jagmohan-singh

Jagmohan Singh

for-developers

For Developers

# Tips for Becoming a Salesforce Developer

Interested in becoming a Salesforce developer? In this blog post Jagmohan has put together his favorite tips and resources to get started in the world of Salesforce development.

## Pre-Requisites

These skills are strongly recommended for anyone who wants to become a
developer. If you don’t think you have some of these skills, you can
still be a developer, but you may want to develop them in addition to
the other items below, or you may struggle with your job. Even after you
become a developer, these should be continuously improved.

1. **Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills**: These include the ability
 to visualize problems and their complexity and devise logical
 solutions. These skills help professionals effectively understand
 their clients' needs and suggest optimal solutions.

2. **Effective Communication**: The ability to communicate effectively
 to share, receive, and process information. These skills help
 professionals communicate with colleagues and customers both orally
 and in writing.

3. **Time Management**: It is important to effectively manage your time
 when working on multiple tasks for one customer or multiple projects
 for different clients. You might get overwhelmed when people keep
 asking you to do more.

## Learn Salesforce Administration Basics

As a developer at a large company with administrators on your team, you
*might* get away with knowing only the developer tools. Still, most
Salesforce developers will need to know how to perform basic
administrative tasks in order to develop on the platform.

1. **Learn about the Salesforce Platform:** Familiarize yourself with
 the Salesforce platform and its various products, such as Sales
 Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and Marketing Cloud.
 Understand the basics of cloud computing, CRM concepts, and
 Salesforce terminology. This is a great time to consider where you
 might want to specialize. Some developers learn multiple clouds, but
 as a new developer, you’ll want to focus on a certain area.

2. **Become a Certified Administrator:** There are lots of
 configuration / declarative options available in the Salesforce
 platform before you need any customization. Even when you have
 decided that you need some customization, you still need to know how
 it will coexist with the other automation in Salesforce, for
 example, how to call a Flow from Apex and the other way around, add
 a Lightning Web Component to a record page, make a decision between
 a Screen Flow and LWC, and so on. All this comes with an overall
 understanding of the Salesforce platform and the various declarative
 tools available in the platform. You can refer to [this post on
 how to become a Salesforce
 Administrator](https://cloudanswers.com/blog/tips-for-becoming-a-salesforce-admin)
 for tips on what to study.

3. **Adopt the Salesforce platform in your daily life:** Once you are
 in the Salesforce ecosystem, navigating and customizing the
 Salesforce platform should start to come naturally to you. And to
 become better at it, one approach you can adopt is to start using
 Salesforce in your daily life. You could build a habit tracker app
 to improve your fitness or self-learning, an expense tracker app to
 manage your finances, a vehicle maintenance app to maintain records
 of your vehicle’s service/repair appointments, etc. You can make use
 of workflow rules, flows, etc, to create follow-up appointments,
 send reminders, etc. This is a great way to practice the skills you
 are learning and make sure you can actually deliver a complete
 solution.

## Programming Skills

To be a Salesforce developer, you must have basic programming skills.
These skills remain common for most programming languages and can be
re-applied while learning any new programming language. You could
benefit from having some prior knowledge of the following concepts.
These are not required but will definitely help you become a better
programmer.

1. **Data Structures**: You should learn how various data structure
 constructs, such as arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, maps,
 sets, trees, and graphs, work and be able to use them in
 programming.

2. **Object-Oriented Programming Concepts**: The OOP principles, such
 as classes, objects, polymorphism, inheritance, overloading and
 overriding, etc., essentially remain the same across any programming
 language that supports Object-Oriented Programming.

3. **Algorithms and Design Patterns**: The ability to write effective
 programming that optimizes time (CPU) and space (Memory) utilization
 helps you write software that performs better and scales
 efficiently.

## Use Trailhead and Get Platform Developer I Certification

Use the [Prepare for Your Salesforce Platform Developer I
Credential](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/users/strailhead/trailmixes/prepare-for-your-salesforce-platform-developer-i-credential)
to study and learn important concepts related to Salesforce development. There is a huge
difference between getting certified and having the ability to build and
deliver real-world projects. But take this as a step in your journey
towards becoming a Salesforce developer and display your tenacity to see
it through.

## Learn to Use Generative AI Effectively

[ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/) and similar tools can be of
great help when learning anything. You just need to ask the right
questions and write good prompts to get the information you are looking
for. We don’t recommend using this to write code when you are starting
out; use it to learn and understand the concepts when stuck on
understanding something. If you use it to write code, ensure you
understand what the code is doing; you can even ask it questions about
the code.

You can also install the [Einstein for Developers plugin for VS
Code](https://developer.salesforce.com/tools/vscode/en/einstein/einstein-overview)
or [GitHub
Copilot](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/overview) and
begin learning some of the Generative AI tools that can be used within
your Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Salesforce tools are
not as advanced as ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot, but they are trained
exclusively on Salesforce code and have stricter privacy practices, so
as their models evolve they may end up being the best solution.

## Do Not Stop: Practice, Practice, and Some More Practice

You should continue to practice by building personal projects, taking on
freelance opportunities, volunteering for non-profit organizations,
contributing to open source projects, starting a blog, and building a
portfolio website/resume, etc. All this will help you improve your
skills and build a network of connections from which new opportunities
will come your way.

## Learn Git

Git allows developers to work on projects locally, enabling them to make
changes, commit them, and track history without needing constant access
to a central server. It provides robust version control capabilities,
allowing developers to track changes to files over time.

Git facilitates collaboration among developers by providing tools for
sharing code, reviewing changes, and resolving conflicts. Features like
pull requests allow developers to propose changes, discuss them, and
incorporate feedback before merging them into the main codebase. This
fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and code quality improvement.

To learn Git, we recommend the [Pro Git
book](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2), available online completely
free and translated into over a dozen languages. Once you understand the
basics of Git, you can learn [how to use Git within VS
Code](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/sourcecontrol/overview),
Salesforce’s recommended IDE.

## Get Involved in the Community

Salesforce has a great community behind it, and there are various kinds
of community coordination going on all around the world, such as [Trailblazer
community groups](https://trailblazercommunitygroups.com/),
[Slack teams](https://www.salesforceben.com/7-salesforce-slack-communities-to-join/),
Salesforce Stackexchange, local meetups, etc. Find out more about these
and try to reach out to Salesforce professionals to build your connections
in the Salesforce ecosystem.

## Conclusion

Salesforce is an exceptional platform that offers great opportunities to
build successful careers. Once you understand the basic concepts,
demonstrate your ability to learn new concepts, and have a passion for
technology, there is no one stopping you from landing your dream job in
the Salesforce ecosystem. We hope this post helps you achieve your goals
as a Salesforce developer.

## Downloadable Guide

Want this in a convenient PDF format for reference? Download the tips for becoming a Salesforce developer guide:

[![Screenshot of guide](/uploads/tips-for-becoming-sf-dev-guide-thumbnail.png)](</uploads/Tips for Becoming a Salesforce Developer.pdf>)

Interested in becoming a Salesforce developer? In this blog post Jagmohan has put together his favorite tips and resources to get started in the world of Salesforce development.

tips-for-becoming-a-salesforce-dev

Tips for Becoming a Salesforce Developer

cloudanswers

CloudAnswers

for-everyone

For Everyone

Before starting my career as a Salesforce administrator, I had never even heard of Salesforce. I was just some kid who went to a trade school and worked at Best Buy. One day my dad had told me about this software that he was working with called Salesforce. He told me how you didn't need a college degree, no schooling. All you needed was the dedication to learning the software and $200 to pass the exam. Now that sounded too good to be true, and if something is too good to be true, it's not real, right? Well, that's what I originally thought until I looked into Salesforce and found out that a career at Salesforce is one of the best-kept open secrets in the tech space. So I went ahead and found the Trailhead study guides, completed those, and then passed my Salesforce Certified Administrator exam. You may ask what I got in return for my hard work and exam fee? I earned my Salesforce Certified Administrator certification allowing me to start my career as a Salesforce consultant here at CloudAnswers.

## **Why become a Salesforce Administrator?**

There are many reasons to become a Salesforce Administrator, and the timing has never been better to jump into the industry. A recent study conducted by Salesforce has found that the Salesforce economy will create [9.3 million jobs and 1.6 trillion in new business revenues by 2026](https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2021/09/20/idc-salesforce-economy-2021/). With entry-level admins earning more than the average college graduate, it's a no-brainer to pursue a career in the Salesforce ecosystem. The average starting salary for someone with [a 4-year degree is $55,200, whereas the average starting salary for a Salesforce Administrator is $69,713](https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-starting-salary-out-of-college-statistics/). I think the numbers speak for themselves, not that one shouldn't pursue a college degree. Still, it's good to know for people who are considering college or considering a career change and want to get into a growing and exciting field.

On top of the salary and career growth, another benefit is that most of the jobs are fully remote, which means flexible work and lifestyle, allowing you to work literally anywhere you want. If you pursue a career in Salesforce, just know your admin certification is just your starting point. You can then branch off into many other roles and specialize within the industry. There are many options. You can become a developer, architect, solution engineer, business analyst, or even continue with your admin career by getting the Advanced Administrator certification. But step by step, first: where to start?

## **Where to start?**

If you're lucky, you're someone who is considering this career switch with some background knowledge, having been on the end-user side of Salesforce. If, like me, you're jumping right in entirely fresh, having never used it, you will have a more difficult time doing so, but it is by no means impossible. Whether you have experience in Salesforce or not, the first and best place to start is the official [Salesforce Admin Trailhead](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/strailhead/trailmixes/prepare-for-your-salesforce-administrator-credential). Trailhead is a great place to learn. Once you finish the Admin Trail, I highly recommend poking around and finding other trails, especially if there are things that you found yourself struggling with or if there are things that you are interested in.

## **Get Certified**

The best way to get ready for taking your Salesforce Admin certification exam after completing the Trailhead is to go ahead and complete supplemental courses offered by 3rd parties. The courses I recommend are the Mike Wheeler Salesforce Admin course on Udemy. He does a fantastic job of going deep dive in a lecture-style about all the things you should know to pass the exam and that you'll use on the job, and the best resource that I've found by far is FocusonForce. Between the study guide and then the practice tests they have with unlimited retakes, it is by far the best and most informational resource for getting ready for one's Salesforce Admin exam. Salesforce does offer a practice test for $20 PER practice test, and it is good to take that at least once before taking the real thing.

Things I wish I had known before starting my first Salesforce Admin job. There is no way one person can know everything about Salesforce, especially when you're just starting your career with Salesforce. Specific additional features of Salesforce will vary depending on what organization you end up working for and what they use for their business needs.

## **Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)**

One of the many things I wish I knew before starting my career and the biggest is CPQ, which stands for Configure, Price, and Quote. CPQ is HUGE, and if the organization you start your career with doesn't use it, there is a good chance it's only a matter of time before they do. CPQ, on the basic level, is a highly accurate quoting software, and it is highly customizable, which is what makes it so powerful and critical to many organizations. CPQ allows you to configure one-time product purchases, subscription purchases, and customizable discounts for SKUs depending on what bundle is included in the quote. That's another thing with CPQ, bundles. Not to get too much into it in this article, just know that CPQ allows you to configure, let's say, the purchase of a new air conditioner, to always include a labor SKU for installation, which means that's less thinking for the sales rep and ensures that a product requiring installation is never sold without it. That's a pretty basic example, but it helps you get the idea of what it can do. I highly recommend checking out the [Salesforce CPQ Trailmix ](https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/strailhead/trailmixes/prepare-for-your-salesforce-cpq-specialist-credential)to get your hands on CPQ and get familiar with the software.

## **Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)**

Another aspect of Salesforce that I wish I had familiarized myself with is NPSP, Salesforce's Nonprofit Success Pack because there are some key differences. Some of you may argue that it may be a waste of time to learn NPSP if you're not going into the nonprofit sector. However, I would say one still should because it's never wrong to know more things, and you can use this knowledge to help organizations when you volunteer, which gives you more experience as an administrator.

## **Spreadsheets**

If you take any piece of information from this article, it would be to spend some serious time learning how to use Excel. Get comfortable with formulas and manipulating data within them. Something that isn't truly emphasized is how often and intimately you will be working in spreadsheets. As an administrator, you will be handling a lot of data, and the more comfortable and capable you are at managing it, the better time you will have starting out because it is an integral part of the job.

## **Conclusion**

There has never been a better time to pursue a Salesforce career, and thankfully with the way the industry is growing, that statement will ring true for years to come. But why wait for years to come when you can change your life today? Start learning for free on [Trailhead](https://trailhead.salesforce.com) and get on the path to a life-changing career.

There are many reasons to become a Salesforce Administrator, and the timing has never been better to jump into the industry. A recent study conducted by Salesforce has found that the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs and 1.6 trillion in new business revenues by 2026. 

tips-for-becoming-a-salesforce-admin

Tips for Becoming a Salesforce Admin

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