Study strategies for Salesforce don’t differ much from strategies you might adopt when learning any other IT solution, in my opinion. To become proficient with a tool, you simply need to work with it extensively! Simple, right? But what if you want to learn Salesforce but don’t use it regularly at work? The answer to this question is quite straightforward. You should change your job to one where you use Salesforce! Of course, this is somewhat of a joke because without knowing Salesforce, it’s challenging to land a job related to the platform unless it’s as a user. So, what should you do? There’s nothing groundbreaking to say here – you just need to find time to click around Salesforce on your test environment (Development or Trailhead). When I was learning Salesforce, I was fortunate enough to have a company I previously worked for decide to implement it, and I participated in the implementation before eventually administering the tool. However, our implementation was relatively simple. Therefore, to explore other aspects of Salesforce, I learned in the same way I encourage you to: by clicking around extensively on my test environment. However, I did so methodically rather than chaotically, finding some structure or scenario to guide my approach. This could involve using materials or courses on Salesforce Trailhead, video courses on platforms such as Udemy, or materials from Salesforce blogs or YouTube.
As for practical application, when learning Salesforce, I initially relied heavily on video courses. However, I wasn’t merely a passive viewer. Instead, I frequently paused the videos to try out the functionality presented directly in Salesforce, navigating through the same steps as shown in the course. This allowed me to independently understand what was happening in Salesforce and why, reinforcing my understanding. Additionally, I believe that typing things on the screen helps reinforce the terminology and naming conventions of Salesforce visually. Many of us are visual learners, and without this approach, I would never have remembered certain specific names of Salesforce features. Another challenge is that Salesforce often changes the names of its features. But there’s nothing we can do about that. Therefore, my advice is not to be passive during learning, regardless of the source.
But can you be passive while completing tasks on Trailhead? Unfortunately, in my opinion, yes. Salesforce Trailhead tasks are usually explained very explicitly, leaving little room for interpretation. This can sometimes lead to mindlessly clicking through Trailhead without truly understanding or remembering much. I recommend occasionally pausing, and consulting other sources including YouTube videos to gain a deeper understanding of a particular functionality, especially if it’s highly weighted on the Salesforce Certified Administrator exam.
Of course, you can use Salesforce Trailhead when preparing for the exam and Salesforce even proposes official Trailhead modules that can help you to prepare for the exam (we will cover them in this chapter). The only thing we do not recommend is to do the Salesforce Superbadges (special types of Trailhead exercises) as they are rather complex and based on specific scenarios. They are also time consuming and focus on some details too much to the detriment of others.