I stumbled into Salesforce Admin work accidentally, a surprisingly common story I’ve come to realise that I share with many others in the ecosystem. I have a background in Child Development & Education, an industry where I spent a maximum of one hour a day in front of a computer. Needless to say, I had no clue what I was doing in Salesforce.
I learned about Certifications after a few months of doing some basic Admin work. As soon as I heard about them, I knew they would be necessary for me. With an unrelated background, I had nothing to show an employer as evidence of my training or skills back then – to me, the Salesforce Certifications were external validation of my capabilities: “yes, Stacy knows what she’s talking about, and is reasonably good at it.”
Actually, getting the Certifications wasn’t easy.
On the upside, I did find that my background in Education was not completely wasted! I was very familiar with my own learning style, and how to teach myself (having taught many children). Here are a few things I’ve learned that can be applied to any Certification exam, and hopefully you will find them useful too!
1. Don’t Get Too Intimidated by Studying
Have you ever heard the tip: “use a person’s name three times when you meet them, you’ll never forget it?” Well, the same logic applies to Salesforce!
Studying alone is unlikely to help you pass the test. Actually doing the task several times is what is going to help you understand not only how something is done, but why it is done a certain way.
That means you need a Sandbox or a Developer org, and you’ll need to start implementing and modifying all those features you’re reading about – like Multi-Currency, Territories, Forecasting – the list goes on!
I want to emphasise these lesser-used features, especially if you work for a company that does not use those features. You never know, one day your employer may come to you and ask: “does Salesforce have any tools for Forecasting?” It’s a bonus because you can answer, “Yes! I’ll tell you about it and give you a demo!”
2. Broaden Your Horizons
Have an idea of what people need to get from the tool – what are VP’s going to ask for, the Business Development Reps, the Marketing team, etc.
The outcome? You’ll be able to answer exam questions better.
I felt like a lot of the questions (especially on the Sales Cloud Consultant and Service Cloud Consultant exams) are centred around what a Sales VP or a Support VP might want. You have to be able to predict what your leadership team is going to need and ask for. It’s important to know that a Sales VP is unlikely to ask you for a report on Case Closure success rates, and the Support VP probably isn’t going to ask for a report on Pipeline Change over time.
This is where Trailhead comes in to play. Even though I’m an Admin, I like the trails that focus on the end user, because those give me a good idea of what an end user in a particular role might be looking for or expecting to get out of Salesforce.
3. Teach Someone Else
This is a classic. Humans learn better when they’re trying to teach a subject. So, grab your cousin who’s a line cook, and teach them what Salesforce is. Explain it to your grandparents. Show your sister-in-law how to do a Lead Assignment Rules.
Create step-by-step guides for your end users, including screenshots. Host a “Secret Sauce” Lunch for your colleagues, and show them behind the scenes on validation rules, and what causes all those pesky error messages.
There’s a lot of opportunities to share your knowledge, and I promise you will learn something new.
4. Remember Which Exam You’re Taking
As a person with anxiety, I understand how hard it is not to panic during an exam. I often take a few minutes at the start, when I sit down, and remind myself, “This is a _________ exam. The study guide covered these topics. They aren’t going to ask my questions that can’t be answered within those topics.”
If you’re taking an Admin Exam, the answer to any question is not going to be “I should implement a trigger with an after-update”… It’s an Admin exam, after all! You aren’t expected to know how to implement a trigger (although you might be expected to know when a trigger is required). Conversely, on the Platform App Builder exam, a question about automation is probably more likely to be answered with something like a Flow, or Process Builder, rather than a Workflow Rule. Bearing these in mind can help narrow down distracting options, and help you think clearly.
5. Take Practice Exams
I’m just going to say it – I find the question formats to sometimes be weird and oddly worded. The multiple-choice answers will try to confuse you, and the questions might throw in a sentence or additional information that is completely irrelevant to the overall question.
I have seen four multiple-choice questions on an exam that were identical except for a single word. So the practice exams are perfect, not only for helping you understand if you’re ready for the real thing, but also to familiarize you with the question format, and how the material you studied translates into a hypothetical scenario.
6. Eliminate the Impossible Answers
Every once in a while, I will see a multiple-choice option that is so completely unusual, it must be wrong. Even if you’re not sure what the right answer is, you can probably eliminate at least one of the multiple choices.
This is especially helpful if you combine this with Tip #4 above – remember which exam you’re taking.
Summary: Fail Early, Fail Often
It’s ok to not pass the tests the first time (or even the second…. no judgment). Failure is the best teacher, and some of us (myself included) are particularly poor test-takers. I have five certifications; of the five, I only passed on the first try (Platform App Builder. Why? Who knows!). Practice exams are great, but there’s no substitute for doing the real thing.
Failure is OK in other areas while you’re studying too. While you’re practicing the new skills you’re learning. Try to break them. Do something wrong on purpose. You will likely get questions about why something broke, or why something isn’t working. Making mistakes is going to give you real-life experiences to help other people in their hour of Salesforce-need.
At the end of the day, remember that the purpose of the exam is to certify that you can successfully run a Salesforce org in a real, business scenario. Anybody can memorize facts, but a great admin can anticipate the needs of their users, prevent errors, and build common use-cases specific to their org.
Certifications help show the outside world that you have a good grasp on the Salesforce tool, managing and maintaining it, and helping users make the best possible choices. Getting a certification is not easy, but by mixing real-life situations with the knowledge you will be able to pass any exam sent your way.
And if you have taken any exams yourself, please use the comments below to share study tips that were especially helpful in passing your Certifications!
If you are reading this article, it means that you are already thinking about becoming a Salesforce certified professional. But do you know why? Here are the 3 main reasons why people seek this certification:
If your company uses Salesforce and you are an internal admin or are willing to become one, earning Salesforce credentials will help you take full advantage of Salesforce products and assist your company with user engagement and adoption. If you are consulting clients on Salesforce implementations, you will be able to quickly navigate the application and more efficiently handle customer and prospect requests.
Experience is important, but not always enough
Certifications are as desirable as experience to employers—sometimes even more so. Earning Salesforce credentials is the best way to prove your Salesforce expertise in a very competitive ecosystem.
Source: https://www.salesforceben.com/6-tips-to-pass-any-salesforce-certification/
