My Salesforce Journey to Date

I discovered Salesforce while listening to Bradley Rice present his Talent Stacker program five day challenge on Nick Loper's Side Hustle Nation podcast. I had been working in the avionics engineering career for many years, and was ready for a change. I had become discouraged with engineering as I wasn't advancing in my career. After almost 30 years, I felt like I'd had enough, but wasn't quite ready to retire just yet. After all, I'm 55 years old.

I jumped into the Talent Stacker program with both feet after finishing the five day challenge in the middle of May 2022. As recommended by the program, I began the Salesforce Admin Certification Trailmix on Trailhead. I completed the trail in early September. I felt like I had learned a lot, but still had lots of missing pieces that I didn't quite understand.

Next, I purchased the Focus On Force course and practice exams, and began working through the course materials. I struggled with the video and slide content, and put it on hold for the moment. I purchased Dave Massey's and Mike Wheeler's Udemy courses. One of the great benefits of learning Salesforce as an administrator is that there are many very cost effective training materials out there that have been carefully created to help out learners. My recommendation is to purchase these materials. With Mike and Dave's courses, you can log into Salesforce and practice "doing" what Mike and Dave are teaching. This helped me to become much more acquainted with how to use Salesforce. Certainly there are many more free and paid options out there, including YouTube which you can also use.

After completing Mike and Dave's videos, I again started to look at Focus on Force and took a practice exam. My results were bad!! I scored about 60%. On these tests, I've heard suggestions that it is a good idea to be scoring 80% on these tests prior to sitting for the official Administrator test, but I don't know that that is necessary. Next, I watched the Focus on Force videos, and reviewed the ppt slides. I then took the section tests in Focus on Force to see what my weak points were. I focused my attention on sections where my scores were not that good. There is also a webassessor exam that you can take for free. You should be able to search and find it.

I also took one of the free Salesforce Certification Days seminars. This was a free half day seminar where basic information about what would be covered on the exam was discussed. While I didn't get a ton out of the seminar, they did provide a coupon code for a $140 discount toward the Administrator exam. If you are going to be taking an exam, the Certification Days is a good way to prepare. If you can't do the Certification Days, you can search for an active coupon code on the internet, and may find one you can use for your test.

As I was doing all of this, I kept notes. LOTS of notes. I started a Google Document where I captured images from Dave Massey's course as well as many, many notes of things that I thought were important. Before I sat for the exam, the document was 67 pages long. One benefit of having all these notes is that I could go back and review what I'd learned. If I learned something new about record types, for example, I would find the record type section of my notes, and capture my new note there.

I have been studying and learning Salesforce continually since September. Many hours of studying have passed preparing. Alex Warneke's Build-Along (Talent Stacker) and Anthony Scrima's Deep Dive review webinars were helpful for exam prep, and learning how to build out a new Salesforce org. Very worthwhile.

I finally sat for the exam on December 30th, one day before my coupon code was set to expire. I took the exam, and felt lost and confused. I answered the questions as best as I could. I submitted my exam, and PASSED! I was a bit surprised because I felt that I was unsure of many question's answers. I was very relieved that I passed. I had already considered a retake of the exam in January because I didn't think I would pass it on the first try.

Next steps? I have the Talent Stacker volunteer program to complete, a prep interview, more LinkedIn tuning, and maybe a branding portfolio. Then I hope to start searching for a job. I think I have the advantage that I have worked in a tech field for my whole career, but I am at a disadvantage because of my age. I hope they balance out.

If you have read this far, and are hoping to join the Salesforce field, I wish you luck. It is possible to make the change. If you are an older person like myself, I hope it encourages you to not settle for what you have career wise, but to potentially strive for a new challenge.

#talentstacker #administrator #salesforcecertified #salesforceadmin