What is Salesforce? How to get your first Salesforce Job?
Are you a recent college pass out looking for your first job or an experienced professional planning to switch to Salesforce? This article walks you through one of the many possible ways you can start your Salesforce journey.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Platform. It offers products for Sales, Service, Marketing, Commerce, Integration, Analytics, AI and Business Communication. Here is a list of some of the key offerings.
| Sales | Sales Cloud |
| Service | Service Cloud |
| Marketing | Marketing Cloud Pardot |
| Commerce | B2B Commerce B2C Commerce |
| Integration | MuleSoft |
| Analytics | Tableau Tableau CRM |
| Artificial Intelligence | Einstein AI |
| Business Communication | Slack |
| Streaming | Salesforce + |
| Learning Platform | Trailhead |
You can learn more about these products here.
Now you are are familiar with some of the key products, let begin how can you learn and get your first Salesforce job. I will break this journey into 7 steps.
1. Register on Trailhead
Trailhead is a free online learning platform about Salesforce products and features. The tutorials are organized as trails. Each trail consists of multiple modules. Once you complete a module you get a badge and points depending on performance in the quizzes in the module.
Depending on the number of badges and points you are assigned a Trailblazer Rank. You start as a Scout and graduate as a Ranger. Yes! Learning can be fun too!
You can register for Trailhead here. Now that you have registered for Trailhead I would recommend this Admin Beginner to be your first trail.
2. Sign up for a Free Salesforce Developer Org
Now that you have registered for Trailhead and earned your first badge, congratulations! It’s time to sign up for a free Developer Org which you can use to complete hands-on assignments. You can register for a developer org here. You can use Salesforce Login URL to login to your Developer Org.
Wait, does’t Trailhead provide Playgrounds for completing hands-on exercises? Yes! You are correct. Trailhead offers upto twenty Playgrounds for completing hands-on exercises which are part of Trailhead modules. As you continue your Trailblazer journey, you may end up using all of them and then you may have to delete a few of those. I highly recommend that you maintain at least one Developer Org which you can use to maintain a backup of any component you create for future reference. Please make sure to log in to your Developer org at least once a quarter because Developer orgs not used in the last six months may be deleted.
3. Get Trailhead Superbadges
Time to take your Trailblazer journey to the next level, time to get a Supderbadge. Superbadges allow you to apply the skills you learned on Trailhead to complex, real world business scenarios. For someone just starting, I would highly recommend getting Business Administration Specialist Superbadge as your first Superbadge. You can find this Superbadge here.
4. Get Salesforce Certified
Next step is to get certified. Getting certified will prove your knowledge and hands-on skills and offer you a better chance of getting your first Salesforce job. I would recommend Salesforce Certified Administrator to be your first certification. Please check this article about hot to pass Salesforce Admin Certification.
Wondering how much will it cost to get certified? You can read the article about Salesforce certification cost.
I also recommend attending a free certification webinar. You can read the article about the free Salesforce certification webinar.
You may be eligible for a free certification voucher or discount coupon. Please find more details about free Salesforce certification vouchers and discount coupons.
Once you have passed the certification you can verify your certification on Trailhead. Please read this article about Salesforce certification verification.
5. Join Trailblazer Communities Groups
Next Step is to join a Trailblazer Community Group. Trailblazer community is an opportunity to meet and collaborate with fellow trailblazers. You can search for a Trailblazer community based on location, role or interest. These communities offer virtual and in person sessions about the latest product features and offerings. Some of these sessions offer amazing swags to be won. Joining a Trailblazer community will help you socialize and network with experienced Salesforce professionals in your area and help you get referral in their companies for your next job. You can join Trailblazer Communities Groups here.
6. Attend Salesforce Events
Salesforce hosts multiple in person and virtual events throughout the year such as Dreamforce, TrailheadDX and World Tour. Attending these events will help you learn more about upcoming products and features and network with fellow trailblazers. You can register for upcoming events at the Events page.
7. Volunteer for Salesforce Work
It may be very challenging to get a job without prior experience but there are a lot of opportunities to volunteer to work in a Salesforce project. It may not earn you money but you will get real world project experience which will help you eventually get your next job. You can learn more about Volunteer opportunities here. You can find volunteer opportunities using links below:
I hope this article will help you getting started with your Salesforce journey. Happy Learning!
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