Salesforce Platform For Developers: The Big Picture - FREE enlightenment

Almost a year ago, in the midst of the chaos of COVID, I felt compelled to set out on a new quest - to find a way to capture and present a picture of the broad landscape of the Salesforce Platform -- in a digestible elearning format especially for non-Salesforce developers who were not aware of the technical diversity and opportunities presented in the ecosystem. And - most importantly - to make it FREELY AVAILABLE for all, to ensure the broadest possible audience.

The first draft was actually a series of articles posted here on LinkedIn, as well as on some other dev blogs. The series was an opportunity for me to explore the depth and breadth of the content, so that I could also evaluate whether it was actually possible to capture in a Pluralsight course. I had committed to update my Force.com the Big Picture course (now retired but still watchable) released in 2013, and seriously needing an update, and this appeared to be a perfect way to kick my own butt to get it done.

Long story short, once the article series was complete, I jumped into drafting the course and spent the earlier part of the year composing content. As it began to take shape, I spent the next six months producing it, and it just published yesterday 9/16/21 on Pluralsight as Salesforce Platform for Developers: The Big Picture. It was a long road, but well travelled and well worth it, as by teaching we learn. Trivia question for you: who said that around 65AD? (hint:"docendo discimus")

While the course certainly speaks for itself, I am now compelled to try and get software developers unfamiliar with Salesforce to watch it, so they can better understand what the platform offers them, and in particular to help debunk the myths that may deter many from even considering the possibility of crossing over to work with the platform.

It is unfortunate that mythology is sometimes stronger than reality. Even with the advances in web technology over the last five years; even with the herculean effort on the part of Salesforce to modernize their technology and their developer languages, developer experience and developer tooling; and even with the incredible growth of the financial ecosystem and the customer base - many developers not paying attention are losing out on significant opportunities to find enjoyable and lucrative work - and to support a needy and growing customer base.

It's not really surprising - why would any self respecting developer want to spend their precious time chasing a platform that prides itself on (and strongly markets) its 'clicks not code' capabilities, touting the benefits to their customers of not needing expensive and hard to find coders to be productive.

Sigh.

I find this both unfortunate and ironic, considering the broad traditional developer skills that are applicable to working with many of the applications across the platform landscape, and the strong and growing need for Salesforce developers in the ecosystem around the world.

So I decided to do something about it.

That's all I'll say here, but (hopefully) if this intrigues you, I suggest you either read the series or watch the FREE course Salesforce Platform for Developers: The Big Picture -- or both. And much thanks to Pluralsight.com who let me place the course in front of their paygate making it free, (no account is needed, not even a trial.)

Let me know what you think afterwards with a comment below, and whether I convinced you or not. Who knows; perhaps I'm just wrong.

;)

And if you're already working with the platform, perhaps you'll share this with a colleague who rolls their eyes at you whenever you try to get them to take a look at Salesforce; maybe we can convince them together.