Getting Salesforce Certified: Important or Unnecessary?
It’s a thought that has likely crossed the mind of anyone studying (or footing the bill) for Salesforce Training and Certification: is it truly significant?
Administrators, developers, and consultants are encouraged to get cloud-certified, stating that the act of doing so will render them indispensable.
Salesforce offers four tracks of learning and certification: Administrators can acquire a standard and Advanced certification, Implementation experts can be Sales or Service Cloud certified, Developers have a regular and Advanced exam, and Technical Architects have a multi-tiered certification that includes a $6000 Review Board Presentation. All professionals involved in Salesforce to some degree are invited to study, train, and complete certification exams that can cost anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars each.
Here’s an idea of what to expect on the Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant Exam
Within this industry, you’ll find people discussing typical test questions, their study tactics, how many certifications they hold, and the importance of keeping up with seasonal maintenance exams. In Social Networking profiles and bios, you’ll find information about an individual’s certified credentials. You’ll probably come across emails with logos and attachments in the signature, and even pictures posted on Facebook of tiny surfboards with the words “Certs Up” somewhere in the captions.
While certain companies will require certifications from all employees who utilize and configure Salesforce for customers, others are shrugging their shoulders at the concept of paying for a label or title, when they’d rather their employees spend more time obtaining tangible and applicable experience.
Lets explore the opinions we’ve gathered from both sides….
Salesforce’s Reasons to Get Certified
(summarized from their website)
- The demand for experts is growing rapidly, and companies are looking for proven professionals
- Businesses that use cloud-certified specialists see smoother deployments and better use of their Salesforce.com investment
- Obtaining a certification will boost your career and enable you to contribute more toward your company’s success
- Earning a credential demonstrates that you have the skills and confidence to take full advantage of the program and all its intricacies
- You can be included in private LinkedIn groups and attend special events in your city hosted for Certified Professionals only
Differing Opinions
- Anyone can pass a multiple-choice test and tell the world they are an expert – it’s the applied knowledge that matters most
- This is just another way for Salesforce to earn money
- End-users who only spend 25-50% of their day accessing Salesforce from a beginner’s perspective do not need to waste all that time and effort
- It’s a waste of an implementation firm’s time and money to train and certify all their employees, when time and money could be better spent on servicing clients
- From a consultant’s perspective, would you feel more confident displaying your expertise to a Salesforce customer if you were backed by multiple relevant certifications?
- From a customer’s perspective, would you sooner hire a consulting company with Salesforce Certified Developers and Implementation Experts vs. those who choose to overlook the qualification process entirely?
- In order to formally teach and explain a program or concept to someone in exchange for money, is it not necessary to have the appropriate credentials?
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