As a Salesforce developer (who has passed 3 of the following recommended certs), I’ve had the fortune / mis-fortune of speaking to a lot of technical recruiters and hiring managers since early 2020.
The following list is the certifications in order of relevance / market-demand / order to tackle that I believe aspiring Salesforce developers should be pursuing in 2023.
Salesforce Certified Administrator
- Certified Administrator certification is the minimum requirement for all Salesforce roles.
- Consulting agencies will require even their developers to at least obtain this admin certification.
- You’re pretty much expected to be able to do most of what a Salesforce Admin can do on the job (something breaks or something new needs created quickly … they’re coming to the developer first)
- Aspiring Salesforce developers benefit by tackling this one first in beginning to learn when to leverage no-code solutions before building out entire custom ones.
- Studying for the admin certification will make passing your Salesforce Platform Developer 1 easier since there is considerable overlap (especially with questions such as choosing between workflows, flows, process-builders)
- TIP === focus the most on Sharing/Security … I believe it’s the hardest part (and important) of the platform for experienced developers migrating to the Salesforce ecosystem to pick up.
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 1
- self explanatory first developer cert to pass on the ‘development path’ in Salesforce.
- TIP === there are a handful of Object Oriented Programming questions which will be gimmes to developers coming from a .Net or Java background.
- TIP === focus on learning when to use worfklow vs. process builders vs. flows vs. apex (which is big reason I say pass the Administrator certification first).
Salesforce Certified CPQ Specialist
- CAVEAT === only priortize this if you are fortunate enough to already be working on an Org that has a CPQ implemntation (or is planning to) … otherwise priortize the Platform Developer 2, JS, && Advanced Administrator before this one
- Really another Admin one!? YES, ‘do you have experience in CPQ?’ is THE most asked question I encounter when speaking with technical recruiters and hiring managers.
- I am currently pursuing this one and for me, having passed Platform Developer 1, Admin, and JS, it is likely the toughest to pass that I’ve encountered (a developer background doesn’t give you much of a lift as CPQ is so configuration && settings heavy)
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 2
- Second certification to pass on the Salesforce developer path
- Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 2, CPQ, JS certs are probably the 3 that would help a developer most stand out in an applicant pool.
Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator
- Right up there with CPQ so far as hardest ‘Admin’ certifications to pass and is therefore well regarded in the Salesforce ecoystem.
- Final ‘Admin’ exam I would suggest pursuing unless you want to push for one of the Architect paths, you work at a company that rewards passing exams, or if you personally want to puruse the certification treadmill.
- TIP === if you can pass this exam you can easily pass Platform App Builder certification and likely all of the ‘fluff’ ones that target specific Salesforce clouds / niches.
Salesforce Certified Javascript Developer 1 (Honorable Mention)
- This certification is both one of the newer Salesforce certifications and it’s also the only one I’ve seen that has any relevance outside of the Salesforce ecosystem.
- Good to tackle right away if you have recent or extensive Javascript / web-development experience.
- If you want to do any heavy UI customizations for Salesforce Lightning … you’re going to need a solid understanding of JS and will most likely be utilizing Lightning-Web Components.
- TIP === Exam itself is solely Javascript focused BUT you do also have to finish a trailhead ‘badge’ project that encompasses a ton of Lightning Web-Component concepts (the future of Salesforce UI customizations)
- TIP === spend considerable time understanding ‘raw’ JS pre ES6
- TIP === spend time working with NodeJS and focus on spinning up servers from scratch and handling routing etc… (there’s almost nothing on the exam utilizing newer NodeJS libraries such as Express, Puppeteer etc…)
Summary
- Study for Admin exam first as it’s the best introduction to the platform and its harder concepts will overlap with other exams.
- Don’t waste time on the certification treadmill past the ones mentioned above UNLESS you know your company will reward your time && effort or if you know you will be pursuing one of the Architect paths.
- Salesforce Certified Javascript Developer 1, Salesforce Certified Platform Developer 2, && Salesforce Certified CPQ Specialist certs will make you stand out the most in the Salesforce ecosytem.
- If you can pass these 6 exams you can CRUISE through the dozens of other ‘fluff’ Salesforce exams until you get to the Architect exams.