Marketing Cloud Admin

Marketing Cloud Admin Certification

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The latest Salesforce exam pass for our team is the Marketing Cloud Admin cert. Read on to find out Priya’s thoughts and tips on passing this exam.

 

What made you decide to take the Marketing Cloud Admin certification?

Priya Marketing Cloud Admin certI already have a lot of experience with Pardot, so I wanted to learn more about Marketing Cloud too. It’s always good to get formal certifications to back up your day-to-day real life experience.

And I’m always looking at ways to improve my Salesforce skills and add value to our clients at work.

 

 

 

 

 

How did you approach the prepare for the exam?

After joining Cloud Galacticos, Paul and Phil found that I was interested in Marketing Cloud. I was encouraged to take up the webinar sessions related to it. These training sessions, blogs & trails really helped me understand the concepts. A thing to mention is the amount of time and importance the company gives towards learning is highly appreciated and is what helps us to prepare.

 

Was it a difficult? Any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

I found it to be on the tough side as I didn’t have much experience in exploring this platform practically. Though the amount of work I have put into it during my personal time has helped me a lot. I was able to score on the set up and configuration questions which contributed positively to my results. Below are the Section-Level Scoring for your reference:

Digital Marketing Proficiency: 62%

Subscriber Data Management: 60%

Setup: 78%

Channel Management: 80%

Maintenance: 55%

Tips would be to explore the application practically to get knowledge on the Configuration side and understand the terminology used in Marketing cloud.

 

What does passing the Marketing Cloud Admin cert mean to you in terms of your daily work?

This certification really adds value and helps us at Cloud Galacticos in getting more projects on Marketing Cloud. It can also help us in enhancing the existing projects and add more value to the existing customers.

 

Do you have any other certs you plan to take in the future?

I am aiming for Marketing Cloud Consultant certification. I have heard that this one is tricky but I shall prepare well and will hopefully pass in my first attempt just like all my other certifications.

Finally, I would like to thank Paul and Phil for encouraging and supporting me. While we are busy with the current  project schedules and supporting our clients, we are given time and resources to LEARN. This ‘Time’, ‘Support’ and ‘Encouragement’ is all that an employee needs to learn and up-skill.

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce consultancy with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our company has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

 

Digital City Awards, Best Small Digital Company Finalist 2022
London’s Calling Platinum Sponsor 2022

 

 

Salesforce User Experience Designer Certification: Mark Jones

Salesforce User Experience Designer Certification: Mark Jones

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Our Salesforce User Experience Designer Cert blog (by Luke Menzfeld) is one of our most read blogs of 2021. So when Mark Jones passed his exam, we thought it’d be good to get his thoughts on this exam too…

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification?

I’ve been interested in design for a long time. I first started doing design when I was 15 when I designed my first website (yes, this was back in the days of scrolling marquees). From there I started building my design skills in a variety of ways, including doing video editing and graphic design. I still do these as hobbies to this day.

When Lightning came out a few years ago I immediately fell in love with the updated interface. To me it was much more customisable and design-friendly than Classic. Since I’ve been using Lightning I’ve tried to work on implementing good design principles into the orgs I’ve worked on and built up, including the dev orgs I use to try out new things or build concepts I work on. So when the UX Designer exam was announced, it was a no-brainer to me to take it. In fact, I would say that out of the exams that I’ve sat and passed so far, this was the exam I wanted to take.

 

How did you approach the prep for your exam?

Honestly, this exam was a little different for me than the other exams I’ve sat. Normally I go through the cert prep Trailmixes on Trailhead for the exam, dive into FocusonForce and use their practice exams to study up. If there’s one available, I’ll attend a Cert Webinar Day.

However, for this exam there isn’t anything available yet on FocusonForce, nor were there any webinar days being held when I took the exam. So after I completed the Trailhead study modules for the exam, I turned to reading the Salesforce Design Blog and scouring for any resources I could find to help prepare for the exam.

 

Was it a difficult exam? You have any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

Actually, this was the hardest exam I’ve taken so far. Like Luke, the first time I took the exam I failed it. In fact, I’ve yet to pass a Salesforce exam on the first attempt.

Failing an exam the first time around is absolutely fine. It actually might be a good thing as it allows you to review where we went wrong and to dive further into those areas. For me, the first-time around, the area I struggled with the most was the section around the Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS). To me, SLDS feels like a developer-centric area, so as someone with a background in Salesforce Admin, it took a bit more work to study up in that area.

The biggest tip I would encourage you to follow is to read up on that if you’re taking the exam. Make sure you’re familiar with the code-snippets included in the guide, chances are that you will get some code-based questions (I did on both attempts). Also, whether you pass or fail, use a score-checker to check your overall performance in the exam.

When you complete a Salesforce exam you receive an automatic email with a breakdown of how you did in each section, you can take that into a score checker and see how you performed as a whole. I tend to use the FocusonForce Score Checker, but there are other options out there that you can use. I also have an app that I built in one of my dev orgs where I can log my exam attempt and calculate the result, so you could potentially log your scores in Salesforce itself.

Mark Jones, Salesforce Consultant, Cloud Galacticos

What does passing the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification mean to you in terms of your daily work?

I think when we pass any exam it’s a validation of our knowledge on the subject. It’s also an encouragement to continue learning more in that area. Luke covered it in his answers, but I think I would add to that by saying one of the most important things we can do when it comes to designing solutions is to make sure it works for those who will be using it on a day-to-day basis. Any solution we build and design should be designed with the user in mind.

Like Luke said, let’s not sacrifice good design in order to offer a quick-fix solution. You’ll find that quick-fix solutions rarely end up being quick-fixes anyway, they often tend to create more work and headaches at later points in time. Building well-designed solutions from the get-go will ultimately result in there being less clean-up work to do later on.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certs you plan to take in the future?

I’m always looking to grow in my overall knowledge. Currently I have two cert exams booked in to take in the first quarter of the calendar year. I will be aiming to pass both the Nonprofit Cloud Consultant and Advanced Administrator exams by the end of April. I’m also interested in studying for and passing the Slack Administrator certification sometime this year as well if I can.

There are other exams that are of interest to me. Though they depend on what I’m working on and how much time I can allocate to studying and revision.

 

Anything else you want to add?

Similar to Luke, I also want to acknowledge the work of Angela Conway in helping to put this exam together. Angela is a regular attendee of the User Group that I co-lead. She’s also located in the North East of England. I think it’s a real highlight to the North East contingent of the Trailblazer Community that we can say that someone in our region was part of putting together this incredibly important exam. As a fellow North Easterner, this makes me very proud and grateful.

I’d also like to shout out the Salesforce Design blog, there are regularly interesting blogs being published there, so do go and check it out.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our Salesforce consultancy has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce Gold partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

How to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation

How to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation

by with No Comment Certification

The Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation is the latest exam success for Val Southern. The exam covers the likes of Process Builder, Approval Process, Workflow, and Einstein Next Best Action. We spoke to Val to find out more about how she approached the exam, as well as any tips she might have for other Salesforce professionals thinking of taking this exam. 

 

What made you decide to take the Process Automation Accreditation?

Val SouthernAs a self-confessed process automation fan (flow-natic??), I’m always on the lookout for ways to test my knowledge. I like to keep up with the latest automation features to recommend or implement for Cloud Galacticos customers.

When the Partner Learning Camp launched some new accreditation exams, I immediately searched for an automation exam to have a go at! 

 

 

 

 

 

How did you approach the prep?

I’m normally very methodical about the approach to any exam. Usually I’ll go through the exam guide carefully and make a list of the areas I need to prioritise for learning or need refreshing. Then I’ll search for resources, prepare my own notes for revision and make sure I’m ready before exam day. 

With this exam, I was feeling confident because, as part of my role, I work with all types of Salesforce automation tools regularly and I recently refreshed my knowledge through Trailhead and research. On stepping through the specific exam prep curriculum, I found I had already recently completed most of the modules, so I finished the rest, stepped out of character and signed up to take the exam on the same day!

 

Any tips on how to pass the Salesforce Process Automation Accreditation?

Salesforce Process Automation I’d say it was reasonably tough. As usual there were straight questions and scenario-based questions. I certainly didn’t attain a 100% score but managed to secure a pass! 

As always, I would not recommend a ‘flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants’ approach. But I did learn to relax a little in an area I know very well.

My advice would be to absorb as much information as possible. Cover all areas of Salesforce automation through researching release notes, completing the curriculum for the exam, and feel confident in your own experience!

 

 

 

What does passing the accreditation mean to you in terms of your daily work?

This accreditation confirms to me that I am on-track in keeping up to date with the automation tools available to do my job well and will hopefully provide customers with the confidence of my experience and knowledge in this area.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certifications you plan to take in the future?

I plan to complete Certified B2B Solution Architect as soon as time will allow. This follows on from the Certified Application Architect which I gained this earlier. It will help to re-cement my studies from that, plus hopefully hone my Architect skills further.

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce consultancy with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. Our company has people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London.

So if you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience to help you make the most of your org, why not get in contact?

 

Digital City Awards, Best Small Digital Company Finalist 2022

London’s Calling Platinum Sponsor 2022

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Salesforce User Experience Designer Certification

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At Cloud Galacticos, we encourage our team to stay ahead of the curve. So we are proud to confirm that on of our consultants, Luke, has recently passed his Salesforce User Experience Designer certification. We spoke to him to get his thoughts on his latest exam success.

 

 

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification?

I’m passionate about design and user experience. The exam presented a great opportunity to formalise these interests. It’s a real positive to see how much work Salesforce have put into recognising and formalising the disciplines and professional practice of User Experience, Design Thinking, Inclusive/Accessible Design and Service Design in a systems setting.

 

How did you approach the prep for your exam?

I followed the Trailmix provided by Trailhead in the first instance which covers the core topics of the exam. In addition to this I did a lot of research into the Salesforce Lightning Design System (SLDS). This is a vast area which is a key part of the exam. I also widened my research to look at company examples of patterns. I also watched some helpful videos on YouTube, and generally refreshed my knowledge.

 

Was it a difficult exam? You have any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

I actually failed the exam the first time round. After I reviewed my performance using the Salesforce Certification Checker (by Sean Cuvanov) to identify where I needed to focus my efforts, I tried again five days later. 

Here are my tips:

  • Know your SLDS: Guidelines, Patterns, Blueprints, Tokens, Frameworks, LWC. There was a focus on Buttons, GRIDS, Branding & Themes.
  • Know when and where to use declarative tools. Sounds simple and is relatively straightforward but it links the tool to the impact on the user experience rather than just functionality of the tool.
  • Be confident on discovery, design thinking, inclusive design, accessible design, engaging with users, ideation, prototyping and iterative development.
  • Know what Heuristic testing is.
  • Anyone who has completed the Administrator or Platform App Builder Certification may recognise that they have covered a good deal of the Trailmix content when they first view it. Don’t underestimate that this may be old knowledge that needs a refresh. Make sure to look at the exam guide. Prioritise where you individually need to focus. It’s easy to chase down 50% of remaining modules to complete the Trailmix without going back over things you may have covered some time ago.

 

What does passing the Salesforce User Experience Designer certification mean to you in terms of your daily work?

Passing the certification reaffirmed a key intention that I use on a daily basis. Don’t sacrifice design to deliver a quick solution. Also, don’t create a solution before correctly understanding the requirement, and who you’re designing for.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certs you plan to take in the future?

Yes, I’m always looking for certifications that will help to further knowledge or improve performance on a live project so I will likely try to pick one more up in 2021. 

 

Anything else you want to add?

I just want to credit and thank Angela Conway for spreading the word about the User Experience Certification at the Newcastle Salesforce Community User Group which I co-lead. Angela, like myself, is based in Newcastle and she was part of the team that developed the certification which is a huge success story for the region. Connect with her to find out about her unique story! In addition to this, a shout out to Adam Doti and Melanie Wachs from Salesforce for engaging on Social Media and looking for ideas and suggestions to improve and receive feedback.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

 

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Salesforce CPQ Specialist Certification

by with No Comment Certification

The adoption of CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) has increased over the years as more companies realise its potential within CRM. And at Cloud Galacticos, we encourage our team to stay ahead of the curve. So we’re proud to confirm that our developers, Nkosi, has recently passed his Salesforce CPQ Specialist certification. We spoke to him to get his thoughts on his latest exam success.

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce CPQ Specialist certification?

I took the exam because I had been introduced to CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) while on a contract with one of Cloud Galacticos clients. I then discovered that the current client uses CPQ extensively, so it made sense to get certified.

 

How did you approach the prep for your exam?

The approach was based mainly on building on the knowledge I gained when I looked at CPQ for a previous client.  I also did  CPQ superbadges and an Udemy course.

 

Was it a difficult exam? You have any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

It’s probably one of the most difficult cert I have taken. It’s about 90% scenario based. You have to know Products, Pricing, Approval rules, Quotes, Contracts and obviously Universal Containers the company.

 

What does passing the Salesforce CPQ Specialist certification mean to you in terms of your daily work?

It means I can set up or overhaul the client’s CPQ instance, which unfortunately is currently not in good shape.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certs you plan to take in the future?

Yes, I would like to take the Javascript Developer cert since I am on the systems architect path.

 

About Cloud Galacticos 

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

 

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Service Cloud Consultant Certification Tips

by with No Comment Certification

We like to encourage our team to keep on developing and learning new skills. One of the latest exams to be included is the Service Cloud Consultant Certification. It was one of our newest recruits, Luke Menzfeld who passed this exam. Below are his thoughts and tips on passing this Trailhead cert.

Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Certification

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant exam?

Mainly to test my knowledge of Service Cloud having worked on a number of practical client projects. 

 

How did you approach the prep for the exam?

Assess: I started with a detailed review of the exam guide and evaluated my strengths and weaknesses pre-preparation. I then prioritised the development areas based on the topic weighting.

Study: To study I used Focus on Force, Salesforce Help, Salesforce Answers and YouTube. I found a mixed method approach helpful. 

Test: Mainly it was testing my knowledge using Focus on Force in the initial stages, but this exam suits practical testing. Ask yourself, could you configure it, could you evaluate one function vs another, or could you make an informed recommendation given a scenario? If you’re unsure, it’s good to get hands on and test the functionality out for yourself. 

Repeat: I repeated the assess, study and test cycle multiple times to ensure that I felt confident prior to taking the exam. If there are questions or topics which wasn’t 100% clear, start from the beginning and work it through until it was clear

 

Was it a difficult exam? And any tips for people planning on doing the exam? 

The Service Cloud exam covers a broad range of topics, don’t underestimate the time involved in preparing for the exam. Be comfortable with what each section of the exam is assessing using the exam outline, then prepare accordingly with that in mind. I would never say there’s an easy exam. It’s much more a case of being sufficiently prepared. If there’s something you’re a bit rusty with or haven’t experienced first hand then get hands on in a developer org. Establish escalation rules, build/customise a service console. Don’t forget to test out Onmi-Channel skills routing to make sure you’ll have no surprises.

 

What does passing the Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Certification exam mean to you in terms of your daily work at Cloud Galacticos? 

Passing the exam was really just the beginning. The Service Cloud offers great business value for clients in terms of what it can deliver out of the box. I look forward to working on additional projects for further knowledge and practical delivery. Formalising the exam means that I can pass that knowledge on and make informed recommendations to help service organisations run efficiently.

 

Do you have any other certs you plan to take in the future? 

Yes. There are a number of the Consultant Certifications I’m interested in. I have a goal of completing the Platform Developer certification in 2021 to enhance my project delivery.

 

Anything else you want to add?

Book the exam! The rest will fall into place. It all starts with that first step…

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Designer Certification Tips

by with No Comment Certification

As we move into 2021, the focus on professional development at Cloud Galacticos continues to gain momentum. We like to encourage our team to keep on developing and learning new skills. One of the latest exams to be included is the Data Architecture and Management Designer Certification. We caught up with our Senior Consultant, Val, who recently passed this exam:

 

Salesforce Application Architect Certification

 

What made you decide to take the Data Architecture and Management Designer Certification?

As a fan of Trailhead, I’m a big believer in constantly challenging myself to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of Salesforce. I have enjoyed completing some superbadges to cement knowledge gained from working with Salesforce.

In January 2020, I decided to embark on a journey to become a Certified Application Architect and subsequently passed both Certified Salesforce Platform Developer I and Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer towards that. I needed a total of three more certifications and this one was the last requirement.

 

How did you approach the prep for this exam?

I conducted some research into other people who had taken and passed the exam. And as a member of the Ladies Be Architects group, I found some great posts and links there, which helped focus on study areas.

The consensus seemed to be that the first approach is to review the exam guide. Then to conduct a self-diagnosis of the areas I knew well, those I knew fairly well (and may need to refresh) and finally, those which I was aware of but had never touched before. From there I focussed on the items in my list which needed the most attention. 

I’d heard from colleagues and Trailblazer communities that FocusOnForce was a good resource for practice questions and exams. Although not a free resource, it was worth the small fee for trying out the type of scenario-based questions that I was likely to face. As I completed each subsection test one by one, it let me know which areas needed more work.

Then I embarked on a mission of completing Trailhead badges, trails and projects to gain some understanding & experience in completing some of the tasks involved in designing the type of solutions required of a Data Architecture and Management Designer. Not everything is covered in Trailhead, so I combined this with reading up from help.salesforce.com. I also created online flashcards for the areas I would need to revise later.

 

Was it difficult and any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

As with the Salesforce Sharing and Visibility exam, it was harder than expected. When I hit ‘Submit Exam’, I honestly had no idea whether the result was going to be pass or fail! 

Although FocusOnForce had prepared me to an extent, these questions were very different. On some questions, it was answering on instinct more than anything else. In the end, I think what really helped was having lots of real-world experience designing and building applications. Also fixing badly designed ones! 

There were more questions than expected about query efficiency and, surprisingly, none about Customer360. Mine was the Winter 21 version of the exam, so undoubtedly, Customer 360 will be included in later versions.

 

Salesforce Data Architecture and Management Design Certification

 

What does becoming a certified Salesforce Application Architect mean to you in terms of your daily work at Cloud Galacticos?

As a Senior Consultant at Cloud Galacticos, my role includes designing and implementing solutions on the Salesforce platform, so it is important to make sure the knowledge that goes into providing our customers with advice and solutions is correct and up to date. That includes studying areas of functionality that I haven’t personally touched on but which could come up as important in my next project.

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Cert

by with No Comment Certification

We like to encourage our team to keep on learning and developing their Salesforce skills, especially as we operate in a fast moving and dynamic environment. One of our newest team members, and most recent to gain a new certification is Luke. He passed his Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Certification. We caught up with him to find out more…

 

What made you decide to take the Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Certification?

I wanted to formalise my knowledge and experience related to Sales Cloud both for myself and also for future clients. I always try to make continued learning part of my routine.

 

How did you approach the prep for the exam?

I usually follow a set format for exam preparation, but took a slightly different approach this time. Here’s a mix of the steps that I took, with some recommendations:

  • Always start with the exam guide and review it thoroughly. Make sure you know what the exam is actually assessing.
  • Find the suggested Trailmix on Trailhead for the certification and assess where you stand. Have you already completed 50% of the content? Great, what’s left? How will you tackle it? Are any of your knowledge gaps linked to the topics in the exam outline? Which are weighted the highest? This will get you started on the right track.
  • I picked up a Udemy course from Mike Wheeler which provided 11 hours of content covering the full range of topics on the exam. This was a very useful material to start my preparation. Credit to Mike Wheeler. Don’t underestimate how long it will take you to work through this volume of content.
  • Next up was the Focus on Force content which is a staple for any exam. If you’ve completed the steps above and are on your way with your preparation, then tackle one or two of the full exams to identify which areas need your focus. Prioritise, study, sit the topic exams and repeat. Credit to Martin Gessner, particularly for providing the ‘Full Screen’ option for the study guides…  It’s a game changer!

 

Was the Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant cert difficult, and any tips for people thinking of doing this exam?

This exam pressured me for time. Whilst I wasn’t shocked by the questions and content, I only just completed one full review in addition to the time taken to complete all of the questions.

In terms of tips for the exam itself, make sure you know Opportunity Management, Account Management, Campaigns, Forecasting & Project Delivery inside out.

In general, put the hours in, have a plan, tackle the highest weighted topics with study, discovery in a developer org and practical research. Don’t go into the exam with any assumptions. It’s in your hands to check it out beforehand. 

 

What does passing the Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant cert mean to you in terms of your daily work at Cloud Galacticos?

If anybody has project demand for a multi-currency, Enterprise Territory Management project with Cumulative Forecasting & Quota tracking then get in touch! Day to day I’ll pass this learning and advice onto clients and the team where required to support project work.

 

Do you have any other Salesforce certs that you plan to take in 2021?

Yes, I have lots of plans for future certifications into 2021. A mixture of formalising existing knowledge but plenty of opportunity for new knowledge and skills too. The process demands a lot of extra time, study and effort but I’m yet to complete one where I haven’t seen value or have learned lots of things that I didn’t know before I started.

 

About Cloud Galacticos

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Salesforce Sharing and Visibility Designer Cert

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Everyday is a school day at Cloud Galacticos. We like to encourage our team to keep on learning and developing their Salesforce skills, especially as we operate in a fast moving and dynamic environment. One of our most recent team members to gain a new certification is Val, who passed her Sharing and Visibility Designer Cert. We caught up with her to find out more…

 

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TAKE THE EXAM?

As a fan of Trailhead, I’m a big believer in constantly challenging myself to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of Salesforce. I have enjoyed completing some Superbadges to cement knowledge gained from working with Salesforce.

A few months back, I decided to embark on a journey to become a Certified Application Architect. Subsequently passed the Certified Salesforce Platform Developer I as my first step on that road.

 

HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE PREP FOR THE EXAM?

I conducted some research into other people who had taken and passed the exam. The consensus seemed to be that the first approach is to review the exam guide. Then to conduct a self-diagnosis of the areas I knew well, and those I know fairly well (and may need to refresh). Finally, those which I was aware of but had never touched before.

From there I focussed on the items in my list which needed the most attention. Then I embarked on a combined mission of completing Trailhead badges (and one Superbadge) which covered the subjects and/or reading up from help.salesforce.com. I also created online flashcards for the areas I would need to revise later, which helped a lot.

 

WAS IT A TOUGH EXAM AND ANY TIPS FOR PEOPLE THINKING OF DOING THIS EXAM?

It was harder than I expected. I was glad I’d gone into some detailed study on Apex sharing and sharing within communities. Additionally, there were more questions than expected about scalability issues. So I can’t stress enough the importance of knowing all areas inside out!

And as a member of the Ladies Be Architects group, I found some great posts and links there, which helped me to focus on study areas.

 

WHAT DOES PASSING THE CERT MEAN TO YOU IN TERMS OF YOUR DAILY WORK?

As a Senior Consultant at Cloud Galacticos, my role includes designing and implementing solutions on the Salesforce platform. So it is important to make sure the knowledge that goes into providing our customers with advice and solutions is correct and up to date. It includes studying areas of functionality that I haven’t personally touched on, but which could come up as important in my next project.

 

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER CERTS YOU PLAN TO TAKE IN THE FUTURE?

The last step towards Certified Application Architect for me is to take the Data Architecture and Management exam. So that is going to be my next focus. Wish me luck!

 

ABOUT CLOUD GALACTICOS

Cloud Galacticos is a Salesforce Consulting Partner with an all-star team. We are user and developer group leaders, bloggers, MVPs and all round Salesforce nerds. We have people all over the UK including Manchester, Leeds, York, Sheffield, and London. If you are looking for a Salesforce partner with experience who can help you make the most of your org, why not give us a call?

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Earning the Salesforce Certified JavaScript Developer I Credential

by with No Comment CertificationSalesforce study resources

At TrailheaDX 2020, the new Salesforce Certified JavaScript Developer I credential was announced. With the move to Lightning Web Components, vanilla JavaScript has become a core programming language on Salesforce, and this certification emphasizes this. I was invited to take the beta exam earlier this year but was unable to do so due to COVID-19. So when the full certification was released, I booked the exam as soon as possible to work on obtaining this new certification. It is composed of two parts; an exam and a superbadge.

Firstly, some background – I have worked extensively with JavaScript outside of Salesforce for a few years writing apps using Node.js and frameworks like React. I was therefore pretty confident in my ability to pass the exam. I am also a Salesforce Certified Instructor and am accredited to teach the Lightning Web Components training for Salesforce, and have used the framework a lot as well so was comfortable I should be able to handle the superbadge. For anyone looking to obtain this credential, I would recommend that they ensure they have spent a good amount of time working with modern vanilla JavaScript. You should have also used Lightning Web Components for more than just reviewing some of the sample apps.

Salesforce JavaScript Developer I Certification Path

The Exam

The exam portion follows the same tried and tested multiple-choice format via Webassessor that we all know and love. You are given 60 questions with a 65% pass mark so need to get at least 39 questions right. This exam also includes 5 unscored questions that I assume will show up in the future on the exam. The exam cover the following areas:

  • Variables, Types, and Collections: 23%
  • Objects, Functions, and Classes: 25%
  • Browser and Events: 17%
  • Debugging and Error Handling: 7%
  • Asynchronous Programming: 13%
  • Server Side JavaScript: 8%
  • Testing: 7%

These top 3 sections between them, if answered correctly, will earn you enough marks to pass the exam. As ever, it is smart to review these sections to decide on focus areas. The exam is code heavy, with lots of JavaScript snippets designed to make you think through what the code is doing and potentially catch you out. It’s no secret that JavaScript has some behaviours that seem strange, so make sure you are comfortable with these behaviours.

Salesforce provide a great set of resources on the Trailhead pages, including some modules to help you understand the newer language features. I would also highly recommend for anyone serious about learning JavaScript the You Don’t Know JS series of books. I have read and re-read them and still always learn something new. The Mozilla Developer Network documentation on JavaScript is also second to none and worth reviewing if you have any weaker areas.

I found the exam challenging but not too onerous, the questions were trying to make you think about the code but were not trying to trick you. As ever, keep calm, read through things thoroughly and you should have no issues.

The Superbadge

The second step to becoming Salesforce JavaScript Developer I certified is to complete the Lightning Web Components Specialist Superbadge. This superbadge has 4 pre-requisite badges that cover the basics of the Lightning Web Components framework to prepare you for the superbadge. This superbadge is tough. It took me a lot longer than I expected, and chatting with others it seems that it is a common experience. You need to read the details of this superbadge really carefully. Some of the requirements are mentioned as only a single word rather than being listed more clearly/explicitly and so can easily be missed. The superbadge involves building out an application to allow you to view boats for rental and leave reviews. All areas of the Lightning Web Component framework are covered, so you will definitely learn how to cover most scenarios.

Lightning Web Components Superbadge App

From my experience, I would encourage you to read and work through the contents before looking at the challenges. The contents of the superbadge wording do not correlate to the order of the challenges and so you can spend a lot of time jumping around the page which gets frustrating and leads to you missing requirements. When checking the challenges expect to receive some errors. Pay particular attention to naming of variables, using the correct case in your code, and even the order of statements. If you can set aside a couple of days to work through this, I would highly recommend it. I was doing this bit by bit in evenings and weekends and it was difficult to remember where things were.

If you get truly stuck, you can get help from the Trailhead support team. Be aware that they do not work weekends so try and raise issues during the week for a prompt response.

Salesforce JavaScript Developer I Certified!

And that is it! Once you have completed both, your certification will be sent over for you. Hopefully this guide has given you some good pointers and helped you on your journey. We look forward to seeing more people sharing their success on this on social media.


Paul Battisson Salesforce JavaScript Developer I Certified

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