My journey to getting certified started off back in October when we hired some consultants to work with our company in revamping our Salesforce and getting it ready for some real heavy lifting. I spoke with one of the consultants about how she got to where she is now and she told me about the courses that Salesforce offers as well as their certifications that are well recognized by employers all around the globe. She told me the first one to get under my belt was the Salesforce Certified Administrator.

Shortly thereafter, I was lucky enough that my company started a 3-month trial with Premier Plus Support from Salesforce. Part of this package included extensive access to their online training courses, available at no extra cost. I was able to take the Administration Essentials for New Admins (ADM201) course online as the start to my learning and prep for the certification.

The course took me about 6 weeks to complete. I did it on off-hours and I was constantly researching new topics and ideas that came to me as I was learning.

Once I was done with the course I did some additional research to understand how to best prep for the exam. These blogs and study sites were what really sealed the deal for me:

• Jenwlee’s Salesforce Blog 
• http://www.merivisblog.com/study-salesforce-admin-exam/
• http://focusonforce.com/courses/salesforce-certified-administrator/
• https://certifiedondemand.com/getting-certified/
• www.trailhead.salesforce.com

I took all of these different methods, plus purchasing the $19 admin test pack from focusonforce.com, and combined them to make a study plan that worked for me.

My study plan:

1. First I completed anything admin/beginner from Trailhead, as well as the security superbadge (despite my past life working in cyber security, Salesforce has a lot of little things you need to know, and just can’t without some guidance)
2. I started working through the tests I purchased. I had 6, so I planned them out to keep me going from mid-December, until my actual test day in mid-January
3. I also added Chegg to my phone and download some flashcards that I could do when I had time to kill

Review of Trailhead

Review of Focusonforce exams

After all of this was done, it was finally test day and I was ready (or so I kept telling myself).

I signed up to do the test online, with the online proctoring offered by Salesforce. My test was at 10:30 am and I had already planned to do at the office. A week before the exam I had my manager assist me with getting all the IT specs set up right. Salesforce has some very specific items they want to see or not see, so it is important to follow the instructions to a T. On test day, all I needed to do was set up my laptop and wait for it to be time to take the exam.

And that was it! I passed! On my first try 🙂

I am beyond super excited to have this under my belt and to moving up in the world of Salesforce and CRM administration.