Making the most of Trailhead and what it has to offer
I’ve been following posts across social media lately and one thing has struck out to me. Lots of people ask for help (which is great don’t stop).. whether it be studying for an exam, starting a new career, switching careers or just wanting to start learning Salesforce in general, which usually lead to a lot of answers saying Trailhead. Trailhead is one of the best free learning resources around and created by Salesforce themselves, but how many people actually make the most of it and use everything it has to offer? I’m going to breakdown some other features past the typical badges to help you maximise your use.
Before you start learning anything to do with Salesforce, it’s a good idea to understand which career path you want to take, and with this the typical responsibilities you will have within that role. Trailhead has a great careers page which details some of the main Salesforce roles here. it also displays typical salaries for the roles represented, but it’s important to remember these are US figures and the figures/industry is likely to be different if you’re in another location, so it’s worth checking the market subjective to your location. Lets have a look at some of the paths available:
Each person is different in this situation, and depending on job experience/background you might want to come in at different levels or roles, but here is what I would suggest (please don’t take anything I say as gospel this is just my opinion and i’ll breaking down careers a lot further in another post):
If you’re completely new to Salesforce, perhaps your first role, typically you can start as a Salesforce Administrator - This will give you exposure to Salesforce and allow you to explore a lot of it’s amazing features. It’ll also allow for hands-on experience, which is important!. You’ll be working for an end client as opposed to a consultancy, but some people prefer that.
Salesforce Developers - typically aspiring developers or confident. A lot of Salesforce devs coming from a coding background in which they can quickly adapt to learn apex (Salesforce programming language). Again, hands on role and they do some awesome work which can’t be done out of the box.
My personal career goal from the start has been Salesforce Architect. Usually split out into technical/solution architect roles depending on which you want to focus on. Architects has a less hands on role but are usually more experienced and understand the lifecycle of projects as well as the capabilities of Salesforce which they assist alongside the consultants/devs/bas to deliver a successful implementation.
Business Analyst - Also a role which can be junior or experienced, integral to project delivery understanding the business requirements and translating those into tangible requirements which the team can build from.
Marketing Careers - Probably you should have some interest in marketing if this is for you. Salesforce has some great marketing opportunities, things such as marketing cloud, pardot etc.
Sales Careers - You need people to sell otherwise you’d have nothing to implement.. right? Most people should be aware of this role but can be different depending on the situation. For example in a consultancy you’re selling the implementation, whilst if you worked directly for Salesforce you’d be selling licenses and the product
Salesforce Consultant - My career ventured me into consultancy. Very similar to Salesforce Administrators you’re involved in hands on experience and being part of the implementation across multiple projects. As opposed to administrators working for a consultancy you get exposed to multiple clients/projects and is a lot more fast paced.
Service Careers - Salesforce allows businesses to offer great customer service. If you’ve come from this background then it may be something that interests you.
If you click into each of the roles to explore further you can see a breakdown of salary/experience/growth rate etc. As I mentioned this is a great place to start understanding what you need to learn to get into a Salesforce role. Your career path will likely change as you progress in your career, finding out what you like/don’t like and that’s fine! you need to try to figure this stuff out.
Once you’ve got a good understanding of which career path you it’s time to start upskilling. By knowing your career focus it’s easier to pin down what we should be working on within Trailhead. There are some great virtual classes being run through the Trailhead Academy here which you should definitely sign up for and learn from people already doing the role you’re looking to do. You can filter those classes to find the right ones for you based on role/experience.
As well as virtual classes you also have trails and trailmixes available to you (badges). I' won’t cover these too much as I think most people get the principal of these. Trails are a breakdown of bitesized topics which when completed earn you badges. The same as the virtual classes above they can also be filtered by role/experience or product level, once again allowing you to only focus on the topics relevant to your career aspirations.
Each trail indicates how long it should take to complete and how many points you will get for completing it. By completing these badges you will be building a virtual CV which can be used when you go for your job interviews. Having these badges shows your willingness to learn and your time investment into learning Salesforce so definitely beneficial in completing. Your trailblazer profile is also visible to everyone, so don’t go fibbing or your employer will be able to tell!. This profile is your one-stop shop for Trailhead, displaying certs/superbadges/badges and community activity. It gives a basic understanding of your experience within the industry and is good to compliment your actual CV. Here’s mine:
So we’ve decided our career direction, started working on some trails and working towards that ranger rank (100 badges completed). What’s next? Superbadges. Superbadges can be viewed here. Unlike the normal badges you’ve been completing these are scenario based examples and are focused on putting what you’ve learnt into practise. These are great for taking business use cases and requirements and transforming them into a working Salesforce solution (the same you would be doing if you were in one of the roles above).
To access these superbadges you will need to complete the listed prerequisites on the detail page. Once you’ve done these then the superbadge will unlock and you’ll be able to complete it. Each badge gives a breakdown of what you’ll be doing and the concepts which are being tested. In my opinion these are great and show much greater knowledge than the standard badges, as long as you’re not Googling the answers!. If you feel confident with what you’ve learnt then these are definitely something you should be working towards. If you complete one you also get a large amount of points.. and who doesn’t love bonus points?.
With Trailhead you have the option to create developer orgs which act as your Salesforce playgrounds to complete the trails in. These are your best asset. Imagine being able to show your interviewer exactly what you’ve learnt, how you’ve taken business requirements and built a solution within Salesforce simply by logging in?. This will set you apart from the others. You don’t just have to use them for Trailhead, you can complete personal projects in them, learn new things outside of Trailhead and have something physical to show people when they ask what experience you have within Salesforce. Hands on experience beats all others in my opinion, and was the best way for me to learn early on in my career. You’ll also be much more familiar with Salesforce when it comes round to using it for real.
To create a new playground you can go into and of the hands on challenges and then select the dropdown as below:
Ok, now we’re cruising, we’ve hit ranger rank on Trailhead, completed our superbadges, read this amazing blog post on prepping for certifications and ready to take our certification. As I mentioned in that post, Trailhead has some great content for each exam which you can view by going into the individual pages depending on which exam you’re taking. This is an example for the administrator exam. We have the exam guide, trails and classes all specific to that exam which is a great place to focus on.
Once you’ve got a certification or two under your belt you need to maintain them 3 times a year in line with Salesforce releases. You can check if you’re behind on release exams here by entering your full name or email. Previously all of this was maintained outside of Trailhead, so this was a great move by Salesforce to bring it all into a single locations. Once you receive the email it’ll indicate if you’re behind and provide a link to the modules you need to complete, for example (spring 20 admin):
Once you’ve completed the badge you’ll then be up to date with all the latest features for that release. These only take 5-10 minutes to complete so there is no reason not to maintain your Salesforce credentials, even if no longer relevant to your role.
The last thing I want to mention on making the most out of Trailhead is the community tab. There are some great things in here which will help you progress in your career. Lets break them down.
Trailblazer Community - Great place to visit if you’re stuck. Salesforce has an incredible community which is willing to help you. You can ask your question here and the community will help you with the answer, great right?
Community Groups - There are a host of community meetups all over the country. Use this page to find one which is close to you. It’s a great place to learn and meet new people in the industry (these are being hosted virtually at the moment due to lockdown). Definitely recommend if you’re just getting started in your career.
Events - Same as above, Salesforce events which are being held.
Trailblazer Connect - Salesforce mentorship program. What better than to have a mentor which is experienced and can guide you? You can apply here to find one of the volunteered mentors. Apply here
Quests - Complete challenges set by Salesforce to win prizes! some great prizes such as certification vouchers to be won so definitely worth checking out.
IdeaExchange - Whilst not listed above within the Trailblazer Community is the IdeaExchange - A place where you can suggest any improvements/crazy ideas you think will improve the Salesforce product. A great place to see what others have suggested and vote on your favourites.
Trailhead is a GREAT resource for those learning Salesforce and one which is continually evolving. No matter if you’re just starting out or experienced, there’s always new things to learn. Good luck in your careers, and hopefully these blogs continue to help you. If you made it this far… thank you!. Make sure to follow us if you enjoyed.
