Salesforce certification has all the components which can take your professional career to new heights. Most companies which post Salesforce jobs look for candidates with proper certification as it acts a validation to your credentials as a Salesforce administrator. The reason is simple that employers recognize the amount of value-addition which Salesforce certified experts bring to an organization. Thus, certified individuals get an edge over their non-certified counterparts. As the jobs for Salesforce are selling like hot cakes, it means that there are more people who are seeking similar positions. This means that you will have to compete with many candidates, many of whom will be certified. So, the underlying point is that not getting certified will automatically place you in the rejection category. Certification also adds assurance to your profile that you know and understand the competencies which are required for the job. It has been seen that many certified professionals talk about their level of expertise and depth of understanding. Your ability to participate in such discussions will be directly linked to your certification and nothing else as it lends confidence to your statements.

Salesforce Credentials

Salesforce has broadly 7 different credentials for which you can get one or more certifications. These are as follows:

Administrators: As a Salesforce administrator you are expected to have a broad level of knowledge about salesforce and its applications. In addition, they should be able to both manage and configure salesforce and should be looking for ways of improvement in features and capabilities for ease of users.

APP Builders: App builders are expected to be able to visualize, design, build and put into implementation various custom applications for Salesforce using Force.com platform.

Developers: These are the ones who have to have skill, knowledge and sufficient work experience to build declarative and programmatic applications with the use of Force.com. They can also take up data modelling and take up development of intricate business logic and other interfaces.

Implementation Experts: As an implementation expert, you have to be skilled to both design and use Sales Cloud solutions and Service Cloud solutions for fulfilling specific business needs in a measurable manner. This has to be done in a manner which is able to meet the ultimate vision and goal of their clients.

Marketers: As a Salesforce marketer, you should have knowledge about the best marketing practices and design which can be used in email marketing making use of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Application. Also, marketers should also have relevant skills for using Social Studio for the creation of posts, conversation analysis tools, management of the whole set of activities and consistent reporting of the same.

Pardot: Salesforce Pardots have to make use of Pardot platform for designing, building and putting it into use various workflows for marketing. With the credentials of a Pardot, you should have the expertise of building strategic marketing processes using various tools like email marketing and lead generation. These activities are taken up keeping in view the requirements of the customers in terms of their long-term goals.

Architects: There is a complete Architect academy which is involved in building an ecosystem for promotion and recognition of skills in three levels which include technical architects, domain specialists and domain architects. In all, the three tiers which are mentioned comprise 9 domains which allow an individual to look deep into every area in terms of the needs, expertise, and proficiency. These are:

• Application Architecture 
• Development Lifecycle and Deployment
• Sharing and Visibility
• Apex and Visualforce
• Integration
• Data Architecture and Management
• Identity and Access Management
• Mobile Strategy

What’s the Best Pick for a Beginner?

The best-suited certification credentials for you will be defined by your aptitude and your temperament which in turn will depend on your long-term goal in life. Apart from this, the most popular certifications which are picked up by the beginners are Administrator, Administrator Advanced and Platform App Builder. For all the three you will have to show an understanding of the features of Salesforce and their functionality. You will also be required to show the Salesforce database structure and the ways to build it. On the other hand, if you want to go in for the Developer credential it is still advisable to pick the Administrator track first as the knowledge gained in it will stay with you and also will be highly helpful in clearing Developer certifications. But you should remember, there are no outlined prerequisites for both Developer I and then you can move on to Developer II.

Studying for Certification

The certification page on the Salesforce website gives all the details about the certification program. It mentions various places where official training in Salesforce is offered. You may also access the Certification Verification tool which will let you check the validation of your certifications. In addition, you will also find see an updated study-guide which gives a broad outline of the exam mentioning various topics which are covered and the weight of each of these in the exam. The weight of the topic defines the number of questions which will be asked from it. You may even print the study guide and use it as a Bible. You may begin your preparations with the areas which are difficult and need more practice. Preparation can be done by the following methods:

Official Training Programs: Salesforce has dedicated training for each of its certifications. The idea is to give you an idea of the exam. The training program does cover a fair amount of the competencies required for the exam but you will have to study to plug in all the gaps. The basic idea of these is not to give you 100 percent preparation strategies for clearing the exam.

Self-study: This is an unparalleled preparation tool and has great significance in preparing for Salesforce certifications wherein you are required to cover extensive documentation. The Salesforce Developer site has all the technical documentation and workbooks which are essential to cover the particular features and functionality involved.

Other Documentations: There is no dearth of documentation available in the open market and you have to use your judgment to differentiate right from wrong.

Conclusion

Thus, certification is a must if you plan your career in Salesforce. You may begin as an Administrator and then depending upon your interest and aptitude you can later take up certifications for Developer levels. Preparation is the key to every exam and salesforce certifications are no different. You require hard work as you will have to span a huge amount of documentation for the same. Also, do not just rely on the Training as it does leave some gaps which you will be required to plug personally.