Tips on becoming a Salesforce Certified Administrator – by popular demand!

Following on from my article on tips for passing the Nonprofit Cloud Consultant Cert, I have been requested to put together one for the Salesforce Administrator Certification. I passed my exam over 3 years ago, and things have changed quite a lot since then in terms of resource, however I have pulled together the below to help out those currently starting their Salesforce certification journey…

Take a course

I was lucky with my first certification as my employer at the time paid for me to attend the in-person Salesforce training. If you can do some face to face training, I would absolutely suggest you do this, as it’s a great experience, and will give you foundational knowledge that will stay with you for the rest of your Salesforce career. There are training courses for both the Classic and Lightning experiences – if you can do the Lightning course, I would, because the future of Salesforce is definitely Lightning! Courses are 5 days long and around £3.500/$4,500. I would definitely suggest this investment for the in-person course, rather than doing the virtual online sessions. Salesforce Trailhead Academy – Administration Essentials for New Admins (ADM201) Salesforce Trailhead Academy – Administrative Essentials for New Admins in Lightning Experience (ADX201) There are also alternative courses available at a lower price point, for example the Supermums Salesforce Administrator course (aimed at Mums or Dads) or a Salesforce Official Course led by Stimulus Consulting

Get on Trailhead

If you have already completed a course, or don’t have the funds to attend one, then start with Salesforce Trailhead, the free Salesforce learning platform. There is an excellent Trailmix Build Your Admin Career on Salesforce which include articles and trails relevant to becoming a Salesforce Administrator and working towards the Admin Certification exam – including a specific Study for the Administrator Certification Exam trail.

Focus on Force

Outside of Trailhead are some other great study resources, one of my favorites is Focus on Force which has Practice Exams and Study Guides, at a super affordable price, for many Salesforce Certifications including Salesforce Administrator 201. Purchase the Study Guides if you need, but my favourite part of Focus on Force is the Practice Exams – take them, learn from your wrong answers, follow the links to Salesforce Help and learn more about your weaknesses.

Get hands-on

Get your own free Salesforce developer org, test what you’ve learnt, try new ideas, build a small app, create a page layout, make reports and dashboards – whatever will help you learn, because you learn so much more by doing! Take a look at these other blog articles to find out more tips and tricks:

Good luck with your Salesforce Admin Certification!

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I engaged with Emma to help me set up Salesforce from scratch. I am super happy with the result. Believe me when I say…you think you can do it on your own, why bother when you can engage an TRAILBLAZER (expert to you and me!) and have it done in a fraction of the time and probably a fraction of the cost (of my time) too. Don’t think about hiring Emma…do it, you know it makes sense.

Emma is very knowledgeable about the subject and gets a good grasp of the brief quickly. She then will make suggestions to improve the end result with ideas and features of which I was ignorant. This has left us with an SFDC Lightning instance that has the functionality built in for us to use when we get more user experience and want to get more out of the tool. Emma is happy, chatty and conscientious. Nothing phases her and she clearly likes to help people to learn as well as "just get the job done".

Understanding the more complex part of Salesforce is beyond the skill set of most small nonprofits. Configuring work flows and building work flows is something best left to professionals. Emma was easy to work with, an excellent communicator, and ensured that she had a full understanding of our actual objectives, not just our specifications. Managing the donations that we receive each week via social platforms is critical in building a sustainable support system. Emma helped us create a system whereby we are able to track and understand our donations and communicate with our donors in a timely and effective manner.