How To Become A Salesforce Platform Developer

Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM platforms for enterprises. Since many companies use CRM software small business to expedite their growth, this popularization effects many industries. Salesforce platform’s solution makes it easy for companies to create apps with speed. These companies move on to harness the capabilities required to embrace the fast paced speed of digital transformation. Salesforce’s robust architecture forms a strong basis on which other apps can be built.

The tools and benefits that come with Salesforce contribute to its popularity among B2B marketers. As a Salesforce platform developer, your main job is to exploit its full capabilities, to allow end users maximum use.

How To Become A Salesforce Developer

Salesforce includes many specialties which are divided into 3 main categories:

• Admin
• Business user
• Developer

It can be daunting to master all of these areas. As such, the best way to approach your studies and build proficiency is to specialize in a specific area and master it.

The Salesforce platform developer specialty is suitable for IT professionals. If you are a system administrator, developer, technical architect, app builder, or IT manager, this course will help you to increase your range of knowledge.

It is important to pursue a Salesforce course at a reputable online institution to get the most out of your investment. Your course should teach you the following, among other things:

• Platform development
• Data modeling and management
• Data security
• Customizing Salesforce
• Lightning framework
• Apex programming
• Visualforce and search solution basics

Skills And Competencies

Your responsibilities will vary based on what you seek to get out of Salesforce. While most developers want to learn the top ways to increase sales, you likely have other goals as well. Some common tasks (and competencies) will include:

Once you complete your course, you should have the following competencies:

• Using the Lightning Platform to customize interfaces and extend the capabilities of Salesforce
• Understand Apex and Visualforce and their application to development
• Know how to leverage Salesforce to customize and deploy business logic
• Understand programmatic and declarative methods
• Know when a scenario calls for each approach
• Familiarity with development environments and the entire development life cycle
• Experience developing in various, object-oriented platforms
• Understand relational databases
• Building applications for mobile or the web
• Integrating Salesforce with systems already being used
• Know how to use data-driven applications

Certification

After you complete your Salesforce PD1 (Platform Developer) certification course, you must take the Salesforce platform developer examinations in order to get certified. Whether you intend to work as a freelancer or full time for an organization, opportunities will open up for you if you have your Salesforce platform developer certification. You can show prospective employers or clients to prove that you are qualified. Employers want to know that you are proficient in using Apex and Visualforce, and that you can build custom apps on the Salesforce platform.

About The Exam

The Salesforce exam contains 60 multiple choice questions, which should be completed in 110 minutes. You can take the exam in a physical testing center or in a proctored environment online. It is against the rules to refer any material while the exam is on course.

You need to score 65% or above to pass. The exam costs $200, tax inclusive. If you don’t pass, you can retake the exam at a lower fee. All Salesforce exams and certifications are regulated by Salesforce University.

As mentioned above, the Salesforce developer course is the main prerequisite for the exam. The exam weightage for the different course objectives are as follows:

• Salesforce Fundamentals: 10%
• Data Modeling and Management: 12%
• Logic and Process Automation: 46%
• User Interface: 10%
• Testing: 12%
• Debugging and Deployment Tools: 10%

Use these specifics to map a study strategy that gives each objective the effort commensurate to the weight.

Job Outlook

Salesforce developers are in high demand and earn decent profits. Salesforce developers often earn thousands of dollars more than other developers. This goes for freelancers as well.

As a freelancer, you can earn up to $81 per hour. If you can sustain regular contracts as a freelancer at this rate, you will earn over $150,000 per year. When developers earn such high wages, they can afford to take freelancer breaks.

In order to achieve such a goal, you need to work hard initially. After you gain 1 to 2 years of experience as a Salesforce platform Developer I, you should take the Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II course. Having this certification demonstrates that you have expert mastery of all the important components of the Salesforce platform.

Certification Expiration Dates

New Salesforce feature releases are timed to coincide with winter, spring and summer seasons. After each release, Salesforce platform professionals are required to update their knowledge in order to maintain their certifications. For this reason, Salesforce offers maintenance modules with each release cycle. These vary depending on your certification. Completion of release-specific modules is essential to maintain your credentials. Failure to complete maintenance modules by the due date will cause your certifications to expire.

Set email notifications to receive all updates on the due dates. Additionally, regularly check the Salesforce website. Then, you will avoid missing release dates and maintenance requirements. Once a deadline is released, put it in your calendar and set a reminder.

If you have multiple certifications, expiration of one could affect other specialties. For instance, an expired administrator certification will prohibit you from practicing as a Sales Cloud Consultant or advanced administrator. In such a case, you will need to retake all the exams for the individual courses to re-earn your credentials.

Platform Developer II Certification

If you don’t complete Salesforce Platform Developer I maintenance module, not only will your certificate expire, but your Salesforce Platform Developer II certificate will be suspended. Only after you re-certify as a Platform Developer I, will your Salesforce platform II developer certificate be reinstated.

Professionals predict that CRM will become the largest category in enterprise software. This makes software development a key area of opportunity for anyone with the necessary skills. As businesses continue to invest in this area, more opportunities will open up globally.

However, only the best survive in software development. The journey to your dream career will not be easy; you need to commit to your studies and practice any skills you learn.

In addition to your certification, you need to cultivate key qualities. Since writing code takes a long time, learn how to concentrate effectively. You also need to acquire user-friendly traits. Finally, Salesforce developers need to maintain detail-oriented qualities. After all, even the smallest error in the code could cause a whole system to malfunction. Keep the above information in mind to become a successful Salesforce platform developer.