So you want to be a Salesforce admin?
Have you ever searched glass door or asked Chat GPT what a Salesforce Admin makes an wished you knew how to get started?
I asked ChatGPT just now and was told 66k for entry level up to 117k for senior level for my area here in metro Atlanta. I’ll consider myself as an authoritative source to confirm those numbers are in the right ball park, give or take an unknown margin of error.
In this blog post, I’m going to give you my best advice to get started in a Salesforce career, but first, my background. I don’t have a course to sell. I don’t offer career coaching. I’m offering tips based on my own experience.
I have been hired at 6 different full time, W2, Salesforce focused roles. I have been the hiring manager for about the same number of roles, and on the hiring panel for another dozen or so. I have done hundreds on interviews on both sides of the process. I have also personally sold contracting services to over 150 clients during my consulting experiences.
Enough about me, here’s what I think matters the most:
Certifications
Yes, they matter. No they don’t matter as much as you might think. No matter what path you’re interested in pursuing, everyone in the ecosystem should get the Salesforce Admin certification.
Here is the order I would recommend getting certifications for someone new to the ecosystem looking to be an admin or consultant:
Salesforce Certified Administrator
Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant
Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder
Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant
The admin and the app builder certs cover useful skills for an entry level role. The consultant certs are less directly focused on admin skills, but they have an intrinsic value in the Salesforce Partner consulting space because consulting agencies have requirements and get points for those certs. Other than those 4, I would recommend not getting any additional certifications without getting product experience aligned with the cert (EG CPQ, Field Service, Account Engagement)
Having taken the Business Analyst and AI Associate certs myself, I consider them to be a trivial addition for an admin focused application.
Trailhead
This is a tool, not a credential, in my mildly humble opinion. Use it to learn, use it to prepare for certifications. I’m a 5 start ranger myself, but I don’t really care about badges or ranger status for a resume. Superbadges are one of the better free learning tools out there. There are a few main areas to focus on: flows, flows, and flows. Just kidding (kinda).
Volunteer Experience
Generally speaking, I would consider this of very low value. Why? Because it’s generally of very low relevance. Volunteering for a 20 user non profit org doesn’t provide relevant experience for working with a 500 user PE backed, for profit org.
Internships/Jr Roles
These I would consider highly valuable if they have 1) hands on experience and 2) mentoring/coaching from someone more experienced.
Proficient American English
Salesforce is a software company based in the US and so are many of their customers. I spoke with a Salesforce partner recently based in South America and was curious to learn if they had many clients local to them - answer was no. While there is a global and diverse talent pool, the Salesforce customer base largely speaks American English.
Business Experience
This is often under represented on resumes. For example, a successful sales manager understands the process and daily functions of a sales team that would be using Sales Cloud, Revenue Cloud, Sales Engagement, etc. Similarly, a service manager understands what SLAs, how they are important for a service team, and can define process around entitlements for the SLAs before learning anything technical about Service Cloud.
Personally, I came from an IT background, so I understood the technical side and have learned the business side in leadership roles and by running my own businesses.
Understanding Sales, Marketing, Service, and Financial process is more import than understanding Apex, APIs, Javascript, etc.
Geography
This matters more and more in the post covid era. Many roles including the ones I’m hiring for are looking for a hybrid work environment instead of fully remote. While I’ve never lived near New York or San Francisco, I can say with certainty there are many roles available exclusive to those locations.
