if you have decided to strive for a certification, some will be easier than others depending on your profile.
Many people think that the basic certification to start with is the Salesforce Certified Administrator, but Salesforce itself does not recommend any of these as a starting point. In fact, from my point of view, administrator training is relatively difficult to obtain and is one of the most frustrating for new students.
For this certification, it is recommended to have at least one year of previous experience on the platform, but I think that more technical profiles (IT, Computer Science) or at least if you like programming have a very important advantage. After all, Salesforce is based on a relational database. I don't mean that you will need to answer questions about programming in this exam, but those with basic computer/programming knowledge have a certain advantage, since many concepts (for example, security) will be familiar to them. In short, if you dare to try technology, you can start with this training, which is the basis of the platform. If you have already worked with other CRMs, this is definitely your starting point.
If you have a background in Marketing, I suggest that instead of starting with the Administrator exam, you start with the Marketing area (Pardot Specialist, Marketing Cloud Email Specialist or Marketing Cloud Social Specialist). They are much more closely related to the day-to-day work of Marketing and there will be many elements that will sound familiar to you (landing pages, contact forms, etc.).
If your job is related to data analysis and you already have previous experience with the Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant platform, this certification is specialized in this field.
If you have experience as a programmer and especially if you have programmed in Java, don't think twice, Platform Developer I is your goal.
What type of company or department will I end up working for with these qualifications?
This is an extremely important point given that there is a huge difference in the type of professional profiles that different companies and departments are looking for.
Let's first talk about the case of companies that use Salesforce, the so-called end customers of the technology, and then about partners.
Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, Pardot Specialist and in some cases Marketing Cloud Consultant profiles are usually hired within the Marketing departments of companies. However, profiles such as Marketing Cloud Administrator or Marketing Cloud developer (with exceptions of course) are usually hired by IT departments. There is no set rule, but there is a strong tendency for more technical profiles to be hired by IT or systems departments. You should take this into account to know how you want to develop professionally.
If we talk about IT consultancies or Marketing Agencies (Salesforce partners), things change a lot here. In fact, the profiles are more varied; you could work in the accounts, digital creation, implementation/operations or technical support departments. The Marketing Cloud Consultant profile usually has a more direct relationship with the client (depending on their years of experience) and the developer profile is usually linked to more technical departments. In many cases, it will depend on the size of the agency or consultancy and its involvement as a Salesforce partner, but you could be in almost any related department.
How many years of experience do I need?
Depending on the profile, different experience is required. As with many jobs, my recommendation is that after obtaining your certification you try to get practical experience in a company. Specialist profiles should have appropriate work experience of at least 1 year, especially if they are dealing with multiple campaigns with different typologies. A consultant profile needs several years of experience and several Marketing Cloud implementations behind them (the exam documentation recommends 4 to 6 implementations before applying for the consultant position). As for developers, it will depend on the complexity of the project you are involved in; often senior profiles work together with more junior profiles to complete their training.
What types of certifications exist?
Currently there are 3 levels (from least to most difficult) of certificates on the platform: (Administrators, Specialists and Programmers), Consultants and Architects.
Salesforce architect journey
Specialist and Administrator exams provide an introduction to the platform, for example Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, Marketing Cloud Social Specialist, or Pardot Specialist.
Developer exams are aimed at more technical macedonia phone number library profiles and programmers in particular.
Consultant profiles are some of the most difficult to obtain. Based on my own experience, in addition to having multiple projects on Marketing Cloud, the Marketing Cloud Certified Consultant certification is one of the most difficult on the platform. It is not unusual to prepare for this exam for 6 months if you already have experience installing 4/5 Marketing Cloud projects under your belt.
Architect profiles (I speak to you from the sole experience of having passed one and preparing for a second) are a different story. They make sense if you are very professionally involved and require a lot of hours of preparation, practice and work. But at the same time they reveal new areas of the platform that you may not have known existed.
At the top of the pyramid is the Technical Architect certification where you must appear before a committee of professionals who will evaluate you in person.
Are they really that hard to get?
I'm not going to lie to you: the level of difficulty is quite high for any of them. They are meticulously thought out so that you don't pass them without very good prior preparation. Keep in mind that Salesforce relies on certified professionals and they are part of the image of its company. In short: it takes care of everything in detail and you need to guarantee a minimum level of knowledge.
I assure you that multiple questions (where many of them are possible) require you to have prepared thoroughly. To give you an idea, I see that many of my students take about 4 months (in some cases more) to prepare for a basic certification.
Below is a guide on the difficulty you can expect for each certification.
At the request of my students, I have included below a guide on which certifications are more difficult to obtain or which of them are aimed at sales/marketing/management professionals or programmers. If you have already been certified in any of them, I would love for you to share your opinion and personal experience.
Despite having worked for Salesforce for many years, I had not considered getting certified. The truth is that I didn't see the reason for investing so much time or the point in getting them: after all, I was already working on projects that required ongoing training.
My opinion changed little by little, when I realized the value that a certification brings, to me personally and to other professionals in my environment.
Obtaining a certification is often a source of pride for many professionals. It is difficult not to be infected by everyone's enthusiasm and desire to improve. At an international level, you can follow the hashtag #SalesforceCerts and you will see how it is celebrated every time a user achieves a new goal. It is part of the culture of collaboration and atmosphere at Salesforce, with its great #Ohana family.
Another thing that has changed my impression over time is the experience that the certifications themselves can provide you with. I consider some of them to be little gems of training. You can see the care and detail that has been put into making them. They allow you to learn from real cases and environments in which you have not yet worked. In fact, over time you will see that many questions are taken from real support cases asked by users.
How much job demand really exists?
But let's get to the heart of the matter: Does a certification help improve your professional career? The answer can only be a resounding yes. As you can see in the following image, it is estimated that up to 3.3 million jobs will be created around the platform. It is true that there are no miracles in this life and everything is achieved based on effort, but it is true that including your certification in your LinkedIn profile is one of the surest ways for a Headhunter to call you offering a change in your job. If you are already working, it is a way to demonstrate your knowledge of the platform in your company and to highlight your job.
3.3 million jobs will be created around Salesforce
salesforce economy
However, my recommendation is that you don't get carried away by the current peak in demand for professionals in the Salesforce environment, but rather consider that it is a very important investment in time and decide to work in an area that you really like (Salesforce has many).
Which certification is most appropriate for my profile and where should I start?
I'll give you my personal opinion, since you will probably have to invest a lot of time in this training. From my point of view, if you have decided to strive for a certification, some will be easier than others depending on your profile.
Many people think that the basic certification to start with is the Salesforce Certified Administrator, but Salesforce itself does not recommend any of these as a starting point. In fact, from my point of view, administrator training is relatively difficult to obtain and is one of the most frustrating for new students.
For this certification, it is recommended to have at least one year of previous experience on the platform, but I think that more technical profiles (IT, Computer Science) or at least if you like programming have a very important advantage. After all, Salesforce is based on a relational database. I don't mean that you will need to answer questions about programming in this exam, but those with basic computer/programming knowledge have a certain advantage, since many concepts (for example, security) will be familiar to them. In short, if you dare to try technology, you can start with this training, which is the basis of the platform. If you have already worked with other CRMs, this is definitely your starting point.
If you have a background in Marketing, I suggest that instead of starting with the Administrator exam, you start with the Marketing area (Pardot Specialist, Marketing Cloud Email Specialist or Marketing Cloud Social Specialist). They are much more closely related to the day-to-day work of Marketing and there will be many elements that will sound familiar to you (landing pages, contact forms, etc.).
If your job is related to data analysis and you already have previous experience with the Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant platform, this certification is specialized in this field.
If you have experience as a programmer and especially if you have programmed in Java, don't think twice, Platform Developer I is your goal.
What type of company or department will I end up working for with these qualifications?
This is an extremely important point given that there is a huge difference in the type of professional profiles that different companies and departments are looking for.
Let's first talk about the case of companies that use Salesforce, the so-called end customers of the technology, and then about partners.
Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, Pardot Specialist and in some cases Marketing Cloud Consultant profiles are usually hired within the Marketing departments of companies. However, profiles such as Marketing Cloud Administrator or Marketing Cloud developer (with exceptions of course) are usually hired by IT departments. There is no set rule, but there is a strong tendency for more technical profiles to be hired by IT or systems departments. You should take this into account to know how you want to develop professionally.
If we talk about IT consultancies or Marketing Agencies (Salesforce partners), things change a lot here. In fact, the profiles are more varied; you could work in the accounts, digital creation, implementation/operations or technical support departments. The Marketing Cloud Consultant profile usually has a more direct relationship with the client (depending on their years of experience) and the developer profile is usually linked to more technical departments. In many cases, it will depend on the size of the agency or consultancy and its involvement as a Salesforce partner, but you could be in almost any related department.
How many years of experience do I need?
Depending on the profile, different experience is required. As with many jobs, my recommendation is that after obtaining your certification you try to get practical experience in a company. Specialist profiles should have appropriate work experience of at least 1 year, especially if they are dealing with multiple campaigns with different typologies. A consultant profile needs several years of experience and several Marketing Cloud implementations behind them (the exam documentation recommends 4 to 6 implementations before applying for the consultant position). As for developers, it will depend on the complexity of the project you are involved in; often senior profiles work together with more junior profiles to complete their training.
What types of certifications exist?
Currently there are 3 levels (from least to most difficult) of certificates on the platform: (Administrators, Specialists and Programmers), Consultants and Architects.
Salesforce architect journey
Specialist and Administrator exams provide an introduction to the platform, for example Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, Marketing Cloud Social Specialist, or Pardot Specialist.
Developer exams are aimed at more technical macedonia phone number library profiles and programmers in particular.
Consultant profiles are some of the most difficult to obtain. Based on my own experience, in addition to having multiple projects on Marketing Cloud, the Marketing Cloud Certified Consultant certification is one of the most difficult on the platform. It is not unusual to prepare for this exam for 6 months if you already have experience installing 4/5 Marketing Cloud projects under your belt.
Architect profiles (I speak to you from the sole experience of having passed one and preparing for a second) are a different story. They make sense if you are very professionally involved and require a lot of hours of preparation, practice and work. But at the same time they reveal new areas of the platform that you may not have known existed.
At the top of the pyramid is the Technical Architect certification where you must appear before a committee of professionals who will evaluate you in person.
Are they really that hard to get?
I'm not going to lie to you: the level of difficulty is quite high for any of them. They are meticulously thought out so that you don't pass them without very good prior preparation. Keep in mind that Salesforce relies on certified professionals and they are part of the image of its company. In short: it takes care of everything in detail and you need to guarantee a minimum level of knowledge.
I assure you that multiple questions (where many of them are possible) require you to have prepared thoroughly. To give you an idea, I see that many of my students take about 4 months (in some cases more) to prepare for a basic certification.
Below is a guide on the difficulty you can expect for each certification.