5 Tips to get Salesforce.com Certified for any Beginner

Amit Asthana
Nov 15, 2016
2 min read

If anyone had asked me 3 years ago what is Salesforce.com, I would have had no clue about Salesforce.com, let alone Certifications! I am now a proud Salesforce.com certified professional with following credentials:

I almost feel responsible to share key tips to become a Salesforce.com Certified starting with literally no Salesforce.com experience:

Plan your Certification Roadmap : Salesforce.com certification is definitely not a 100m sprint! Plan your roadmap giving yourself enough time to be well prepared for final assessment. Each certification requires around 2 months of preparation with around 8-9 hours of effort each week. I would recommend following sequence ADM201>DEV401>Service Cloud Consultant>Sales Cloud Consultant>Marketing Cloud Social Specialist
Get Hands-on : Trust me, you can't pass these certifications by reading text books! You will have to roll-up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. I found Force.com Platform Fundamentals book very useful. Sign-up for a Salesforce.com Developer Sandbox, go through all chapters sequentially and diligently complete all exercises
Trailhead and Online Trainings : There is a wealth of online trainings available especially Trailhead. Download the Certification Study Guide and make sure you complete all online courses (with exercises). I found Dreamforce Videos and On-Demand Webinars very useful too. My tip will be to not get overwhelmed by resources but follow Study Guide to find which courses are relevant for Certification at hand.
Be passionate and Believe in yourself : Trust me folks, you will have lot of people around who will tell you that Salesforce certifications are impossible for a beginner. Believe in yourself and find a mentor who can guide you and with whom you can share your success!
Keep it going : Remember clearing certification examination should not be your end goal. You should keep your knowledge up to date by taking all Release Exams. The key is to keep challenging yourself (and trust me it is lot of fun!)