The Gamesters of San Francisco

I am at 182 badges. I did a search for Apex to find modules that would help me with studying for the PD1 exam. I found this one the other day (link) on how to prepare for the exam. It listed relevant modules and had some practice exam questions. I think it is relatively new and I don't think too many people know about them. I am going to post the link on Linked In -Ohana bro...

Most people I know struggle with the exam question format and not the concepts. Hopefully Salesforce has recognized this and the modules are a way to address the issue.

Out of Order

One of the influencers that I follow, like a lot of people, is David Liu. Recently he posted a video on how many certifications you should get and the order based on your career path. Interestingly, for all roles the first five or six were the same. After the usual suspects he suggests the Sales and Service Cloud certifications. 

One thing I wished I had learned sooner is that he believes in getting PD1 later in the architect journey. On LinkedIn I have seen a few people get this certification towards the end of their architect certification journey. It's too late for me since I am pretty far into studying and think that if I put it aside I will need to start from scratch. But after that I need to seriously consider the two main consulting certifications. 

Here's the video below..

79th Rule of Acquisition - Beware of the Vulcan greed for knowledge

Also true for Salesforce professionals and Trailhead badges. I am currently at 174 and closing in of 175. When I first started, Trailhead was a great way to learn the platform. Not enough to get certified, but enough to understand the material in the study guides. Over time I drifted away from it. A lot of the badges on the recommended certification trails I had already done and once I hit Ranger status, the gamification aspect sort of fizzled out. 

It did not help that one of the last badges I did was called Catter. It's real and it's no longer available but here's the proof. As the name suggests it's about cats and as an owner of between 2 -3 rescue hounds at any given time, it is not my most valued badge.

Fast forward to about a year or so ago when I started to learn Apex. The Apex badges were very difficult for someone with no coding experience and not very helpful. They were configured for developers wanting to learn Apex. I left the trail for resources listed in previous posts. I figured I would circle back to them once I had a better understanding of coding.

At some point I came across the Object-Oriented Programing for Admins and SOQL for Admin badges. I took a look at them and they were exactly what I was looking for. I am not sure if they were intuitive based on the hours of watching Apex videos or if they just did a better job of explaining things, but they drove home some key concepts. Based on these modules and the studying I have done, I am more confident about learning to code and passing the Platform Developer I exam.

I do wonder if at some point you can have too many badges and conversely is there any benefit to getting more. I see a lot of multiples of Ranger status (e.g., 4X Ranger) and wonder if anybody cares about that sort of stuff. Much like too many certifications can sometimes be a barrier to things, especially if you can't back up the certifications with experience, I wonder about too many badges. When I pass 200 badges, I may note it on my profile, but I won't use a multiplier...probably

 

44th Rule of Acquisition - Never confuse wisdom with luck

I feel the same way about certifications and experience. I have four and hope to soon have five. My biggest concern with the number of certifications is that they will lead my experience. I can justify all of my current certifications based on experience and have a good ‘story’ lined up for the next two.

I view certifications as a curated learning plan. Just like in school, you get a syllabus, you absorb the material, you take a test and you get a grade. It doesn’t make you an expert in the class but it shows you are familiar with the topic. Over time you will not remember everything but you will know where to find the information and what it means when you see it again.

I can explain each certification in the Solution Architect path based on my experience (as I get them)  but I can’t explain the Solution Architect Certification that you get when you pass all 4. At first I was disinclined to take the consulting certifications but I recently saw a presentation on someone’s journey to becoming a CTA. \

The individual failed the first time and when studying for the second time took the ‘other’ certifications to keep current with the material. I am debating if it makes sense to take the consulting certifications and let my experience catch up.

The architect also mentioned there were two paths to pass the exam:

1. Theoretical knowledge and coaching - Luck

2. Practical experience being an architect - Wisdom

While it would be nice to be a CTA by either method, long term I think the best approach is gaining practical experience.

23rd Rule of Acquisition - Nothing is more important than your health… except for your money (How I Study)

 My pre-covid study routine was to go to the local Starbucks on Saturday and Sunday and:

1. Take a Focus On Force practice exam

2. Create flashcards on the topics 

3. Review the material 

I would do this every weekend until I was getting above 90% on all the exams in the course. I would then schedule the exam and then start taking the exams during the week. I would shift from picking the right answer to eliminating the wrong answers. Usually I would take the Friday off before the exam to study and then take the exam on Saturday. As a general rule, I try to never tell anyone that I am taking the exam. 

With the local quarantine restrictions, I have to stay at home. I realized that while I can set aside the same amount of time if not more to study, the coffee house atmosphere was very conducive to studying. I can’t explain it since there are probably more distractions at the coffee house than at home. I find that I am taking longer to get the next certification as compared to my pre-COVID path.

Of the many things I am looking forward to when we can go outside again, is being able to study for exams at a Coffee House. I may try to find other non-chain places to study at. BTW - English Breakfast tea, unsweetened is my beverage of choice when I study.

In Theory

One of my favorite Star Trek TNG episodes is - In Theory. It’s the one where Data learns about love. This post has nothing to do with that, but I like the title because I used to think In Theory the Schema Builder was great, but in practice it left much to be desired. I think it is good for trying to understand the relationship between objects in an org. I never really used it to create objects and fields.

A few weeks ago I watched a presentation on Building Artifacts from Requirements and it gave me some new appreciation for the Schema Builder. Building artifacts seems to be a common theme on the journey to being a CTA. I need to learn and start building artifacts if I am going to be an architect and one way to practice is to build the artifacts for existing orgs. This helps me with my day job by understanding the data model and gets me used to building them. 

The advantage of doing it on the existing org is that I know what it will look like when I am done.  It’s like being assigned a homework problem and having the answer in the back of the book. It might also help me find ways to improve things. I am seeing a push to start doing things off-platform from Salesforce and the artifact might help identify areas where this might be an option.

The first step is to figure out which tool to use. I have access to Visio for work, but I do a lot of stuff on my personal laptop so I need something that is free. The presentation suggested Lucid chart or Draw.io.

I am going to explore Draw.io first since it is free. Just because something is free, doesn’t mean it is bad. Remember the 82nd Rule of Acquisition - The flimsier the product, the higher the price.

23rd Rule of Acquisition - Nothing is more important than your health… except for your money (Remote Exam Thoughts)

In the before times, I understood the 23rd rule to mean work-life balance, with a tiebreaker going to work, usually. In the context of getting Salesforce certifications during quarantine it really is about my health. I am not a fan of remote testing and with the pandemic, sitting for an exam at a testing site can be life or death.

With every exam I take, I go through the same emotional roller coaster. The first stage is shock/doubt. Specifically, after the first five questions I start to wonder if I signed up for the wrong exam. Once that passes, I start to panic that I won't have enough time and this leads me to finishing the exam in 20 minutes. After I get to the end I calm down and go through each question a few times until I am comfortable that I have answered all of them correctly, or at least answered enough to pass the exam with a cushion.

The final stage is where onsite testing is critical for me. When you are onsite you can have a pencil and paper. This has become key to me passing the exams. After I answer all the questions, I write down the numbers 1-60 in three columns (20 numbers per column). I then look at each question and write down the letter and review my choice. After my review if I like the answer I cross it out on my paper immediately. If I am less than 90% confident, I circle it. If I am less than 50% confident I don't do anything to the answer.  

As I go through the exam, I tally up all the ones that I think are good. Then I go back to the circled ones and think about them. If I change the answer or after thinking about the answer leave it unchanged, I cross it out and add it to the tally. After those are done I go to the WTF questions and try to figure them out. I use the whole time and usually feel confident that I have at least 80% or better.

In some cases I actually diagram out the solutions on the paper. I also try to be consistent in my answers. So if two questions seem similar enough, I try to make sure that I answered the questions consistently. Usually there is enough of a difference that I can tell that one is 100% correct and then I can get some insight into the other question. There is a fair amount of mouthing the questions, swearing and in the case of the Community Cloud certification, some gesturing at the screen. I expect these behaviors would be problematic in a remote exam. 

Back in the day, I worked in a chemistry lab and a supervisor shared with me something his organic chemistry professor told him. If something works once, it's a trick; if something works twice it's a technique. Having passed 4 exams on the first try, this is a technique for me.