Let's start with why! Why sit in the evenings and at the weekends and study what you work with during the week anyway? Why have sweaty palms when answering those questions? There are many reasons. Here to name a few:
1. It will give you confidence
I recently started a new job as a consultant. For me consultant are people I look up to because they are smart, they know so many things and they always have an answer to a problem. I didn't think I can be one of them. Just today (this is as of now just about an hour ago) I am a certified Sales Cloud Consultant. Being a consultant can't just be certified by holding a paper but you don't just pass this cert by showing up. You should feel proud and more confident when you passed. You navigated the mouse to the correct answer yourself.
2. It increases your visibility in the job market
As lots of people I have a LinkedIn profile. Passing 201 was probably the most scary one because it was the first. Because I didn't know how this will feel and work as I hadn't done it before. Once I passed I was overjoyed and I added this to my profile. Almost immediately I started getting messages from recruiters. You may not want to change your job. You may not even want to speak with recruiters but this also changes your stand in your current position. It can be hard to say this is what I know and this is how things work. The cert is unemotional. It gives you a pass or a fail. In either case you won't get a huge from the system. It is what it is. A cert! Show it off.
3. You can use it to negotiate
Negotiating for things like a pay rise, travelling to a conference or getting paid training can be daunting. The imposter syndrome might knock on your door and says why would you deserve this. Because you work hard. Because you show up every day. Because you are a human so why would you not deserve it if others do.
Hopefully this all sounds useful and you feel motivated to get a cert. Or get another one added under your belt. There are lots you can tackle, here an overview.
I started as everyone with the 201, continued with the advanced admin, then platform builder and just today Sales Cloud Consultant. It can be tough to study consistently while all the other things in life keep firing at you. You should eat healthy, sleep more, drink more water, call your mom and meet your friends. Do sports, be informed and read books. And yeah, get certs. Don't rush it. Take your time and take mock exams. There are lots of options to practice and you definitely should have a Trailhead account to study. I also have a paid account for SalesforceBen to go over those mock exams. There are lots of resources you can sign up for. Check with the community which ones are good and which ones are a bit funny. Salesforce has three releases a year which means content can get old very quickly. So be careful not to get too deep into something that might be from five releases ago. And obviously the community - in person or online.
A word of reassurance in case you need it. I didn't pass all my certs on first attempt. The advanced admin really got me and if someone would now ask me about the order of certs, I would say 201 and then app builder rather than advanced admin. If you fail, it is OK. The world will not stop spinning and you will not fall off your chair and be done with it. Yes it sucks! And yes it can be sad and demotivating and annoying and all of this together. But it is just a test. The result is awesome and you deserve this cert but again failing is not the end. If someone tells you so, don't stay in touch with them. Failing means there is stuff you still need to catch up on and you will make it.
Also don't be scared if you are not a native English speaker and you take a cert in English. Definitely practice with mock exams and get used to the wording used. Read accurately and take your time. The scenario will guide you to the answer. If you understand as a non-native English speaker what I write here than you are fine. I am not native myself so I know how it feels.
I always take the exams in a test centre and there are lots of opinions out there if this is good or not. Decide for yourself. I decided to use this strategy because luckily I don't have it far to a test centre and it will bring a certain seriousness with it going into a room with other people. Everyone in silence and steam coming from their brains. Thanks at this point to the people in the test centre. They are incredible. I wasn't sure if I would make it today. The person taking my details said: "Have it in your heart that you pass and you will pass. Don't be negative just do it. You can do this." When I came out and I passed he shook my hand and said that he knew I would make it. Thank you!
Finally, in case someone from Salesforce responsible for certs is reading this. Can we please get the results after a certain amount of time? I get that you can't share the results while the release is still on and the certs are associated with this release. It also would be OK to wait a year or something. The hardest for me is not to exactly know what I did wrong. We get the breakdown per area which is great. But especially not being native it would be incredibly helpful to understand why my answer was wrong. Was it because I just didn't quite understand the scenario? Did I misinterpret words like "must" vs "should" or similar.
With this I will now enjoy my weekend and start thinking about what is next.
1. It will give you confidence
I recently started a new job as a consultant. For me consultant are people I look up to because they are smart, they know so many things and they always have an answer to a problem. I didn't think I can be one of them. Just today (this is as of now just about an hour ago) I am a certified Sales Cloud Consultant. Being a consultant can't just be certified by holding a paper but you don't just pass this cert by showing up. You should feel proud and more confident when you passed. You navigated the mouse to the correct answer yourself.
2. It increases your visibility in the job market
As lots of people I have a LinkedIn profile. Passing 201 was probably the most scary one because it was the first. Because I didn't know how this will feel and work as I hadn't done it before. Once I passed I was overjoyed and I added this to my profile. Almost immediately I started getting messages from recruiters. You may not want to change your job. You may not even want to speak with recruiters but this also changes your stand in your current position. It can be hard to say this is what I know and this is how things work. The cert is unemotional. It gives you a pass or a fail. In either case you won't get a huge from the system. It is what it is. A cert! Show it off.
3. You can use it to negotiate
Negotiating for things like a pay rise, travelling to a conference or getting paid training can be daunting. The imposter syndrome might knock on your door and says why would you deserve this. Because you work hard. Because you show up every day. Because you are a human so why would you not deserve it if others do.
Hopefully this all sounds useful and you feel motivated to get a cert. Or get another one added under your belt. There are lots you can tackle, here an overview.
A word of reassurance in case you need it. I didn't pass all my certs on first attempt. The advanced admin really got me and if someone would now ask me about the order of certs, I would say 201 and then app builder rather than advanced admin. If you fail, it is OK. The world will not stop spinning and you will not fall off your chair and be done with it. Yes it sucks! And yes it can be sad and demotivating and annoying and all of this together. But it is just a test. The result is awesome and you deserve this cert but again failing is not the end. If someone tells you so, don't stay in touch with them. Failing means there is stuff you still need to catch up on and you will make it.
Also don't be scared if you are not a native English speaker and you take a cert in English. Definitely practice with mock exams and get used to the wording used. Read accurately and take your time. The scenario will guide you to the answer. If you understand as a non-native English speaker what I write here than you are fine. I am not native myself so I know how it feels.
I always take the exams in a test centre and there are lots of opinions out there if this is good or not. Decide for yourself. I decided to use this strategy because luckily I don't have it far to a test centre and it will bring a certain seriousness with it going into a room with other people. Everyone in silence and steam coming from their brains. Thanks at this point to the people in the test centre. They are incredible. I wasn't sure if I would make it today. The person taking my details said: "Have it in your heart that you pass and you will pass. Don't be negative just do it. You can do this." When I came out and I passed he shook my hand and said that he knew I would make it. Thank you!
Finally, in case someone from Salesforce responsible for certs is reading this. Can we please get the results after a certain amount of time? I get that you can't share the results while the release is still on and the certs are associated with this release. It also would be OK to wait a year or something. The hardest for me is not to exactly know what I did wrong. We get the breakdown per area which is great. But especially not being native it would be incredibly helpful to understand why my answer was wrong. Was it because I just didn't quite understand the scenario? Did I misinterpret words like "must" vs "should" or similar.
With this I will now enjoy my weekend and start thinking about what is next.
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