Jump Start Your Career In Salesforce with these Certifications

Are you considering a career in Salesforce and not sure which path to take for a career growth? Then its time for you to consider Salesforce training certifications. In my previous blog, we have seen what Salesforce is, why organizations should choose Salesforce and where Salesforce technology has been successfully applied. Now, you may be wondering, how Salesforce can be beneficial to your career.

In this blog, I will give you a detailed explanation on why you should learn Salesforce and introduce you to numerous Salesforce credentials. Then, we’ll look at the frequently taken Salesforce certifications and their significance in today’s technology market. Finally, I will provide you with details about the career opportunities available in Salesforce. 

Why Should You Learn Salesforce?

In the past, you may have learnt different technologies and later found out that you can’t do much using it yourself or in the industry. Salesforce isn’t like other technologies which are difficult to learn and even more difficult to get experienced in. Salesforce is a skill that you can learn whenever you want, wherever you want and get recognized across the world. It is a skill that thousands of companies use to make their business successful.

As seen in the above image, learning Salesforce is advantageous and can provide a boost to your career. If you are a professional looking for a technology or career change, then you should definitely consider Salesforce for the following reasons:

• Salesforce has a customer base of over 150,000 companies comprising of large scale, medium scale and small scale enterprises which require Salesforce professionals. Source: www.expandedramblings.com 
• Big companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter, General Electric, HCL and others use Salesforce. Learning Salesforce can help you get recognized and land a job in such top companies. Source: www.Salesforce.com
• Learning Salesforce can help you increase your salary.
• Salesforce technology is being used by organizations across the world, so you can easily find opportunities everywhere.

Why Salesforce Certifications?

As we have seen, Salesforce is one of the hottest technologies out there. Mentioning Salesforce on your resume is definitely a plus point and makes you stand out from the rest. You might be wondering what is the point of getting certified and what is that you gain by getting certified. Well, here are the reasons as to why you should get Salesforce certified:

• Salesforce certifications give credibility to your Salesforce knowledge and expertise. As the standard of Salesforce certifications is high, you can take it for granted that a person who has been certified is an expert in that field.
• Currently, there is a high demand for people with Salesforce certifications. If you are a Salesforce certified professional, you’ll be able to easily attract employers.
• Organizations need certified people as they attract clients. Clients generally prefer companies whose employees are certified, as it gives them assurance with regard to quality.
• If you are a person who is looking for a change in role or advancing your career, then getting certified will provide you with that opportunity.

Above are two graphs from www.indeed.com, which will give you the current trend in the job market. As you can see from the graph on the left, the number of Salesforce job postings has significantly increased in the last few years. From the graph on the right, we can infer that over the past 3 years, there has been a steep rise in companies interested in Salesforce professionals. The graph below from www.jobgraphs.com provides you with the information on the average yearly salary a Salesforce professional receives in different countries. As you can see Salesforce is a good technology to bet your future on.

Salesforce Certifications

You’ll be surprised to know that millions of people across the world apply for Salesforce certifications every year. Owing to this high number, Salesforce has a separate entity called the Salesforce University to handle certifications and release exams.   

Now that you know why it would be useful for you to learn Salesforce and the significance of Salesforce certifications, let’s see all the certifications that Salesforce has to offer and the ones which are relevant to you.

The above image shows all the Salesforce credentials. Yes, that’s a lot of credentials that you can go for. But, depending on what you want to pursue, we can divide the frequently taken certifications into two tracks:

1. Administrator/ Implementation Track
2. Developer Track

The image below gives you a better idea of what each of these tracks comprises of. I will discuss about each one of these tracks in detail.

 Administrator/ Implementation Track

In organizations which use Salesforce products, a Salesforce administrator plays an important role. It is not like your regular administrative roles like network administrator or database administrator whose job is to just maintain users and change passwords. A Salesforce administrator has immense responsibilities and needs to have a complete understanding about the business and its functionalities. If you are a Salesforce administrator or an implementation expert you would be a functional consultant working alongside your organization’s customers and solving their problems.

Let us take a look at the certifications that people frequently take up in the Administration/ Implementation track: 

1. Salesforce Certified Administrator – If you are a fresher or someone who wants to start off as an administrator or consultant, then you should be looking at being a Salesforce Certified Administrator. To be a Salesforce administrator, you need to have general knowledge of Salesforce features. Having a Salesforce Admin 201 certification proves that:

• You have a broad knowledge of Salesforce application.
• You know how to configure and manage Sales and Service cloud applications.
• You know how to manage Salesforce CRM and have good presentation skills.
• You are good with basic functionalities like managing users, development and customizations.

The image above gives you the details about the Salesforce Administrator Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

2. Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator – To be a Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator you first need to be a Salesforce Certified Administrator. Along with this, you need 2-5 years of experience as a Salesforce administrator and be capable of using the full set of Salesforce features. Having a Salesforce Advanced Administrator certificate proves that:

• You are comfortable with designing robust and scalable applications for clients.
• You have handled a fair share of Salesforce Orgs.

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Advanced Administrator Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

3. Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant – To be a Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant you first need to be a Salesforce Certified Administrator. Along with this, you need to have experience in designing solutions that optimize the Sales cloud functionality, experience working with sales and marketing organizations. Generally, people who go for Sales cloud consultant certification have 2-5 years of experience as a senior business analyst. Having Salesforce Sales Cloud certificate proves that:

• You are proficient in understanding customer needs.
• You can design and maintain Sales cloud application as per customer business requirements.  

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

4. Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant – To be a Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant you first need to be a Salesforce Certified Administrator. Along with this, you need to have experience in designing solutions using Service cloud. Generally, people who go for Salesforce consultant certification have 2-5 years of experience as a senior business analyst and industry expertise in Salesforce applications. Having Salesforce Service Cloud certificate proves that:

• You are an implementation expert in Service cloud solutions as per customer needs.

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

Typically, people choose to first become a Salesforce Certified Administrator, which would suit you if you are looking for an entry level role. Then they move on to either Advanced Administrator or an Implementation Expert certification.

Developer Track

Generally, professionals who choose the developer track are the ones who have some experience in developing applications in languages like JAVA, PHP, C++, C#, AngularJS or other programming languages. If you fall in this category, then Salesforce provides you with a wide range of opportunities to build and advance your career.  

Let us take a look at the certifications that people take up frequently in the developer track:

1. Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder – This certification is for someone who has experience in developing custom applications on the Force.com Platform. Having Salesforce Platform App Builder certificate proves that:

• You are comfortable with the declarative part of Salesforce.
• You are comfortable with lightning experience and the lightning app builder.

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Platform App Builder Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

2. Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I – If you are a developer with 6 months to 1 year of experience developing applications on any platform, then you should be looking at becoming a Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I. You should have at least 6 months of experience on the Force.com platform. Having Salesforce Developer certification proves that:

• You are proficient in building custom applications on the Force.com platform.
• You have basic knowledge of Apex and Visualforce.

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Platform Developer I Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

3. Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II – To become Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II, you first need to be Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I. Generally, people who go for this certification have 2-4 years of experience as a developer and at least 1 year of experience on the Force.com platform. Having Salesforce Platform Developer II certificate proves that:

• You have mastered Apex and Visualforce.
• You have good idea about SOAP, REST APIs, Heroku and building Lightning components.

The above image gives you the details about the Salesforce Platform Developer II Exam. Below is the weightage distribution of topics on which questions will be asked in the certification examination.

Typically, people who are looking to start their careers in a development role, Salesforce App Builder or Salesforce Platform Developer I would be the right starting points. If you get certified as a Salesforce App Builder then you have options of furthering your career by getting certified in the Architect role. If you choose Salesforce Platform Developer I, then you can advance your career by becoming a Salesforce Platform Developer II. These are the options that are available for you in the developer track.

Careers In Salesforce

Salesforce being the number one CRM company in the world, professionals who work on it are in high demand. Salesforce has been growing at a rapid pace over the last decade. Over the next five years, the field is expected to grow by 25% or more. According to Glassdoor, Salesforce is one of the top 10 skills in the market and over 4,000 jobs are available for Salesforce professionals. If you are a person looking for a technical role, then you would be interested in jobs like administrator, engineer, developer, analyst, cloud professional, technical support and more. The below image from www.salesforce.com will give you a sense of the different roles available for a Salesforce professional and their average yearly salary.

From this blog, I hope you have got a good idea on the different Salesforce certifications that are available in the market and which certifications/ tracks are suitable and relevant for you. Feel free to leave any questions you have in the comment box below. You can also check out the video below for a more detailed explanation on Salesforce certifications and the career tracks.

Salesforce Certification | Salesforce Training Videos | Edureka

This Salesforce Certification training video guides you through why Salesforce is good for your career, different Salesforce certifications available, certification roadmap, details on each certification exam.

Check out our Salesforce Training in Hyderabad, which will enable you to understand the basic concepts related to Salesforce. The course curriculum is aligned with the administrator and developer certifications. This course will provide you a 360 degree view of all Salesforce features, with instructor-led live training and real life project experience.