If you’ve been in the Salesforce ecosystem for a while – and even if you’re relatively new to the industry – then you’ve most likely heard of Trailhead badges.
Indeed, so prolific is Salesforce’s online learning platform, that it’s been touted by TechRepublic as the way forward for IT firms to close their digital skills gaps. It might seem an outlandish claim but, since its launch in 2014, Trailhead has quickly dominated the Salesforce space, with 600,000 users, more than 4.5 million badges earnt, and more than 19 million challenges completed on the platform. As a result, it is now the go-to for anyone looking to expand their Salesforce knowledge.
And, whilst Trailhead is not supposed to take the place of other Salesforce learning resources, and is instead intended to enhance them, there is a lot to be said for putting some time into gaining those Trailhead badges.
As we examine below, here are a few reasons how Trailhead can benefit your Salesforce career…
A Driver for Continuous Learning
First and foremost, Trailhead is a learning platform. So, with that in mind, the first way it can benefit your career is to push you to develop and learn. And not just learn one or two things, but to continuously advance your Salesforce knowledge. Normal online courses will cover one or two topics and then, if you want to learn more, you have to enrol in a different course.
But, with Trailhead, you have access to hundreds upon hundreds (540 to be exact) of badges – each of which represents a new skill you can master to advance your Salesforce career. In short, Trailhead has perfected the art of continuous learning. Not only does it provide access to these infinite resources, but it does it in a manner that actively encourages professionals to push themselves and develop their knowledge. So, by harnessing the power of Trailhead, you can quickly and easily expand your knowledge, increase your skills and experience, and push your learning further than if you relied on traditional resources.
Fit Learning into Your Schedule
As mentioned, one of the great things about Salesforce is the speed at which the ecosystem is growing and evolving – something that is no doubt driven by Salesforce’s constant push to innovate and be on the cutting-edge. But that does mean that those in the ecosystem have to constantly stay on top of these changes. And that’s not something that always neatly fits into a 9-5 schedule.
Trailhead revolutionises the concept of ‘always learning’. It places the control back in the hands of the learners and enables you to continue your professional development as and when it suits you. In doing so, Trailhead empowers you to become the most well-rounded Salesforce professional you can be in a way that suits you and your life. As a result, Trailhead can be used to enhance your learning and development in a way that other courses might not; simply because you are not restricted by certain times or parameters.
Track What You’ve Learnt
It’s frequently being touted as the new CV because the new Trailhead gives you the ability to create a profile that lists all of the badges, points earned, and tasks accomplished while using the platform to learn Salesforce skills. By centralising your accomplishments in this way, Trailhead enables Salesforce professionals to tangibly track their learning and development. Whilst it’s undeniably useful to benchmark your learning against your day-to-day experience, Trailhead summarises your progression pretty succinctly. And, in doing so, it provides an opportunity for you to visualise your Salesforce knowledge – where it is now, and where you want to be heading.
Trailhead enables users to choose their own path, and to pick which badges they want to pursue as they advance their careers. So, having this easy way of tracking your progress is an easy way to track your career as you go. It seems pretty logical, but if you can visualise your career progress, and plan it out as you go, then you’re much more likely to push yourself to achieve your goals much quicker than if you’re working it all out as you go along…
Plan What You’re Aiming For
It goes hand in hand with the above, and we’ve already touched on the fact that Trailhead enables users to pick from a huge number of Trails or Modules, but Trailhead is invaluable when it comes to planning your career path out. Slightly different from tracking what you’re doing, the focus here is on knowing what you’re aiming for. Do you have 100 Trailhead badges? Great, how about aiming for 200? Or 300?
Or say you’re an Admin looking to grow your development skills, there’s definitely a Trailhead path you can follow for that. Trailhead lays it all out in front of you. It provides you with the stepping stones you need to move your career from point A to point B (and beyond…).
