What Are Salesforce Certifications?

Salesforce certifications are a series of exams that are designed to challenge an individual’s knowledge of a given product. They are aligned to a Salesforce product and against this product discipline, there are often multiple tiered pre-requisite accreditations that are designed to determine the depth of an individual’s knowledge.

Certifications can be achieved by taking multiple choice-based exams under controlled conditions, moderated by an invigilator. These exams are often prepared for by using Trailhead, referencing test questions, and attending training courses. However, nothing beats practical experience supported by an individual that has many years of experience and certifications themselves.

Who Takes Salesforce Certifications?

Most individuals working within the Salesforce ecosystem either have or are working towards certifications. These individuals include:

• Salesforce administrators working on their internal Salesforce org
• Salesforce consultant freelancers/contractors
• Salesforce consultants working at a Salesforce consultancy
• Students wanting to develop a career in Salesforce
• Salesforce employees themselves

Are Salesforce Certifications Worth It?

Yes, with caveats!

There are many ways to build a solution within Salesforce. Gaining a certification gives you and the people around you confidence that you have some of the skills required to pick the best approach to your build.

If you are an internal administrator and the success of your Salesforce instance is dependent on your configuration it is a good idea for your organisation to support you in getting the appropriate levels of training required to gain that certification. Having to implement something you have limited experience of can be highly damaging to the organisations day to day operations.

As someone who has run a Salesforce consultancy for many years, I believe that certifications are important to govern our industry and make sure our customers have the confidence that we have the right skills to build their solutions in the best way. However, I am also conscious that the number of certifications someone has doesn’t necessarily align with the depth of their expertise. In our professional lives much as in our years of education, there are those that are good at passing exams (especially multiple choice) and those that struggle with the exams but have a greater depth of technical knowledge.

Regardless of what role you are in, Salesforce certifications are worth it because they:

• Give confidence to someone putting their trust in you, be that employers or customers
• Command a higher salary
• Give you the confidence to go forth and configure based on a foundation of knowledge

Once I Have A Certification Do I Have It Forever?

No. You have to maintain it.

This is a great attribute of Salesforce certifications. You are required to maintain certain certifications to make sure you have been upskilling in the changes that are aligned to new product releases. if you fall behind with your maintenance exams, your certification will eventually expire.

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