I named the e-book “Finally Get Certified” because the majority of people I talk to in the Salesforce.com community are thinking about their certification, but not actively getting certified. To me getting certified means that you paid $200, you have an actual test date and have a studying schedule Most of the consultants or admins I meet have the Salesforce.com expertise and skills, but don’t have the accreditation to back up their competence.
Rarely do I meet the people who have only taken the exams but have almost no knowledge of the product. In fact, the last two colleagues I had who fit this description were quickly fired since they did not know almost anything practical about Salesforce; they just memorized information for exams. Once they got in front of clients and were expected to write a requirements document or build an implementation, their lack of skills became apparent. Like I mentioned before, hands-on, billable work is the best way to grow your Salesforce skills. The tests are just Salesforce’s way to trying to verify your experience. For better or for worse, that is reality.
So my guess is that since you probably have a good amount of Salesforce experience but have wavered on taking a certification exam. Your experience might be different than the ones I’ve outlined here, but the idea is the same: there is some limiting belief that is hindering you from achieving Salesforce.com certification. So yours might be slightly different, but my guess is that they fall into a similar theme. Here are the top reasons I’ve encountered for not becoming certified:
I don’t want to fail the exam
I don’t have any hard numbers to back this up, but almost everyone I’ve spoken to about the certification exams have failed at least one of them at some point. Salesforce is a huge, complex application and the exams are designed to be tricky. That magic combination will result in failure from time to time. They key is how you view the failing. If you see it as some sort of affirmation that you don’t understand Salesforce at all, that will keep you from taking the risk and ultimately passing the exam.
However, if you view failing as a learning experience that you can build on, then failing an exam will help you get closer to your final goal of becoming certified. There’s lots of other literature in business about “failing fast.” I am currently reading a book called Designing Your Life and the authors (both designers) recommend failing fast AND failing forward. I couldn’t agree more. Just get that failure out of the way. And then move on to the work of re-grouping and passing that exam. It is a little like getting your first C in college. Once you realize it wasn’t that bad, you wonder why you stressed so much over it. And remember, for all Salesforce exams, getting a C (70%) will pass every exam.
I’ve heard the test is really difficult
I would totally agree with this statement (except for the developer exam which seemed like a joke and has sense been phased out). The exams are difficult. They are NOTHING like the trailhead questions that seem playful and obvious. The exams are designed to be difficult; however, if you have a strategy them become much less difficult.
I recently passed the Marketing Cloud exam (without every using the application) mostly from using the strategy I’ve outlined in this e-book. The tests are difficult but having a good strategy will help alleviate some of the challenges you’ll face as you take them. My guess is that most people who say this didn’t have a strategy for taking the exam (like you will by the end of this e-book).
Lastly, the Administrator exam is by far the hardest of the six exams I’ve taken because it covers such a broad range of topics. The good news is that the other exams are less difficult than the admin one. So your friend might actually be saying “the Admin test is difficult” instead of saying that ALL of the exams are that level of difficulty. To me, that makes a difference.
I don’t have the time
The reality is you will NEVER have the time to pursue this if you don’t make it a priority. Unexpected work will always creep up. Family members will get sick and emails will continue to flood your inbox as you take off time to study. I wish I could tell you that when you study, the universe magically gives you a break so you can pursue this with total focus and be free from distractions. That is never the case. But you can over come this if you make it a priority and devote ~10 hours to it over a month. I have yet to meet someone who is so busy they can’t find 10 free hours in a month. We can all sacrifice a few things here and there to carve out 10 hours over 2-3 weeks. While it would be very difficult to carve out 10 hours next week. My guess is that you could carve out 3 hours next week, 3 hours the following week and then 4 hours that final week.
Also, you can always move the exams as long as you reschedule the exam at least three days before you had scheduled to take it. I moved my Pardot exam at least five times between January 2016 until I finally took it in June. I would make a plan to study for the exam and then I’d get a new project that required a lot of work. So there is flexibility if your circumstances changes and you need to push it out a few weeks. The only reason I finally took the Pardot exam in June was the local testing center I used was off until August and I didn’t want to wait until August to take that exam again. This “deadline” made me carve out the final 6 hours I needed to study for and Pass the Pardot exam (finally!).
So my question for you is what haven’t you become certified? Are you afraid to fail the exam? Have you let colleagues’ horror stories dissuade you from taking the test? Is the thought of carving out the time in the midst of your busy schedule seem too overwhelming?
