Salesforce Learning Resources – Phil’s Tip of the Week #400

Welcome to Tip of the Week number 400! This week’s tip is a special super edition covering the best Salesforce learning resources. When I started writing this weekly tip in 2012, I was unsure it would hit 40 let alone 400 tips. So before we dive in, a big thank you to everyone who reads this weekly and has contributed over the years.

This week’s tip is all about the best Salesforce learning and study resources to help you, whether it is preparing for an exam or just learning more about a feature. I’ve collated the best resources I have come across and crowdsourced a few more. I have tried to break it down into sections to make it easier to read. Think I have missed something? Let me know!

General Study Methods

1. Formulas for Successfully Learning Salesforce – London’s Calling 2019 talk from Don Robbins and Dan Appleman
2. Learning Technology in the Information Age Pluralsight course by Dan Appleman
3. Learning to Learn for Certification Success – Dreamforce 2018 talk by Paul Battisson, Cloud Galacticos COO 
4. Associated Learning How to Be a Better Learner Blog from Paul
5. Keeping Up With Technology Pluralsight course by Dan Appleman

General Salesforce Learning Resources

1. No list of Salesforce Learning Resources would be complete without mentioning Trailhead.
2. Salesforce 101 – An Introduction to Salesforce Udemy course by Francis Pindar
3. Salesforce Partner Community If you work for a partner you should get logged in here. You can find a number of great groups for certification fast paths as well as partner online training.
4. Power of Us Hub – working with Non-Profits or Education organisations? Have a look at the training options in the Power of Us Hub – all free!
5. Trailhead Academy Classes – these are paid for in person or virtual classes from Salesforce Experts. Well worth attending if you want to really learn a topic rapidly and pick the brains of someone with a lot of experience.
6. Focus on Force is a fantastic website that has a ton of training material and resources.
7. The Official Certification Guides – if you are looking to get certified this is the place to start. The official guides give a great breakdown of what topics each exam will cover and the points for each section.
8. Salesforce Help – An often overlooked place to get the detail on how something works
9. Salesforce Certification Days – A day of exam preparation from an expert which often include discount codes for the exam itself
10. Salesforce Support official YouTube channel that has a lot of great videos
11. Salesforce Architects Medium Blog – a fairly new blog we featured in a recent tip of the week. A superb resource to read more about all things architecture.
12. Salesforce Engineering Medium Blog – Not necessarily talking about Salesforce technology but by the team that keeps the platform moving
13. Salesforce Tip/Cheat Sheets – a great set of cheat sheets for all sorts of things
14. SFDC Stop – a great blog that contains lots of Salesforce information
15. Salesforce.org Blog – The official blog for the Salesforce.org team

Clicks

1. There are many people who still find reading a book a great way of learning. We have a full list of book recommendations for administrators here
2. Salesforce Certified Administrator (aka 201) 2020 from Francis Pindar on Udemy
3. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist Practice Tests
4. SFDC Fanboy Blogs on Marketing Cloud Email Specialist 
5. Official Salesforce Admins Podcast – Salesforce Admin learning and discussion straight into your ears
6. Official Salesforce Admins Blog
7. WizardCast Podcast – This podcast has been going for a while and has great back catalogue of content for you to learn from 

Code

1. Salesforce Developer Podcast – the official podcast for Salesforce Developers
2. Salesforce Developer Blog – the official Salesforce Developer blog
3. Salesforce Developer TV – a lot of people don’t know about this great Salesforce Learning resource, a curated set of videos on a range of topics
4. Salesforce Developers YouTube Channel – more content that the last resource including webinars and events
5. London Salesforce Developer Group YouTube Channel  – the London Developer Group uploads their recordings to YouTube, a great set of resources from the community.
6. Good Day Sir Podcast – Another podcast, sometime less Salesforce focussed but some great content and a wonderful community
7. Salesforce Way Podcast – Xi interviews a range of clever people learning about Salesforce topics 
8. Heroku Codeish Podcast – For when you want to get even more technical, the Heroku podcast is there
9. We have a full list of developer focussed books to recommend
10. Keir Bowden’s Blog – blogs from Mr Salesforce himself, Bob Buzzard aka Keir Bowden
11. Salesforce Play by Plays on Pluralsight from Don Robins and Others
12. Jitendra Zaa’s Blog – regular great content on a range of topics
13. SFDC 99 – a great resource to learn how to program in Apex

Taking an Exam

After using all these resources you will be ready to take a certification exam. You have 2 options, both are via Webassessor. You can either attend an exam at a test centre around the globe, or you can take a proctored session online. For an online exam, you need to create an account and install Sentinel onto your laptop alongside some identity setup. Therefore, I recommend doing it well before your exam slot! Currently, you can use your laptop’s in-built camera, but usually you need an external camera so the invigilator can see your face, hands, and around your laptop. My exam was once stopped because I was wearing a watch, so remove anything they may find could be a cheating risk. 

When can I retake exams? Book the retake after 1 day, book 2nd retake after 14, after that have to wait until next release cycle, (then it is classed as a take not retake?) You can read the official guidance here. If English is not your first language, you can request an extra 30 minutes by sending an email to: certification@salesforce.com.

Thank you!

Thank you for reading, and for being part of my Salesforce journey over the past 16 years. I look forward to writing many more weekly Salesforce tips, and would love to hear from any of you that would like to add guest tips (just drop me a line at phil@cloudgalacticos.co.uk).

One final message…don’t feel the pressure to learn EVERYTHING now! When I started using Salesforce in 2004 it was a pretty simple job to be the expert, but now there are so many features, extensions, apps, clouds, and often numerous ways to achieve the same outcome. So choose one thing and learn it, don’t just tick off boxes for the sake of a milestone. It is great to be self-motivated, but it is a marathon not a sprint! Stay safe and happy.

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