Change of Plans

I have 50 badges so far. I will admit that getting them is fun, but some are more relevant to certification that others.

At some point, I have to stop collecting badges for a while and focus on exam specific studies. To that end I made quick spreadsheet using the Saleforce Study Guide which ranks the topics as a function of questions on the exam.

While it’s all good to know, there are somethings from an exam stand point that are more valuable. Here’s the ranking and plan for my future studying. The highlighted topics add up to 40 questions or 67% (passing score is 65%)...

Main Topic	Weighting	Approx # of Questions
Standard and Custom Objects	18%	11
Security and Access	15%	9
Reports and Dashboards	13%	8
Data Management	11%	7
User Setup	9%	5
Sales Cloud Applications	9%	5
Workflow Automation	7%	4
Service Cloud Applications	6%	4
Activity Management	3%	2
Content and Folder Management	2%	1
Desktop and Mobile Administration	2%	1
AppExchange	2%	1
Organizaton Setup	1%	1
Global User Interface	1%	1
Chatter	1%	1

Trailhead Projects!

I did these early on and forgot about them...There are not a lot of other Administrator project left, but I think the Superbadges will take their place. They are more challenging than the projects...

8 Trails (46 Badges)

I have completed  8 of the 19 trails for Administrators; 46 badges in total. Trailhead just added Superbadges and more trails. The Superbadges are for projects that test your Salesforce knowledge and skills.

Once I complete the Administrator trails, I'll hit the Superbadges. I'll add those to my Linked In Profile; I have deleted the regular badges and now direct people to this page.

42 Badges

It's getting harder to fit all the badges in the picture. In studying for the certification exam, it appears that some topics may be tested with only one question. The general strategy is to focus on the main topics. This is a good approach but it has the potential to leave some easy questions on the table.

I'm finding that the Trailhead modules are a good (and fun) way to study for those sections. In the end I need to get at least 65% of the questions right; the test does not really care what section they come from...

Getting Closer to Done (for now)

Currently there are 88 Trailhead badges that I can earn. Of those, 63 are associated with being an Administrator. I have 36 (and they are all on my Linked In profile) so far. As part of getting my certification and eventually a job I plan to complete at least the 63. Once I have the certification, I’ll likely delete the badges from my profile. 

Trailhead is a great way to keep up to date on Salesforce so I’ll likely always collect badges, though I may stop sharing them on Linked In.

Some Free and Useful Career Advice

As part of looking for a job I am pursuing certification as a Salesforce Administrator. In searching for free resources I came across Udemy and in particular a class called “Introduction to Salesforce Certification and Career Planning”. It was a very interesting and useful class.

I had been looking for jobs as a Salesforce Administrator. As part of the career planning I learned that I should also be looking for data/business analysts, pre-sales engineer and PM positions. I also gained some insight into how to pursue not for profit opportunities.

This course is definitely worth the money, and more importantly the time! This particular instructor also offers a Salesforce Administrator Certification Course that I plan to take.

Exporting Contacts/Leads from Linked In

As a recruiting company we use Linked In a lot. There are several apps on the exchange that allow you capture data on Linked In and export it to Salesforce. Most you have to pay for or don’t work with our license. I found a Chrome extension that allows you to download 1.5k/day for free (technically LinkedIn limits it to 1.5k/day, not the extension).

It downloads to either contacts or leads.We download into Leads and then depending on the nature of the information we call it a Client, Candidate, or both. Clients are people we reach out to for contracts and Candidates are people we place in those roles. We could have used Accounts for Clients and Opportunities for Candidates, but the custom objects  follow our business process more closely and avoids confusion as to what each tab means.

Once we have the information we captured in Leads we make a determination as to which object(s) the data is added to and use a free (there’s a theme here) app to do a custom conversion. We could use the convert button but it goes to Contacts, Opportunities and Accounts. The custom app allows us to use our custom objects. 

We are still determining if we can use the standard objects (tabs) for our business model. We only get five tabs, so it might make sense to start playing by the SF rules…