Belt Mean No Need Rope Hold Up Pants

As I progress in my Salesforce career, I have found a lot of use for my Six Sigma training (see my LinkedIn article). Throughout the years I have been part of various training programs but have not had a chance to get either a green or black belt. I have been exploring contract jobs and have gotten a 3-month gig starting in November.

As part of this exploration, I learned that I needed to start an LLC (KGForce, LLC) in order to get paid. I am in the process of creating a website (no content yet), though I will still blog here and link to the website. I am generating content for the website and I have decided to highlight my six sigma approach to setting up Salesforce organizations. Discussing this approach raises the issue of belts and certifications.

From a training and certification perspective, I expect that Salesforce certifications will be more influential in getting contracts than a Six Sigma belt. In reading about the belt process, there are a lot of certification programs. The best ones all have projects associated with them. This suggests that experience is more valuable than education.

I have found in the interview process, that this is also true. I got the most interest in my resume once I became certified. However, beyond certification, recruiters and hiring managers wanted to know about my experience. So I will work on both Salesforce projects and certifications. The six sigma belts will have to wait. I have created a training roadmap based on what I think is a mix of logical progression and quality of training materials available.

I have tried to stay with the declarative aspects of Salesforce. I get the sense that they are driving users towards this via increasing functionality with the declarative features. I think marketing automation will be a good area to focus on and the training plan reflects that. Eventually, I’ll get a belt or too, but for right now I’ll have to let my experience to the talking.

Where are People Coming From?

The intent of the web-to-lead form is to collect data on where my traffic is coming from and if people think it’s useful for my job search. Well, I have three respondents out of probably 40 visits (I have a web tracker that gives me traffic numbers, but not sources in a way that is useful for me). They all agree that the blog is useful for finding a job.

The other goal of the web-to-lead form is to showcase my ability to create dashboards and reports from the data collected. With three data points, it’s not as impressive as one might hope. I created a pie chart (below) and it’s clear that there is some other source for people finding my blog. LinkedIn is not a big driver and nobody that I sent my resume to has responded to the survey.

I’ll play around with the dashboards and reports some more and see if I can show something that is cool. Hopefully, I’ll get some more data in the near future. Feel free to help with that.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Superbadge – Security Specialist

I got my first Superbadge today. I can see why they call it super. It’s a combination of tasks and quizzes. The requirements are not always clear and it can take a while to figure out the specific setting they want for each profile. On balance, it was a good test of setting up login restrictions, roles, profiles, and sharing rules. I think if I had to do similar, it would go quicker, since now I know where to look.

Now What...

Now that I am a Salesforce Certified Administrator, what's next? Well, the first thing is to find a job as an Administrator. I'm checking out the job boards, networking, and exploring freelance opportunities. In between, I'm completing trails on Trailhead, working on Superbadges, and studying for my next certification (Platform App Builder). Oh, and finishing the roof on my barn before the first snow.

So far I have completed 17 trails (below). I plan to knock out all of the administrator trails and then hit the developer trails. The trails that are left aren't as related to what I plan to do, but they are fun to complete.

A .png is Worth a Thousand Words...

Summer is Almost Over

The battle to become a certified administrator is progressing. I am at the stage of reviewing my notes and taking the various practice exams that are online. I am averaging about 70% on these and I hope to get that up to 90% before I take the exam.

As part of the effort, I have jumped back on Trailhead. I have completed 12 of the 21 trails for admins resulting in 60 badges. Some of the trails are not really related to the exam so I probably won’t hit them all before I take the exam. Once I complete the relevant ones, I’ll tackle the super badges. I have two of the 4 badges unlocked. I’ll probably complete enough modules/trails to unlock three and then start on the super badges. I don’t think the Apex Specialist will be useful for the exam…

Below are the trails I have completed to get the 60 badges...

Is it August Already?

I am still studying for this exam. My focus has been on completing a Udemy.com class on the certification exam (certificate of completion below).

I have also been doing some side consulting in my former profession (materials engineering). It takes up some time, but I can use the money.

The next step is to work through the Certified On Demand study materials and one day take the exam. 

I'll probably intersperse some Trailhead modules in as well. I miss doing them; they can be addictive...