So you have taken on the mighty ADM 201 and are now a certified Salesforce.com Administrator. You can take a big sigh of relief and rest assure that you now know the basic administrative skills to help run and maintain Salesforce for your organisation. And you have the shiny certificate to prove it.
Now for many, becoming a Salesforce Certified Administrator is often only the beginning of their Salesforce journey. There are many more opportunities for you to expand your knowledge and gain more certifications. And due to the many Salesforce certifications that you can take on, I often find myself asking, ‘what’s next?’.
To try and help answer this question, I have drafted in the amazing MVP and certified Administrator, Advanced Administrator, Developer and Sales Cloud Consultant – Chris Edwards to help give all you first time certs an idea of what’s next.
We were pretty much in agreement that the first thing for you to do is celebrate! Then, after you have hung your certificate on the wall let the boasting commence. Chris’s tip here is ‘if this is your first cert, you’re now in a pretty exclusive club. So go and boast to your boss or your customers, and if you enjoy being contacted by recruiters then update your LinkedIn profile.’
Many people would be pretty chuffed settling for the Admin certification. So if you are not quite ready to move on to other certifications and are happy managing users, data and security, maintaining and customising Sales Cloud and Service Cloud app, building reports workflows etc then the only exams you will need to revise for is your Maintenance exams. These are compulsory exams, which are required in order to show that you are keeping up to date with the many updates throughout the Spring, Summer and Winter releases.
However, if you want to stand out then here is what we suggest.
The most obvious choice after passing your Admin Cert is to go for the App Builder Cert. Why? Pretty much all of what you cover from the Admin exam covers much of what you need for the App Builder Exam. Chris’s tip here is – ‘don’t be put off by the title – the App Builder isn’t about programming, it’s about knowing the platform, the data model, and when code is required.’
Want to keep on the Admin track? There is always Sales Cloud Consultant and Service Cloud Consultant.
Speaking from experience, Chris has advised that these two are more scenario-based. So rather than knowing how something works you also need to know a bit about best practice. Therefore, real-world experience in your chosen cloud is key for these exams. Chris’s tip is ‘not to be put off by the study guide claiming you need 2-5 years of implementation experience.’
I always feel like the Advanced Admin is the forgotten exam. In Chris’s opinion ‘it’s often overlooked and undervalued.’ And I couldn’t agree more. If you want to keep down the Admin track then 100% aim for the Advanced Admin certificate. You will have gained a huge amount of experience from using the platform and as long as you know the how-to’s, then you are already half way there.
Good luck in whichever you choose!
Big shout out to the wonderful, Chris Edwards for his expert views. Is there anything you can’t do!?
If you would like more information on passing your ADM 201 training and exam then check out my recent blog post – The Road to Certification, leave a comment or tweet @jenny_bamber.
See you next week.
Jenny
Our independent tech team has been servicing enterprise clients for over 15 years from our HQ in Bristol, UK. Let’s see how we can work together and get the most out of your Salesforce implementation.
