#learning salesforce

Are you in search of any popular and career-oriented course that can provide you with a stable and long-term career then this article for you.

For anyone who knows me today, they know that I live and breathe Salesforce — at least when it comes to my job. Some who are not directly involved in my career think that I work there (or that I used to), while other just know me as a complete & total Salesforce evangelist.

While some of that is incorrect (I have yet to be on Salesforce.com’s payroll), it is 100% accurate to say that I have built a relatively successful career around a piece of technology that I had never heard of when I started thinking about “what I wanted to be when I grew up.”

When starting college, I had some lofty aspirations to go into medicine — a plan that was quickly dashed by an overwhelming first semester. And while briefly panicked, my parents advised me to just take a few courses that interested me and perhaps forgo planning for a bit. It was in that second semester of my freshman year that I took my first Brain & Cognitive Science class (on a whim) and found something I loved. It was challenging and there were problems and mysteries to be solved.

Fast forward to 2011. I’ve been in the Salesforce space for several years, but had not yet reached the level of technical skill that I was hoping to achieve. It was at this time that I had a boss who encouraged me in the same manner as my parents had — allowing me to pursue an interest in learning Salesforce developer skills.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take one of the earliest “Introduction to Object Oriented Program” courses offered by Salesforce. And I was even luckier to have Leah McGowen-Hare as an instructor.

Between Leah’s enthusiasm and my boss’s encouragement, along with massive help and support from the Salesforce developer community, I was able to write my first trigger (and test class!) in May 2011. And then another & another. Not only that, it helped me to become a better business analyst, as I could talk to both the business user and the developer on how to best meet the needs of the business.

Over time, I came to learn about all the technical resources that are available me as a developer. Obviously, there are local developer user groups, which are a great place to get started and to network locally with other Salesforce developers in your neck of the woods. There is the Salesforce Stack Exchange, which is a great place to get some more technical answers that are throughly reviewed by peers. There is the Salesforce Developer Boards, which is a great resources for quick answers and also searching for solutions to common problems. And there is also the Salesforce IRC channel if you are super old-school. This is probably my favorite out of all the resources, because it where I found my people. I have developed genuine friendships with some of the folks that I’ve met through the IRC channel. The channel is made up of a group of individuals who (while sometimes snarky) are always willing to lend you some help or advice on solving your problem.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the Salesforce community knows that this - all of this - is about so much more than just an enterprise software product.

Up until now, the Trailhead modules have centered around teaching people the practical application of Salesforce and the force.com platform, as well as more technical modules around using and configuring the tool.

But a few weeks ago, the Trailhead team launched a new kind of module. Instead of focusing on the product & the business issues that you can tackle by leveraging the platform, this new module is focused on other reasons why an company may choose Salesforce. The key differentiators that the module addresses are the organizational core values of Salesforce, their innovative technology and (my personal favorite) the vibrant ecosystem.

If it wasn’t apparent already, I love the Salesforce community. I have a Tumblr, a podcast, an Instagram and Twitter account all dedicated to interacting with this community. In 2010, I was named to the first class of Salesforce MVPs - a program that recognizes leaders in the Salesforce ecosystem. In fact, I’m so engaged in this community that I appear in the video for one of the module challenges!

So go earn yourself some shiny new Trailhead badges, and learn a bit more about what makes Salesforce so amazing, beyond just the technology.

Leave it to the awesome Trailhead team to drop some great content for us just in time for the holidays (or, if you’re a MOT like me, the annual Chinese-food-and-movie day -- also a totally legit holiday).

There is one new trail and six new badges, which brings the total count to a staggering 13 trails and 70 badges. But that’s not what I’m most excited for. I’m most excited that the newest trail is the advanced admin trail!!

This is the trail that I have been hoping the Trailhead team would come up with ever since Trailhead launched. Not because they validate my skills (although that’s a nice bonus). I actually prefer to use my certifications for that. No, the reason that I really love that they have added an Advanced Admin trail is that its a great way for both new & seasoned admin to practice their skills at their own pace. The certification exams come with a lot of added pressure, time constraints and often the need to drive to a testing site. In contrast, Trailhead allows us all to work at a speed that works with our schedules and our busy lives.

The Advanced Admin trail is five hours of content. It sounds like a ton, but you have to remember the genius of Trailhead! That trail is three separate modules, and each of those modules is made up of units that usually take 15-20 minutes to complete. Those are bite-sized bits of work that anyone can tackle - whether you’re on vacation, or just taking a mental break during your day.