I work for Salesforce as a Consultant. I mostly end up working for companies as an Admin/BA. I'm very confident most companies post job postings for Salesforce Dev's because they don't understand the difference between the two. I get called a Salesforce Developer all the time and I don't write code.
I got the admin certification but couldn't land a Salesforce admin job. Had to do other jobs first for financial security... Hope I can continue my SF study soon and one day get into the ecosystem.
Admins are important if you have a large team in the double digits. We have a 14 Salesforce person team with a combination of architects, developers and Admins: 3, 4, 7 respectively. Out of the 7 admins, 2 are full time admins, doing admin stuff and first tier Sfdc support, the other five serve as second tier support, scrum masters, and RFE development with some light coding.
IMO, to stand out as an admin, you need to know how to translate business requirements to solution design; solving as much as possible with declarative tools, and only bringing in development when necessary.
Agree about the need for admins to stand out from the pack. We should learn at the very least enough coding to work effectively on an enterprise level team with developers and project managers. That's another trend we're seeing in Salesforce jobs (call for PM skills).
More content... topics... a day in the life of a person with a sf career... what’s it like to work for google, What are some methods of study that worked for you, where do you find your motivation, living in the Bay Area as a tech guy, how remote jobs are taking over, what is it like to be a part of the Sf culture, what is Dreamforce like, what are all the types of jobs you can go after as a Salesforce geek, what do you see for the future of Salesforce(you touched on that, are their any other technologies one should learn that may enhance your Salesforce abilities
I've got a list of all the videos I wanna make and you hit the nail on the head. About 200 vids on it, including all these topics. Didn't think of the Dream force one though!
You changed my mind about the admin career path - 100% agree that anything an admin does a developer can do and often better. I had one of my developers learn Flow, and within a month he knew it better than I do. I would say that most developers are not very strong at requirements gathering and can struggle with solutioning if they haven't kept up with Salesforce products... Our org has legacy code that one developer built (before me!) to calculate business hours and SLAs because he didn't understand entitlements and milestones. Hence why the Salesforce Business Analyst role has been growing too.
Amen, big rise to architects in the past few years! Note that vast majority of architect positions likely require some coding knowledge, even if it's just being able to work well with devs.
Great post David. Additionally, given the increasing number of multi-cloud instances (i.e. Sales + Marketing, Sales + Commerce), as well as the introduction of Tableau, Mulesoft, etc. I see the growth of the Architect role to be even more in demand in the coming years.
Thanks as always David! Next time you worry if what you say is going to be make people mad, please post it anyway - truth needs to be heard, this helped me make my decision much easier to focus on development!
Man, first I see the video about not learning to code cause you don't need it, than you're saying admin is dead and learn development/coding. Man, you're confusing people
No Kidding. I worked for 4 certifications (1 on the way) for associate, admin, platform app builder and advanced admin (on the way) only to realize this crushing reality. Hits harder when you already took a 1.3 year career gap. I feel so lost tbh.
Agree. David's Apex Academy is so fun and the best way to understand coding if you have no prior experience. Don't start with Trailhead. Start with David's class (my favorite) or some other intro to coding, if you have no coding experience. I had JavaScript experience but I STILL badly needed Apex Academy.
I strongly disagree. There will always be less Salesforce Admin jobs than salesforce developers. Moreover Companies have different titles for Salesforce administrators so you can simply depend on LinkedIn keyword search. Like consulting companies always give fancy titles for Admin jobs like Salesforce Analysts or Functional consultant etc
I had an interview and was told it wasnt program intensive and i am doing mostly data entry i was told etc. And i would be trained. I am not a programmer at all!
Hmm. I just filled a role for a Business Analyst role requiring Salesforce focused. It’s true I have not seen any Salesforce admin roles. Thanks for the video. Love you using LinkedIn - it’s my virtual home. ☺️
Hi Jessica! May you add me on LinkedIn so I can ask you some questions? I tried searching your name and hundreds popped up haha. I'm JaLia Steward on there.
That's a pretty big issue too, probably worth it's own video thank you! 😂 Really interested to learn more about what other things you consider to be prime skills of admins!
I started a new job as a SF Admin. The reason the company hired one in the first place was bc they needed someone to handle the minor admin stuff while the developers and managers dedicate their time to building. Before, developers and managers were doing everything. I got admin cert and app builder cert. on my first week, I was doing outbound change sets when that’s something you learn with the app builder cert. Admin cert teaches you the general aspects like a bachelor degree. But the other certs teach more specific things. In terms of flows, neither admin nor app builder cert delve too much into it. What I’m saying is if a company wants someone to do flows, they probably know that admins don’t have as much knowledge as devs. I read an article that highlight your related skills. If you have 5 years of hospitality but one 1 of SF. Really sell yourself on your hospitality skills. Also! Connect with your SF community!!!
Really great video - I would add Salesforce Business Analyst, Salesforce Product Owner, Salesforce Manager and Salesforce Practice Lead. There are many different career paths emerging as teams get bigger and more complex.
I saw this coming a couple years ago. Companies don't believe in a admin-developer handoff. They want people who can do both. If companies demand developers then developers will dominate. Salesforce pushes #AwesomeAdmins and creating jobs, but if you look at Salesforce's own job listings it's mostly sales-related or developers.
Talking to recruiters and they say Admins have been hit with a double whammy with lay-offs due to covid19. So not only are you competing in a shrinking market, but there is a flood of experienced Admins looking for work. Trying to break into the market as a newbie is a tough ask. Could it also be that Admins just aren't moving and dev work is expanding; especially in the current market and companies are going hard with digital transformations
Great point. COVID is yet another indicator of the fragility of the admin position. I wish I thought of that before recording this lol. It's true COVID contributes to this trend and it should be a red flag that the admin role is more disposable than others. This only accelerates the trend.
you absolutely hit the nail on the head. When I moved to SF, from Siebel, I was surprised that 'admin' was a career. In Siebel world we let admins do only the basic things (user management, managing picklists, etc). As we see SF making it possible to do more and more complex things declaratively (e.g. Now Flow Builder can do pretty complex things there is no way we would let an admin create Flows because they are not knowledgeable about code vs Flows, overcoming Flow limitations, connecting to CI/CD, etc ). So last few projects I have seen admins only doing the most basic of tasks and even that has not been easy because we implement CI/CD in most projects and admin so far haven't been able to get their heads around how that works and devs have to always get involved in fixing new code commits.
@@dvdkliu Also...even if the actual job is just purely admin stuff or even support related, none of the companies only want a pure admin. Just to be safe,they want a developer in an off chance once in 6 months you may wanna make a code change or a change in a formula field
Great take, David! I think that your 2nd recommendation (learning the entire portfolio) is something that a lot of people gloss over. Salesforce products are really designed to work together, but they don't always do so seamlessly. Knowing how to knit these services together to create end-to-end solutions is something that's in high demand. As for the death of the Administrator role, it's a shame, and borne from modern hiring practices. Similar to how job postings for "full stack" developers have become a bit of a meme, it seems that SF admins are suffering a similar fate. It really is semantics in the end. In many cases, "developers" transition from other languages or frameworks and jump directly into writing code, when clicks will perform, scale, and be far more maintainable than a coded solution.
Don´t freak out people. I agree with David. Just forget about that #awesomeadmin marketing stuff from Salesfore, it is so outdated and does not reflect today´s job market reality. Admins no longer exist per say, today you are either a developer (scope : apex, lwc and point and click) or a functional consultant/analyst (scope : need analysis, business processes mapping, workshop leads etc. and point and click). That´s at least the case here in europe. So if you are not interested in coding go the consultant role, the demand is still high (less than devs tho) but know your clouds (certs, certs, certs) and build great softskills.
Why do I see all Admin Jobs when I search "Salesforce Administrator" in Palo Alto California? Did you intentionally keep scrolling until you found secondary dev postings?
I actually found out that the results change a lot every day. When I ran it earlier this week, buncha dev jobs on page 1. Last night, buncha dev jobs on other pages instead. Read the job descriptions and scroll as far as you need to develop your own opinion!
And when I run it right now I'm getting the first 5 out of 8 (all non promoted) jobs as dev jobs when searching for "Salesforce administrator" in Palo Alto. There's probably some part of the algorithm that changes your results based on your profile and activity, so, you need to read as many descriptions / pages as you can to get a non-biased sample size.
as a Salesforce developer with multiple certifications ... I've been expected to solve EVERY issue / project that came up in my Orgs and actually have done my MOST Admin work on teams that actually have full-time admins
David that is the best advice that I ever saw!! In South America, is happening the same, and I'm thinking to learn/spend more LWC than aura or apex why? because then you can open to other technologies(js, maybe in the future evergreen?) like React, node.js, unfortunately here there is no so much jobs in salesforce than US.
Agreed. Personally I'd start with Apex for the fundamentals but if your heart is in LWCs then go for it. As long as you ignore Visualforce you're good lol.
It’s best to get into any IT job like desktop support with salesforce troubleshooting to gain experience. It’s easier to put that experience on your resume rather than just getting certified with no experience. Then you work in that role for a couple years. After that, apply for an actual salesforce role that will usually work 😀
There are other paths I mention too not just the coding route, see the conclusion for more info! This is basically if you really don't want to code lol
@@dvdkliu I do really want to code. I vision is to become a Salesforce architect one day. When I make code adjustments at work and it works, I feel great. But every time I have to do it, I am not confident at all and it takes me so much time :(
David, I love your videos. They are brave and very dense with advice. Just one tiny note: "A generalist with people skills that works between stakeholders and developers" is usually a Business Analyst, and they have way more skills than "people skills", most notably industry, business and analytical skills. But I assume that you group all non-tech skills into the "People Skills" umbrella term, so I forgive you!
I put a lot of time and effort into my Salesforce Admin cert only to get discouraged after months of barely even getting interviews. I wouldn't really recommend the field to anyone at this point unless they know someone who can definitely help them get a job. Huge disappointment.
I'm starting to feel this way as well. Honestly, I feel like all this talk about tech being "so vast and versatile" is just that - talk. Bottom line is, in 2022/2023, if you don't have advanced coding/developer skills, then you're not getting hired.
@@dvdkliu Thanks for the response. I noticed that further on into the video that you did make reference to this. In that context, maybe you can design a way to reach out to the existing employees being cross-trained, especially where the company is not encouraging them to develop their skills properly.
BA I group similarly to the consultant path. It's basically doubling down on people skills. I think it's a good move for admins, get that PMP certification.
Could you please make a detailed video on option 1 and option 2 mentioned by you? I'd suggest making a few videos with someone who is currently in those roles will be really helpful for folks like me who are still not sure whether to take the developer route or the consultant one! PS: I got myself admin certified and landed a Salesforce quality engineer job. I'm currently contemplating where to go from here.
Salesforce dev is more involved with biz decisions plus less technical (still very technical). Also note it is very platform specific. Both paths are good it's really what you are looking for in your career. Overall Salesforce devs can be paid more with less technical skills, but with the downside of being platform specific.
@@dvdkliu if you become a salesforce developer, will it be possible to later on switch to swe role outside salesforce platform? Won't we be restricted to this platform only....
This is very interesting. I am the saleforce admin for my company. While there is a developer and saleforce specialist, they unfortunately do not want to do the tedious work and have transfered all their knowledge over to me. Overtime, i have gained the technical skills on top of my people skills (that these developer unfortuntely lack or doesnt care for). My question is, how can i, as the admin, excel in this position having both the general technical skill and people skill i have gained in this company?
When you can pay your developer to do both code and do Admin work,why pay extra for a pure admin who can't code. That's the logic that hiring managers use
A Salesforce Developer is not really a true coder, and is next to ineffective when comparing it to a true pure breath programmer. The bosses don't know the difference.
@@crumblycisco Believe me....when your app needs higher customisation,you need a lot of coding in addition to our of the box ffeatures that Salesforce provides. I am a Salesforce developer and I have used HTML,CSS and JavaScript in my code. Have even used jQuery in some places
@@crumblycisco it depends on the company and the implementation. Some companies do require code but Salesforce is making it difficult to be a pure coder when stuff like Flows is trying to replace Apex and triggers.
Definitely dev. Realistically you're gonna constantly be checking if you can do something without code, so you'll be getting general admin skills as you learn to dev
CI/CD within a squad that has SF developers does the trick for most of the work needed on the salesforce platform. Programmatic or point & click.. Thanks for the videos, they are all interesting.
I am Frenchman's in France we are late compared with some other countries. I am looking for the trends to do the best choice so thank you for your advice. I wouldn't see that on my own in my country.
What is your suggestion for someone that decided to transition to SF with 0 SF experience and knowledge, thinking, getting Admin Cert to familiarize with the platform, and work its way up? Thanks.
So are Administrator certs less valuable? I feel like ever since I got mine last week, it wasn't as a big achievement as it may have been two or three years ago.
Loved the video but you don’t mention how large companies rely on SI’s for their Salesforce implementations. I see Admins play a role in the project implementation (they help shape the project with user stories, maintainability, knowledge transfer etc) Also there is always the threat of administration being outsourced to an SI. Admins need to evolve more into product owners unless they want to be a consultant/freelancers.
The Admin jobs might be disappearing for sure. Unfortunately Salesforce Admin is the preliminary exams for passing out Salesforce Consultant or Business Analyst. Hence the Admin exam becomes necessary for a Sales or any cloud consultant or BA. Also a developer who passed out the Admin exams has a complete understanding on Salesforce.
Well spotted David! I think it's a trend all over the world. Having said that, it may be because hiring managers don't realise the difference between an Admin and a Dev (and there are quite a few new customers hence quite a few hiring managers). I think that the person having the last word on an org should be a good old fashioned Admin - but maybe it's just me... :) Also, I think of Salesforce/SaaS as a declarative platform first and am always scared when I see Developer "having fun in prod", potentially generating tech debt... Again, I would prefer to see an Admin be the end-user police in prod but... To finish, I think that there are quite a few SMB in the Salesforce market that can't really afford a dedicated team but I understand you are not talking about them. Anyway, good video as usual. Thanks!
Agree with you. But I was expecting to see a lot of jobs specifically called "Lightning Administrator" in 2020. Yet to see it though. Something in me says 2021 is for going to see a lot of traction for Lightning Admins.
Thanks for True advice David. Just looking at pathfinder job fair. out of 33 company out there, but just 5 to 6 offer salesforce role. While admin every one of them. I am admin that is the problem for me. Thx
Hey, is SF Admin demand falling in other parts of the world as well. I am in UK, is it the case for UK as well that Admin demand is going down? Was looking to start a career in this field in UK, I guess am too late?
From what I hear from my international contacts, the same trend us happening. However I also hear that tech trends start in the US then gradually they move overseas.
Great analysis for admin role. Anyone who has a bit interest in tech can easily become the company's sf admin. Either business consultant or sf developer ( who would be better admin then who created things... lol). In small company as you have said is absolutely right. However in big companies. 1000+ of users, permission, roles, reports, dashboards, business flows/process, 3rd party integration, management and people skills and motivation, day to days system monitoring and performance evolution, training to users ( no one normally want to spend hours to read and learn from trailhead until he/she is company's sf admin or dev or else. Other have tons of work to leverage their skills. I am just a curious if admin role is vanish then who will take those responsibilities? Admin responsibilities is super easy and polished. Should developer take those or consultant ? Just curious 🤔 👀 😏
It'll never completely vanish, just the proportion of jobs will go down. I know a lot of orgs current that have 0 admins and split the typical admin responsibilities to biz stakeholders and devs.
WoW...okay so you went from Salesforce dev to Analyst of the Salesforce job Market!? Marc Benioff would rip that shirt you are wearing off your back. You should really get in the habit of mentioning who you are being sponsored by before you make outrageous assumptions of the job market. Show me statistics. I can take screen shots of Linkedin Jobs posts during Covid aswell. The people watching this video should also know that your being sponsored by a company that sell coding classes for admins. Come on my guy! Dont create more panic during a pandemic! Shame on you for profiting off peoples panic and fear!
I actually agree with you Felix, all numbers are lies and you should not trust my video based on any numbers I share. Maybe what's better is to take my analysis of how companies make Salesforce hiring decisions and judge for yourself if it makes sense. My goal is not to cause panic but to share information that I would want to know if I was in a position to be hurt by these trends. Most of my recommendations had nothing to do with coding by the way (consulting, jack of all trades). FYI I make Salesforce hiring decisions for my current company, I was formerly on the board of a Salesforce recruiting company, and I am a well connected professional in the industry for the past 10 years. Take my advice as you will!
is lightning going to replace visual force slowly or quicly? will the Lightning web parts going to replace Aura. There is so many legacy stuff, not sure whether there is a need to spend time to learn something legacy.
Jr. Admin here. My (small) company initially "trained an admin in house" and hired contracted developers who code for job security rather than function to set up the org. They sold the company on managed packages that are "cheaper" than salesforce native products and now the org is held ransom to namespace and the $300/hour contractor in Canada who subcontracted a guy in India for $15/ hour to save us nothing on CPQ because we had to buy conga and docusign in addition... It's frustrating as an admin when you have to go to the C-suite and say "I cant even see where the problem is coming from, bust out another $1000 for the dude who refused to develop anything end user or admin dynamic". Moving forward If i had to choose between hiring a dev or admin I'd probably go dev just because they stand a better chance at mitigating this reality. It has been an painful lesson in practicality and nominal v actual cost of implementation for me as an admin. I walked into this org long after the implementation but I'm not sure I would've known any better how to hedge against the ever so sought after "afterwork". I know now though.
@David K. Liu I am completely new to IT and switching fields from medical, don't know anything about IT, WHERE DO YOU THINK I SHOULD START? WHICH COURSE?
Is there a case to be made for some organisations not being clear on what the Salesforce Admin actually does. A Salesforce Admin does actually ‘Develop’ the SF instance usually in a ‘No Code’ capacity. Maybe the job title or certification path should be ‘Salesforce Platform Development Administrator’ (I know does not exactly role of the tongue). Like a lot of things in life people tend to over-spec or purchase levels of products they are never going to need just to be on the safe side i.e. buying a sports car to take the children a mile down the road to school. I would be interested to know how many ‘Developers’ have taken up positions to find that they are predominantly doing Administrator tasks!
Personally have not seen many instances of developers doing only admin jobs, but have seen plenty of the reverse. The challenge is organizations cannot predict whether the next two years of projects will or will not need code, so they need to assume the worst.
@@dvdkliu I guess it depends on what percentage of the time someone with Salesforce development skills will be happy to undertake routine administration tasks! I think there has been a tendency in many software roles to try to creep in/ or combine roles in Job Descriptions in order to get the best pound of flesh from their staff. I think the old lines that segmented roles are slowly disappearing. I’m sure if companies could have their own way the Salesforce person would be the Administrator, Developer, Finance Officer and tea person :-)
Yup all true! In my experience most developers will spend at least 30% of their time on non coding tasks. Developers who prefer to code 100% of the time usual won't choose Salesforce
Hi David, I am new to your channel and I really found this video like an eye opening one. I am mostly a customer Experience professional with 5 years of experience on the business practitioner level of crm tools like salesforce and Adobe Experience manager. In order to increase my employability after a career break I want to do some good certifications in salesforce. If i plan to choose marketing cloud consultant having no prior hands on with it , will it be a good option? Some coaches say that it’s better to do an admin certification first and then marketing cloud. Please guide me.
It was a great video, thank you for that! I have a question though, which kind of coding language do you recommend for somebody who doesn't really have any coding experience? Or let's say what's the most commonly used coding language in Salesforce senerio? Thank you!!!
Lots of Truth here David the only caveat is that Developers are called Developers for a reason and as we all have the goal of being gainfully employed so are the developers hence they are usually looking to do things by way of development. Time and time again. Now we have the movement of "Low-Code/No Code" shops because of how many development "rats nests" there are out there in these large enterprise implementations.
I subscribed to Plural Sight just to go through your tutorials. You are a great instructor. I thoroughly enjoy the structure and process of your tutorials. I have had a brief introduction to Salesforce but am looking to be a salesforce developer. I'm looking to take either the Salesforce Amin course or Platform Developer course in preparation for a certification. Would you recommend to bypass the Salesforce Admin Certification class and go right into Salesforce Platform Developer? Thanks.
Thanks! I normally recommend all developers start with the admin side however you can come back to it later if you have too much momentum going in development.
Hi Judy, does Pluralsight have both admin as well as dev courses by David? When I checked, I could find 'The absolute beginners guide to coding' course by David, but nothing in the admin side. Do let me know if I missed something, thanks
@@dvdkliu Thanks for the reply David. I will try to find a suitable course there after I buy the subscription. And once done will jump onto your developer course 🤗
Though developer tends to be order takers and sometimes program things that don't need to be done. Whereas an Admin would know better and have an easier way to fulfill a requirement.
I'm about to get my Admin cert with zero previous CRM or SF experience, is it even worth it at this point? I mean if I'm not getting a job with it, why do it? Seems like you're saying unless I have coding skills, it's unlikely I'm getting a SF job with zero experience anytime soon. Maybe it might be better just to learn how to code. But the time it takes to pick up coding skills just extends the learning curve to an actual job. Even then, with a few certs and the ability to code, is it worth it? I know it wasn't your intention, I appreciate the honesty, but this video has completely disheartened me to pursuing a SF job. Background: Making a full career change from bartending.
At the end of the video I have a few recommendations that don't require coding, check it out and see if the other options sound viable to you. Realistically with just the admin cert you have very little strength in this market. You'll need to get more certs to stand out to employers. Development is another option that'll help. Salesforce IMO is def worth it but know I'm pretty biased here and haven't really analyzed other industries yet. The truth is each day it probably becomes less worth it as people discover the industry and jump in. Hopefully that is countered by the crazy demand for the product today.
Hi David, Thank you for your insight.I’m a Salesforce Admin/BA with 3 years of experience.At this point I have 3 certs-Admin,AppBuilder and Sales Cloud Consultant.My idea was to learn Coding enough to clear PD1 and then continue on my journey to CTA.Do you think it is wise to be in an admin analyst position whilst I clear my certs in the pyramid or is the scene risky for even experienced admins?Thanks in advance for your response.,
@@dvdkliu you described the situation at my place exactly. They hired an admin not too long ago and is now having to pay lots of consultant time to customize. And this is just on boarding sales; they still have service and marketing. I anticipate the realization that a Developer is what they need for the one head count the org is willing to pay for.
How do you feel about getting additional certifications other than SF Admin and Adv Admin to stand out from the competition in the job market such as: Tableau Associate Slack Admin Project Mgmt or Scrum Master I am studying for the Admin exam now and plan on getting internship. Then I would take the Adv Admin exam then any of the other above certifications would follow.
What interim roles do you think Admin undergrades should take on that can transition into FT admin roles? I'm currently struggling to even get my CV noticed with no SF admin experience.
Very discouraging. Followed your videos religiously, started on path of Admin... half way thru... now you have shaken the core of your own philosophies about SalesForce. Yes. Development jobs are trending way more... but thats been like this since long... were your Admin oriented videos a farce than? I wish I hadn't seen this video and just followed the journey I started 2 months ago.
@@IgiveyouNONE Sure. Thanks. Once you are inside the SF Ecosystem, coding is natural to adapt. But now entering the ecosystem has become a challenge by itself.
I been recommending people learn to code in Salesforce since 2013 lol. I agree with Mango - everyone has to start with admin even if they want to be developers. So right now you're doing the right thing
@Yashasvi Talwar - Just my thoughts on this, the day you stop blaming others for your action and become self-aware about you in the market is the day you liberate your self.. Please stop blaming others it does not help you, David is doing fantastic work here using his time and knowledge to share with us for FREE, be thank full for that for that. All of the content David has put out are related to Developer focus go through them and all the best for your carrier. it's my .5 cents.
@@shashichin8508 Have always highly appreciated David. He is my Mentor is SalesForce career. Its just that today's video was like the "Worst fear come true". Will work harder than before now and earn developer cert. ASAP
Hi David. Can I go directly to dev without taking admin courses? I have no background in code and Salesforce. I've joined Apex Academy btw and realised that it's dev course.
Hi @David you are truly truly amazing..!! Appreciate all your sf videos, they are really very helpful. Request you to please make tutorial videos on LWC as well. Humble request 🙂 Thanks, Your student from India
Very very informative and useful video. I am working as a Salesforce Administrator and trying to switch but only getting options where they ask for apex knowledge and neither I have any coding knowledge nor I have any technical degree( MBA)..pretty confused now! If I start learning java would that help me to learn apex? Or can you tell me what should be the stepping stone to learn apex?
I have around 7 years of experience as a Salesforce Administrator in the same company where I first joined as a graduate. I was a slow pork at the beginning but later on picked up admin activities and am doing pretty well but never tried to switch due to lack of confidence. When it comes to coding i never tried it since i was weak at understanding C at my university level.Now that I gained good experience, I am planning to switch for a better pay. I can also learn coding if needed since Iam quite matured . What do you suggest? I might have realised things little late but still have a positive vibe. Please advise me.
I’m in my second year of BBA and was thinking of becoming a Salesforce Admin after I graduate. Should I go for something else if it’s scope isn’t that good in the near future?
I have been working as a Business Analyst for Enterprise solutions and now looking for a career change in Salesforce. Which career path should I choose in Salesforce. Since the number of Admin jobs have declined learning salesforce coding from scratch with take a lot of time. Can you suggest something please?
They want to pay admin salaries, but get developer skills. That's what I see a lot of.
Yes! Unfortunately this is possible because the supply of admins is really high these days. Supply and demand
basically.
@@SK-ne4bf whats disappearing?
@@applecrazy1 SF Classic
@@SK-ne4bf what?
I work for Salesforce as a Consultant. I mostly end up working for companies as an Admin/BA. I'm very confident most companies post job postings for Salesforce Dev's because they don't understand the difference between the two. I get called a Salesforce Developer all the time and I don't write code.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Nearly two years after this video was posted, it's great to hear from someone in the trenches.
I got the admin certification but couldn't land a Salesforce admin job. Had to do other jobs first for financial security... Hope I can continue my SF study soon and one day get into the ecosystem.
I recommend getting more certs, 1 doesn't stand out these days!
@@dvdkliu which other Certs do you recommend?
@@vd7547 app builder, advanced admin, sales cloud
3 years later any update?
Admins are important if you have a large team in the double digits. We have a 14 Salesforce person team with a combination of architects, developers and Admins: 3, 4, 7 respectively. Out of the 7 admins, 2 are full time admins, doing admin stuff and first tier Sfdc support, the other five serve as second tier support, scrum masters, and RFE development with some light coding.
IMO, to stand out as an admin, you need to know how to translate business requirements to solution design; solving as much as possible with declarative tools, and only bringing in development when necessary.
That makes you an admin who is also a developer
Agree about the need for admins to stand out from the pack. We should learn at the very least enough coding to work effectively on an enterprise level team with developers and project managers. That's another trend we're seeing in Salesforce jobs (call for PM skills).
So true. Admins are almost always project managers these days
Thank you for being real and talking about the things other won’t. Incredible advice from someone so ingrained in the ecosystem.
Thanks Tanya!!!!!
On the flip side .....your team needs technical admins.
David... You are WRONG
More content... topics... a day in the life of a person with a sf career... what’s it like to work for google, What are some methods of study that worked for you, where do you find your motivation, living in the Bay Area as a tech guy, how remote jobs are taking over, what is it like to be a part of the Sf culture, what is Dreamforce like, what are all the types of jobs you can go after as a Salesforce geek, what do you see for the future of Salesforce(you touched on that, are their any other technologies one should learn that may enhance your Salesforce abilities
I've got a list of all the videos I wanna make and you hit the nail on the head. About 200 vids on it, including all these topics. Didn't think of the Dream force one though!
You changed my mind about the admin career path - 100% agree that anything an admin does a developer can do and often better. I had one of my developers learn Flow, and within a month he knew it better than I do.
I would say that most developers are not very strong at requirements gathering and can struggle with solutioning if they haven't kept up with Salesforce products... Our org has legacy code that one developer built (before me!) to calculate business hours and SLAs because he didn't understand entitlements and milestones. Hence why the Salesforce Business Analyst role has been growing too.
Agreed, but I see rather a swift to high demand on architects while coding is outsourced. Understanding Business value is more important than coding.
Amen, big rise to architects in the past few years! Note that vast majority of architect positions likely require some coding knowledge, even if it's just being able to work well with devs.
Yes, exactly.
Great post David. Additionally, given the increasing number of multi-cloud instances (i.e. Sales + Marketing, Sales + Commerce), as well as the introduction of Tableau, Mulesoft, etc. I see the growth of the Architect role to be even more in demand in the coming years.
Great point!
Salesforce is doing a great job of improving the architect training and certifications
Very true!
Thanks as always David! Next time you worry if what you say is going to be make people mad, please post it anyway - truth needs to be heard, this helped me make my decision much easier to focus on development!
Thank you Jiyaad!
Man, first I see the video about not learning to code cause you don't need it, than you're saying admin is dead and learn development/coding.
Man, you're confusing people
I just try to cover both arguments so you can decide yourself. IMO coding is still by far the golden path
@@dvdkliu thx for the reply 👍
Thank you for confirming what I do feel here (outside of the US) as well. And thank you for the free week of your Apex Academy. Just in time!
Cheers!
No Kidding.
I worked for 4 certifications (1 on the way) for associate, admin, platform app builder and advanced admin (on the way)
only to realize this crushing reality. Hits harder when you already took a 1.3 year career gap. I feel so lost tbh.
Starting to prepare my developer cert after getting the sales cloud cert. Your Apex Academy is gold!
Thank you David good luck!
Agree. David's Apex Academy is so fun and the best way to understand coding if you have no prior experience. Don't start with Trailhead. Start with David's class (my favorite) or some other intro to coding, if you have no coding experience. I had JavaScript experience but I STILL badly needed Apex Academy.
@@cpotochny Fun Fact. I understood the Flow logic too after completing the first two courses of Davids Apex Acadmey. I am hooked now!
Insanely helpful! I am now getting my Developer Certification.
did you get it?
I strongly disagree. There will always be less Salesforce Admin jobs than salesforce developers.
Moreover Companies have different titles for Salesforce administrators so you can simply depend on LinkedIn keyword search. Like consulting companies always give fancy titles for Admin jobs like Salesforce Analysts or Functional consultant etc
I had an interview and was told it wasnt program intensive and i am doing mostly data entry i was told etc. And i would be trained. I am not a programmer at all!
Hmm. I just filled a role for a Business Analyst role requiring Salesforce focused. It’s true I have not seen any Salesforce admin roles. Thanks for the video. Love you using LinkedIn - it’s my virtual home. ☺️
Cheers Jessica 😋😋😋
Hi Jessica! May you add me on LinkedIn so I can ask you some questions? I tried searching your name and hundreds popped up haha. I'm JaLia Steward on there.
@@LiaStew yep! Just sent you a request!
Hi Jessica, I would like to connect with you on LinkedIn but couldn’t locate you as Jalia said. Thank you!
My experience is that most developers don't know the declarative side. Also I don't think that the prime value of an admin is people skills.
That's a pretty big issue too, probably worth it's own video thank you! 😂 Really interested to learn more about what other things you consider to be prime skills of admins!
@@dvdkliu Their viewpoint.
Thank you yes very great skill!!
@@dvdkliu Hi David. I wasn't really thinking of it in terms of skills but value. 😊
Oh ok that is a very good value lol!!!
I started a new job as a SF Admin. The reason the company hired one in the first place was bc they needed someone to handle the minor admin stuff while the developers and managers dedicate their time to building. Before, developers and managers were doing everything. I got admin cert and app builder cert. on my first week, I was doing outbound change sets when that’s something you learn with the app builder cert.
Admin cert teaches you the general aspects like a bachelor degree. But the other certs teach more specific things. In terms of flows, neither admin nor app builder cert delve too much into it. What I’m saying is if a company wants someone to do flows, they probably know that admins don’t have as much knowledge as devs.
I read an article that highlight your related skills. If you have 5 years of hospitality but one 1 of SF. Really sell yourself on your hospitality skills.
Also! Connect with your SF community!!!
How much did you pay in total for the courses?
I have been hesitating to committing to learn to code but this helps put things in perspective. Need to start planning my strategy
Go get it Vanessa!
I am also planning. Please let me know any good resource
Thx
In other news Admin jobs are at an all time high apparently. czcams.com/video/x3rI25uOJeU/video.html
Really great video - I would add Salesforce Business Analyst, Salesforce Product Owner, Salesforce Manager and Salesforce Practice Lead. There are many different career paths emerging as teams get bigger and more complex.
Thanks!
I noticed Salesforce Admin salaries are very low compared to developers.
It takes a lot more skill to know code and to be able to translate requirements into code
I saw this coming a couple years ago. Companies don't believe in a admin-developer handoff. They want people who can do both. If companies demand developers then developers will dominate. Salesforce pushes #AwesomeAdmins and creating jobs, but if you look at Salesforce's own job listings it's mostly sales-related or developers.
Thank you for sharing!
Talking to recruiters and they say Admins have been hit with a double whammy with lay-offs due to covid19. So not only are you competing in a shrinking market, but there is a flood of experienced Admins looking for work. Trying to break into the market as a newbie is a tough ask.
Could it also be that Admins just aren't moving and dev work is expanding; especially in the current market and companies are going hard with digital transformations
Great point. COVID is yet another indicator of the fragility of the admin position. I wish I thought of that before recording this lol. It's true COVID contributes to this trend and it should be a red flag that the admin role is more disposable than others. This only accelerates the trend.
Unless you’re in an IT department with a large company or university, most teams will have devs switching btw admin and dev tasks
you absolutely hit the nail on the head. When I moved to SF, from Siebel, I was surprised that 'admin' was a career. In Siebel world we let admins do only the basic things (user management, managing picklists, etc). As we see SF making it possible to do more and more complex things declaratively (e.g. Now Flow Builder can do pretty complex things there is no way we would let an admin create Flows because they are not knowledgeable about code vs Flows, overcoming Flow limitations, connecting to CI/CD, etc ). So last few projects I have seen admins only doing the most basic of tasks and even that has not been easy because we implement CI/CD in most projects and admin so far haven't been able to get their heads around how that works and devs have to always get involved in fixing new code commits.
Hello, I am currently in the process of transitioning into SF from Siebel, and I would appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance!
I am a Salesforce developer myself. Honestly, I have never come across job offerings where they ask only pure Admins.
True that!
@@dvdkliu Also...even if the actual job is just purely admin stuff or even support related, none of the companies only want a pure admin. Just to be safe,they want a developer in an off chance once in 6 months you may wanna make a code change or a change in a formula field
Great take, David! I think that your 2nd recommendation (learning the entire portfolio) is something that a lot of people gloss over. Salesforce products are really designed to work together, but they don't always do so seamlessly. Knowing how to knit these services together to create end-to-end solutions is something that's in high demand.
As for the death of the Administrator role, it's a shame, and borne from modern hiring practices. Similar to how job postings for "full stack" developers have become a bit of a meme, it seems that SF admins are suffering a similar fate. It really is semantics in the end. In many cases, "developers" transition from other languages or frameworks and jump directly into writing code, when clicks will perform, scale, and be far more maintainable than a coded solution.
You're too smart to be on CZcams LOL
@@dvdkliu I like your content. 😅😕
Don´t freak out people. I agree with David. Just forget about that #awesomeadmin marketing stuff from Salesfore, it is so outdated and does not reflect today´s job market reality. Admins no longer exist per say, today you are either a developer (scope : apex, lwc and point and click) or a functional consultant/analyst (scope : need analysis, business processes mapping, workshop leads etc. and point and click). That´s at least the case here in europe. So if you are not interested in coding go the consultant role, the demand is still high (less than devs tho) but know your clouds (certs, certs, certs) and build great softskills.
+100!
Why do I see all Admin Jobs when I search "Salesforce Administrator" in Palo Alto California? Did you intentionally keep scrolling until you found secondary dev postings?
I actually found out that the results change a lot every day. When I ran it earlier this week, buncha dev jobs on page 1. Last night, buncha dev jobs on other pages instead. Read the job descriptions and scroll as far as you need to develop your own opinion!
And when I run it right now I'm getting the first 5 out of 8 (all non promoted) jobs as dev jobs when searching for "Salesforce administrator" in Palo Alto. There's probably some part of the algorithm that changes your results based on your profile and activity, so, you need to read as many descriptions / pages as you can to get a non-biased sample size.
as a Salesforce developer with multiple certifications ... I've been expected to solve EVERY issue / project that came up in my Orgs and actually have done my MOST Admin work on teams that actually have full-time admins
David that is the best advice that I ever saw!! In South America, is happening the same, and I'm thinking to learn/spend more LWC than aura or apex why? because then you can open to other technologies(js, maybe in the future evergreen?) like React, node.js, unfortunately here there is no so much jobs in salesforce than US.
Agreed. Personally I'd start with Apex for the fundamentals but if your heart is in LWCs then go for it. As long as you ignore Visualforce you're good lol.
I can't agree more with you on this from my own job search experience. That's why I took advantage of your free week Apex academy :D Thank you!
Cheers Shushant & Aakriti!
Is that help. If you don't know about code?
It’s best to get into any IT job like desktop support with salesforce troubleshooting to gain experience. It’s easier to put that experience on your resume rather than just getting certified with no experience. Then you work in that role for a couple years. After that, apply for an actual salesforce role that will usually work 😀
Sad but true. Sigh.... guess I’ll have to start learning to code. Just need some motivation to not be scared of code.
There are other paths I mention too not just the coding route, see the conclusion for more info! This is basically if you really don't want to code lol
@@dvdkliu I do really want to code. I vision is to become a Salesforce architect one day. When I make code adjustments at work and it works, I feel great. But every time I have to do it, I am not confident at all and it takes me so much time :(
Gotta start somewhere! Practice twice as much as anyone else!
@@dvdkliu thanks! You are amazing
David, I love your videos. They are brave and very dense with advice. Just one tiny note: "A generalist with people skills that works between stakeholders and developers" is usually a Business Analyst, and they have way more skills than "people skills", most notably industry, business and analytical skills. But I assume that you group all non-tech skills into the "People Skills" umbrella term, so I forgive you!
Ha ha ha yup I wish I used that term instead!
I put a lot of time and effort into my Salesforce Admin cert only to get discouraged after months of barely even getting interviews. I wouldn't really recommend the field to anyone at this point unless they know someone who can definitely help them get a job. Huge disappointment.
I'm starting to feel this way as well. Honestly, I feel like all this talk about tech being "so vast and versatile" is just that - talk. Bottom line is, in 2022/2023, if you don't have advanced coding/developer skills, then you're not getting hired.
What are you doing with your career now?
I feel this is a combination of companies creating hybrid positions plus companies that cross-train existing employees pushing Admin support around.
Great point! I see a lot of that!
@@dvdkliu Thanks for the response. I noticed that further on into the video that you did make reference to this. In that context, maybe you can design a way to reach out to the existing employees being cross-trained, especially where the company is not encouraging them to develop their skills properly.
What other jobs can a salesforce admin do? Or what alternatives?
Anything people oriented really. Project management, end user training, user support, requirements gathering, consulting, etc
Valid points, David. What about a BA career path? I get a number of recruiter calls asking about BA skills.
BA I group similarly to the consultant path. It's basically doubling down on people skills. I think it's a good move for admins, get that PMP certification.
Could you please make a detailed video on option 1 and option 2 mentioned by you?
I'd suggest making a few videos with someone who is currently in those roles will be really helpful for folks like me who are still not sure whether to take the developer route or the consultant one!
PS: I got myself admin certified and landed a Salesforce quality engineer job. I'm currently contemplating where to go from here.
Maybe in the future!
I just transitioned from software engineering into salesforce development. Very glad that I did.
One of the best possible transitions IMO. You are in high demand right now!
I don't see how swe is different. Both develop software
Salesforce dev is more involved with biz decisions plus less technical (still very technical). Also note it is very platform specific. Both paths are good it's really what you are looking for in your career. Overall Salesforce devs can be paid more with less technical skills, but with the downside of being platform specific.
@@dvdkliu if you become a salesforce developer, will it be possible to later on switch to swe role outside salesforce platform? Won't we be restricted to this platform only....
Devs have the easiest transition out since coding is a universal language
This is very interesting. I am the saleforce admin for my company. While there is a developer and saleforce specialist, they unfortunately do not want to do the tedious work and have transfered all their knowledge over to me. Overtime, i have gained the technical skills on top of my people skills (that these developer unfortuntely lack or doesnt care for). My question is, how can i, as the admin, excel in this position having both the general technical skill and people skill i have gained in this company?
Either go a consultant / BA route or hybrid dev route at this point!
Learn coding
I believe this. I’m an analyst and have been thrown the Salesforce admin role.
Good luck Scott!!
@@dvdkliu thank you
When you can pay your developer to do both code and do Admin work,why pay extra for a pure admin who can't code. That's the logic that hiring managers use
A Salesforce Developer is not really a true coder, and is next to ineffective when comparing it to a true pure breath programmer. The bosses don't know the difference.
@@crumblycisco Believe me....when your app needs higher customisation,you need a lot of coding in addition to our of the box ffeatures that Salesforce provides. I am a Salesforce developer and I have used HTML,CSS and JavaScript in my code. Have even used jQuery in some places
@@crumblycisco it depends on the company and the implementation. Some companies do require code but Salesforce is making it difficult to be a pure coder when stuff like Flows is trying to replace Apex and triggers.
Your youtube channel is like GOLD. You should get more subscribers :)
Thank you hope so!!
Would you advise to go from admin straight to dev, or get other certs in between?
Definitely dev. Realistically you're gonna constantly be checking if you can do something without code, so you'll be getting general admin skills as you learn to dev
That said make sure to check out my "which certs should you get" vid as some certs are higher value than PD1
CI/CD within a squad that has SF developers does the trick for most of the work needed on the salesforce platform. Programmatic or point & click..
Thanks for the videos, they are all interesting.
Thanks!!
David, please continue to build more training on your Apex Academy..... I sure hope you continue after Apex Academy 3
Thank you!!!!!!! Let's see!!
I am Frenchman's in France we are late compared with some other countries. I am looking for the trends to do the best choice so thank you for your advice. I wouldn't see that on my own in my country.
What is your suggestion for someone that decided to transition to SF with 0 SF experience and knowledge, thinking, getting Admin Cert to familiarize with the platform, and work its way up? Thanks.
Check out my Learn Salesforce Fast video in my channel!
What do you think if a consultant continues to do for example project manager job? Or grow to have bigger pictures for management consultant?
Only if you have top tier people skills. Otherwise I don't consider a good long term option
@@dvdkliu so yo think developer is the best choice?
If you've got the heart to learn then yes! Got a personality test vid somewhere for this
@@dvdkliu Great, thanks David!! Could we connect on LinkedIn?
Sure!
So are Administrator certs less valuable? I feel like ever since I got mine last week, it wasn't as a big achievement as it may have been two or three years ago.
Yup, everyone has that cert these days. It carries almost no value except it's a basic entry ticket
Wait which specific coding languages should I focus on to become a Salesforce Developer? Can I just take Udemy Courses or should I do a bootcamp?
Take my course silly 😁
Loved the video but you don’t mention how large companies rely on SI’s for their Salesforce implementations.
I see Admins play a role in the project implementation (they help shape the project with user stories, maintainability, knowledge transfer etc)
Also there is always the threat of administration being outsourced to an SI.
Admins need to evolve more into product owners unless they want to be a consultant/freelancers.
Yup you are right, admins need to evolve to PMs or consultants!
@@dvdkliu This is very true! I learned this about 4 years ago. Where do I want to go with my career and I saw 2 paths - business vs developer.
Hi,what is an SI?
Basically consultants. I believe it stands for systems integrators but different regions use different names for this
The Admin jobs might be disappearing for sure. Unfortunately Salesforce Admin is the preliminary exams for passing out Salesforce Consultant or Business Analyst. Hence the Admin exam becomes necessary for a Sales or any cloud consultant or BA. Also a developer who passed out the Admin exams has a complete understanding on Salesforce.
Well spotted David! I think it's a trend all over the world.
Having said that, it may be because hiring managers don't realise the difference between an Admin and a Dev (and there are quite a few new customers hence quite a few hiring managers). I think that the person having the last word on an org should be a good old fashioned Admin - but maybe it's just me... :)
Also, I think of Salesforce/SaaS as a declarative platform first and am always scared when I see Developer "having fun in prod", potentially generating tech debt... Again, I would prefer to see an Admin be the end-user police in prod but...
To finish, I think that there are quite a few SMB in the Salesforce market that can't really afford a dedicated team but I understand you are not talking about them.
Anyway, good video as usual. Thanks!
Thank you Fabrice!
Hello David, I am interested in taking your developer course. How does it work? Is it a membership pay plan? Thanks!!!
It's a pay plan I believe $29/mo. Hot take if you check out some of my links in the vid I tell ya how to get it free!
Agree with you. But I was expecting to see a lot of jobs specifically called "Lightning Administrator" in 2020. Yet to see it though. Something in me says 2021 is for going to see a lot of traction for Lightning Admins.
I am not optimistic about the admin industry: czcams.com/video/ieQKpohMfoE/video.html
What about the Sevice Cloud? I think there is strong demand there.
How did you notice that?
Thanks for True advice David.
Just looking at pathfinder job fair. out of 33 company out there, but just 5 to 6 offer salesforce role. While admin every one of them.
I am admin that is the problem for me.
Thx
Best of luck!
Hey, is SF Admin demand falling in other parts of the world as well. I am in UK, is it the case for UK as well that Admin demand is going down? Was looking to start a career in this field in UK, I guess am too late?
From what I hear from my international contacts, the same trend us happening. However I also hear that tech trends start in the US then gradually they move overseas.
@@dvdkliu I see. What would you recommend as to take up as a career choice as we have missed the Salesforce boat
At the end of the video I have three recommendations!
Great analysis for admin role. Anyone who has a bit interest in tech can easily become the company's sf admin. Either business consultant or sf developer ( who would be better admin then who created things... lol). In small company as you have said is absolutely right. However in big companies. 1000+ of users, permission, roles, reports, dashboards, business flows/process, 3rd party integration, management and people skills and motivation, day to days system monitoring and performance evolution, training to users ( no one normally want to spend hours to read and learn from trailhead until he/she is company's sf admin or dev or else. Other have tons of work to leverage their skills. I am just a curious if admin role is vanish then who will take those responsibilities? Admin responsibilities is super easy and polished. Should developer take those or consultant ? Just curious 🤔 👀 😏
It'll never completely vanish, just the proportion of jobs will go down. I know a lot of orgs current that have 0 admins and split the typical admin responsibilities to biz stakeholders and devs.
WoW...okay so you went from Salesforce dev to Analyst of the Salesforce job Market!? Marc Benioff would rip that shirt you are wearing off your back. You should really get in the habit of mentioning who you are being sponsored by before you make outrageous assumptions of the job market. Show me statistics. I can take screen shots of Linkedin Jobs posts during Covid aswell. The people watching this video should also know that your being sponsored by a company that sell coding classes for admins. Come on my guy! Dont create more panic during a pandemic! Shame on you for profiting off peoples panic and fear!
I actually agree with you Felix, all numbers are lies and you should not trust my video based on any numbers I share. Maybe what's better is to take my analysis of how companies make Salesforce hiring decisions and judge for yourself if it makes sense. My goal is not to cause panic but to share information that I would want to know if I was in a position to be hurt by these trends. Most of my recommendations had nothing to do with coding by the way (consulting, jack of all trades). FYI I make Salesforce hiring decisions for my current company, I was formerly on the board of a Salesforce recruiting company, and I am a well connected professional in the industry for the past 10 years. Take my advice as you will!
is lightning going to replace visual force slowly or quicly? will the Lightning web parts going to replace Aura. There is so many legacy stuff, not sure whether there is a need to spend time to learn something legacy.
Yes Visualforce is already dead IMO
Jr. Admin here. My (small) company initially "trained an admin in house" and hired contracted developers who code for job security rather than function to set up the org. They sold the company on managed packages that are "cheaper" than salesforce native products and now the org is held ransom to namespace and the $300/hour contractor in Canada who subcontracted a guy in India for $15/ hour to save us nothing on CPQ because we had to buy conga and docusign in addition... It's frustrating as an admin when you have to go to the C-suite and say "I cant even see where the problem is coming from, bust out another $1000 for the dude who refused to develop anything end user or admin dynamic". Moving forward If i had to choose between hiring a dev or admin I'd probably go dev just because they stand a better chance at mitigating this reality. It has been an painful lesson in practicality and nominal v actual cost of implementation for me as an admin. I walked into this org long after the implementation but I'm not sure I would've known any better how to hedge against the ever so sought after "afterwork". I know now though.
How do you know if you have enough knowledge of coding to apply for the hybrid admin/developer jobs?
Let the employer figure that out LOL
@David K. Liu I am completely new to IT and switching fields from medical, don't know anything about IT, WHERE DO YOU THINK I SHOULD START? WHICH COURSE?
I've got a video called LEARN SALESFORCE FAST I recommend!
Is there a case to be made for some organisations not being clear on what the Salesforce Admin actually does. A Salesforce Admin does actually ‘Develop’ the SF instance usually in a ‘No Code’ capacity. Maybe the job title or certification path should be ‘Salesforce Platform Development Administrator’ (I know does not exactly role of the tongue). Like a lot of things in life people tend to over-spec or purchase levels of products they are never going to need just to be on the safe side i.e. buying a sports car to take the children a mile down the road to school. I would be interested to know how many ‘Developers’ have taken up positions to find that they are predominantly doing Administrator tasks!
Personally have not seen many instances of developers doing only admin jobs, but have seen plenty of the reverse. The challenge is organizations cannot predict whether the next two years of projects will or will not need code, so they need to assume the worst.
@@dvdkliu I guess it depends on what percentage of the time someone with Salesforce development skills will be happy to undertake routine administration tasks! I think there has been a tendency in many software roles to try to creep in/ or combine roles in Job Descriptions in order to get the best pound of flesh from their staff. I think the old lines that segmented roles are slowly disappearing. I’m sure if companies could have their own way the Salesforce person would be the Administrator, Developer, Finance Officer and tea person :-)
Yup all true! In my experience most developers will spend at least 30% of their time on non coding tasks. Developers who prefer to code 100% of the time usual won't choose Salesforce
Hi David, I am new to your channel and I really found this video like an eye opening one. I am mostly a customer Experience professional with 5 years of experience on the business practitioner level of crm tools like salesforce and Adobe Experience manager. In order to increase my employability after a career break I want to do some good certifications in salesforce. If i plan to choose marketing cloud consultant having no prior hands on with it , will it be a good option? Some coaches say that it’s better to do an admin certification first and then marketing cloud. Please guide me.
Personally I'd go admin as it has more options (but more competition). If on the fence, choose the one more interesting to you
It was a great video, thank you for that! I have a question though, which kind of coding language do you recommend for somebody who doesn't really have any coding experience? Or let's say what's the most commonly used coding language in Salesforce senerio? Thank you!!!
This should help! www.sfdc99.com/2020/03/01/step-by-step-guide-to-becoming-a-salesforce-developer-in-2020/
@@dvdkliu Thanks a lot!!!!!!
Honest and great video ! Ps - Love your T-shirts in your videos.
Thanks lol
Lots of Truth here David the only caveat is that Developers are called Developers for a reason and as we all have the goal of being gainfully employed so are the developers hence they are usually looking to do things by way of development. Time and time again. Now we have the movement of "Low-Code/No Code" shops because of how many development "rats nests" there are out there in these large enterprise implementations.
Truth 🤣🤣🤣
Thank you for sharing this. What do you think about Salesforce admin + QA?
QA is pretty rare in the Salesforce world, not a big value add there
I subscribed to Plural Sight just to go through your tutorials. You are a great instructor. I thoroughly enjoy the structure and process of your tutorials.
I have had a brief introduction to Salesforce but am looking to be a salesforce developer. I'm looking to take either the Salesforce Amin course or Platform Developer course in preparation for a certification. Would you recommend to bypass the Salesforce Admin Certification class and go right into Salesforce Platform Developer? Thanks.
Thanks! I normally recommend all developers start with the admin side however you can come back to it later if you have too much momentum going in development.
Hi Judy, does Pluralsight have both admin as well as dev courses by David? When I checked, I could find 'The absolute beginners guide to coding' course by David, but nothing in the admin side. Do let me know if I missed something, thanks
No admin stuff by me but others do!
@@dvdkliu Thanks for the reply David. I will try to find a suitable course there after I buy the subscription. And once done will jump onto your developer course 🤗
Though developer tends to be order takers and sometimes program things that don't need to be done. Whereas an Admin would know better and have an easier way to fulfill a requirement.
Maybe! Where I work the developers are gods.
@@dvdkliu yes, they are in the bay area and should have there own HBO series haha
LOL
I'm about to get my Admin cert with zero previous CRM or SF experience, is it even worth it at this point? I mean if I'm not getting a job with it, why do it? Seems like you're saying unless I have coding skills, it's unlikely I'm getting a SF job with zero experience anytime soon. Maybe it might be better just to learn how to code. But the time it takes to pick up coding skills just extends the learning curve to an actual job. Even then, with a few certs and the ability to code, is it worth it?
I know it wasn't your intention, I appreciate the honesty, but this video has completely disheartened me to pursuing a SF job.
Background: Making a full career change from bartending.
At the end of the video I have a few recommendations that don't require coding, check it out and see if the other options sound viable to you. Realistically with just the admin cert you have very little strength in this market. You'll need to get more certs to stand out to employers. Development is another option that'll help.
Salesforce IMO is def worth it but know I'm pretty biased here and haven't really analyzed other industries yet. The truth is each day it probably becomes less worth it as people discover the industry and jump in. Hopefully that is countered by the crazy demand for the product today.
I am from UK. Is it possible to apply for admin jobs in America and work from home remotely?
That is extremely rare due to the nature of the admin job - very people oriented.
Thanks David I have a 200$ voucher i was confused whether to go for Admin or Dev exam now i am sure where to go.
NP also check out my vid on which certs to get!
Hello David
Awesome video! I am new to salesforce. Please what site would you recommend I use to start learning for the Admin certification
Thanks!!! Check this out! www.sfdc99.com/ultimate-salesforce-certifications-guide/
Hi David,
Thank you for your insight.I’m a Salesforce Admin/BA with 3 years of experience.At this point I have 3 certs-Admin,AppBuilder and Sales Cloud Consultant.My idea was to learn Coding enough to clear PD1 and then continue on my journey to CTA.Do you think it is wise to be in an admin analyst position whilst I clear my certs in the pyramid or is the scene risky for even experienced admins?Thanks in advance for your response.,
You'll be fine as an experienced admin. Especially as you build dev skills which is essential for Architect
Thanks David!
Super helpful to navigate the Salesforce career paths
Thanks!
And in a previous video you said don't learn coding, now you are saying hiring Admins are not worth it...
Thank you for your honesty; I see the same trend.
Thanks!
@@dvdkliu you described the situation at my place exactly. They hired an admin not too long ago and is now having to pay lots of consultant time to customize. And this is just on boarding sales; they still have service and marketing. I anticipate the realization that a Developer is what they need for the one head count the org is willing to pay for.
Yes so true thanks for sharing! I see the same thing happening here over and over again!
How do you feel about getting additional certifications other than SF Admin and Adv Admin to stand out from the competition in the job market such as:
Tableau Associate
Slack Admin
Project Mgmt or Scrum Master
I am studying for the Admin exam now and plan on getting internship. Then I would take the Adv Admin exam then any of the other above certifications would follow.
Got an entire vid on this one, good topic! Check it out!
So just to confirm, to get the developer certification and job, one need to take up admin exam and be certified? Is it mandatory?
It's highly, highly recommended. Nothing is impossible though!
You need to understand that a developer is expected to know admin stuff plus coding...It's like you need to know numbers to do math
What interim roles do you think Admin undergrades should take on that can transition into FT admin roles? I'm currently struggling to even get my CV noticed with no SF admin experience.
Very discouraging. Followed your videos religiously, started on path of Admin... half way thru... now you have shaken the core of your own philosophies about SalesForce.
Yes. Development jobs are trending way more... but thats been like this since long... were your Admin oriented videos a farce than?
I wish I hadn't seen this video and just followed the journey I started 2 months ago.
:( don't give up. I also was an admin and slowly I started writing triggers and classes. Coding is fun when you will understand it! Trust me.
@@IgiveyouNONE Sure. Thanks. Once you are inside the SF Ecosystem, coding is natural to adapt. But now entering the ecosystem has become a challenge by itself.
I been recommending people learn to code in Salesforce since 2013 lol. I agree with Mango - everyone has to start with admin even if they want to be developers. So right now you're doing the right thing
@Yashasvi Talwar - Just my thoughts on this, the day you stop blaming others for your action and become self-aware about you in the market is the day you liberate your self..
Please stop blaming others it does not help you, David is doing fantastic work here using his time and knowledge to share with us for FREE, be thank full for that for that. All of the content David has put out are related to Developer focus go through them and all the best for your carrier. it's my .5 cents.
@@shashichin8508 Have always highly appreciated David. He is my Mentor is SalesForce career. Its just that today's video was like the "Worst fear come true". Will work harder than before now and earn developer cert. ASAP
Hi David. Can I go directly to dev without taking admin courses? I have no background in code and Salesforce. I've joined Apex Academy btw and realised that it's dev course.
You technically can but it's recommend some admin trailhead first. Doesn't have to be a lot
Hi @David you are truly truly amazing..!! Appreciate all your sf videos, they are really very helpful. Request you to please make tutorial videos on LWC as well. Humble request 🙂
Thanks,
Your student from India
Thanks Shikha! To be honest I suck at LWC so prob won't have vids on that anytime soon
@@dvdkliu Glad to see your reply. Could you please share any tutorial which can help to learn lwc in an effective way. Appreciate your response 🙏😊
Wish I knew one!!
Very very informative and useful video. I am working as a Salesforce Administrator and trying to switch but only getting options where they ask for apex knowledge and neither I have any coding knowledge nor I have any technical degree( MBA)..pretty confused now! If I start learning java would that help me to learn apex? Or can you tell me what should be the stepping stone to learn apex?
See the links in my vid description!
I have around 7 years of experience as a Salesforce Administrator in the same company where I first joined as a graduate. I was a slow pork at the beginning but later on picked up admin activities and am doing pretty well but never tried to switch due to lack of confidence. When it comes to coding i never tried it since i was weak at understanding C at my university level.Now that I gained good experience, I am planning to switch for a better pay. I can also learn coding if needed since Iam quite matured . What do you suggest? I might have realised things little late but still have a positive vibe. Please advise me.
Check links in video description
I'm interested in Salesforce does it involve coding bcoz I'm nt that good at coding is Salesforce admin good ?
@Texasgirlinacrazyworld :(
Thank you David . Intense story with a great happy ending
Ha ha ha thank you!
Bradley price would strongly disagree. That admin roles are going away.
Is it worth to take up a free course for Salesforce admin certification? How's the job market for this role in 2022?
Depends how valuable your time is 🤣 if you're trying to get a remote admin job it's gonna be tough
@@dvdkliu Thanks for the reply. Then suggest an entry level non-tech(no coding) career who's getting the foot into the IT
I’m in my second year of BBA and was thinking of becoming a Salesforce Admin after I graduate. Should I go for something else if it’s scope isn’t that good in the near future?
I have been working as a Business Analyst for Enterprise solutions and now looking for a career change in Salesforce. Which career path should I choose in Salesforce. Since the number of Admin jobs have declined learning salesforce coding from scratch with take a lot of time.
Can you suggest something please?
Later in the video I recommend career paths!
Excellent.Do you need Java skills or Python skills will suffice?
Neither required!
You missed the rise of Sales and RevOps. This is where I think the admins are shifting to.
Great call! I don't know much about that space but I need to keep an eye out on it!