A Guide to the Salesforce Administrator Certificate – Part 1

Hemant Bhatia – Salesforce Consultant at Bluewave, and fully certified Salesforce Administrator, shares his knowledge about the Salesforce Administrator Certificate. Check out Hemant’s guide for everything you need to know about the qualification, and stay tuned for part 2 where he shares his tips for becoming a certified Salesforce Admin yourself.

 

Part 1: Your First Step to Success

Hi there. First of all, I’d like to congratulate you if this is your first step towards getting the Salesforce Administrator certification. As the sub-title suggests, the Admin certificate is meant to be the first certificate that most Salesforce experts add to their profile. This certification helps individuals gain credible recognition in the Salesforce ecosystem. You may have already read the exam guide on Trailhead, and you might be thinking “what’s so different?” about this blog post, in comparison to the Salesforce trailhead exam guide. 

The simple answer is: this blog post is for individuals who want expert guidance that will help them crack this exam in a single go. This article will help you understand the real purpose of being a Salesforce Admin and what admin tasks you’re likely to carry out in your day to day work life. I’ll also help get you from not knowing where to start, to being fully prepared for the certification, let’s go!

 

What is an Administrator?

Before starting with any Salesforce information or knowledge, we should first understand what an admin is and what they do. In the real world, an admin has a pretty simple job: to provide support to a team or individual in an office, helping the business to run smoothly.  These duties can include creating spreadsheets, presentations, filing paperwork, receiving and directing visitors, etc. All these duties look pretty simple eh? Well, wait till you read the next part about a Salesforce Administrator.  

 

What is Salesforce Administrator?

Did tasks for an office administrator look simple? Well, you can say every job has its own problems, but since you are here, let me tell you what’s different in Salesforce, and why you should look to upgrade yourself to a Salesforce Super Admin, rather than just an Office admin.

A Salesforce Administrator helps in solving the problems a business faces in their day-to-day operations, on the Salesforce Platform specifically. They are trained to build, configure, automate and report solutions to deliver business value. They help in defining the system requirements and then configure the platform to fulfil those requirements. They help the users to get started on the platform and prepare the platform for the Developers to perform core coding jobs. Not to scare you, as these jobs are pretty simple once you get on the platform and understand. 

 

A Salesforce Administrator’s core responsibilities involve:

Please don’t quit after reading this – the role isn’t as difficult as it may sound. Besides, with the help of this blog post, you’ll be certified in no time. Let me help you with your journey towards Salesforce certification.

 

What is a Certified Salesforce Administrator?

A Certified Salesforce Administrator is an individual who has successfully completed their Salesforce Administrator Certification. The certification is designed for individuals to have experience with Salesforce, people who are always looking for different approaches to help their organisation get the most out of the platform. 

My personal experience and opinion would be to spend at least 6 months in an admin job and gain the experience before attempting the exam. Why would I suggest having 6-months of experience? This is because it will allow you to approach the exam with confidence. I myself undertook the exam after 2 years on the Salesforce platform was able to clear it without too much prep work, just because I had a lot of experience. Once you are used to the platform, no curve ball that the exam throws will ruffle your feathers, so I definitely recommend getting familiar with the technology first.

 

Why do I need to get Salesforce Administrator Certification?

Some people may say that certifications don’t matter, and I do agree that a good amount of experience and knowledge can get you a long way. However, to showcase your credibility in the domain, it’s advisable to have these certifications done and dusted once you have gained the knowledge, to prove yourself. On this note let’s briefly discuss the point: do I really need to get the admin certification done? 

Knowledge and experience really matter, but why do you need this certification? I’d say it’s to prove to employers, and to yourself, that you have gained the knowledge and skills you need to be an ideal Salesforce Administrator for any organisation. This will help you gain more confidence,  and open you up to different career opportunities within the Salesforce ecosystem.

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Hemant’s blog, coming just next week. In Part 2, he’ll go into further detail about the Salesforce Administrator certification and share his tips and tricks for acing the exam. Until then, if you’d like to know more about Bluewave’s experts and the work we do, please contact a member of our team today.