Salesforce, according to the producing company’s website, is “the world’s #1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform.” Their software is designed to help businesses grow by helping them to understand their customers’ needs better, using cloud-based apps designed for marketing, sales, and service.
A developer with experience creating programs and apps for the Salesforce CRM platform is known as a Salesforce developer. They leverage their knowledge of programming languages like Apex and Visualforce, along with the Salesforce API and development tools, to extend the core functionalities of the platform and tailor it to specific business needs.
Are you interested in a detailed Salesforce developer roadmap, then this article has you covered.
What is the Salesforce Developer Roadmap All About?
A Salesforce developer is someone who has an understanding of how Salesforce works, coupled with experience in the platform. The developer is hired by a customer/client for the purposes of customizing Salesforce to the specifications of the hiring party. Alternatively, it could be an in-house programmer who happens to be skilled at working with Salesforce. These developers use tools such as Apex and Visualforce, as well as frameworks like Lightning Component, in order to develop apps.
To start with, In 2019, Salesforce was recognized as the world’s biggest CRM. The position continues for six consecutive years. During this time, over 150,000 popular organizations generated employment worth 3.3 million and the trend will continue in 2024.
Salesforce is a cloud platform for managing sales, customer service, and marketing. The key products for these purposes are Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud.
What is the Salesforce developer roadmap? It simply entails steps to become a Salesforce developer. The following steps and key learning areas should be focused on:
1. Pursue a degree
Earn at least a bachelor’s degree. Choose a major like computer science, software engineering, mathematics or a similar field. Most Salesforce developer positions only require a bachelor’s degree, but earning a master’s degree in a relevant field may provide you with more opportunities or distinguish you from other candidates.
2. Learn About Salesforce
Explore resources to help you learn about Salesforce as a platform. Consider taking a Salesforce development course and reviewing tutorials that discuss Salesforce development, such as its proprietary programming language called Apex. It may also be useful to complete an internship with a software business to help prepare you to work with Salesforce and in development.
3. Relevant Salesforce Certifications Are A Must
It is important to learn and practice Salesforce administration. Both theoretical experience and hands-on, real-life experience count. Invest your time in understanding the database concepts and applying them in a real-life situation.
Complete official training through Salesforce to earn relevant certifications. This may help you develop your knowledge of Salesforce Admin and demonstrate your expertise to potential employers. Some certifications to earn include:
- Salesforce Certified Administrator
- Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator
- Salesforce Certified App Builder
- Sales Cloud Consultant
- Service Cloud Consultant
4. Get Platform Developer I (PD I) Certification
The certification is mainly focused on Apex, APIs, and Visualforce.
Aim to earn another Salesforce certification called the Salesforce Platform Developer I (PDI) Certification. This credential verifies you understand developing and deploying customer interfaces and business logic using the Lightning Program. Once you earn this, consider pursuing the Salesforce Platform Developer II (PDII) Certification. This represents advanced programming skills with Salesforce Platform and data modelling.
For developers, there are two levels of certificates in which the following topics are covered:
- Learning Apex basics
- OOPS concepts
- SOQL
- SOSL
- Apex DML
- Database Methods
- Apex Triggers
- Apex Testing
- Batch Apex
- Visualforce
- APIs & Integrations
- Deployment Process
5. Integration Of Salesforce
To become a highly competitive Salesforce developer, learning the integration of Salesforce with other front- and back-end packages is required. You will get a direct idea of how to personalize Salesforce for your specific needs.
6. Join Salesforce Stack Exchange:
Along with joining the Salesforce Certification Course, you should also try to form questions and get answers from experts. One of the easiest sources for getting expert answers to your salesforce queries is Salesforce Stack Exchange. This resource allows you to browse queries to help you find answers to questions you may have about Salesforce development. Along with asking your specific queries, you can also search for similar queries to further widen your scope of knowledge on that particular aspect. The platform is populated with several highly valuable queries and detailed answers that can directly help you improve your professional capabilities.
7. Join Local Salesforce Developer Community Group
A good Salesforce Developer Training Course will help you crack the exams and gain professional skills but you also need to make the right connections in the industry. You need to network with the right people—new learners, professionals, experts, trainers, and even recruiters.
The Salesforce Trailblazer Community is a valuable group of Salesforce professionals who openly share knowledge to build connections and help each other grow.
This may provide you with a group of additional people you can ask for advice about coding or help you learn about job opportunities.
8. Use Salesforce
Look for opportunities to incorporate Salesforce into your own daily life. This may help you learn different ways to use the platform and understand your clients’ needs. For example, you may use Salesforce to track documents associated with a particular project.
9. Find a mentor
Think about finding a professional mentor to help you learn more about Salesforce and navigate your career advancement. Talk to people within your network to try to find a mentor. Aim to find someone whose career aligns with your aspirations.
10. Become a Salesforce Admin
If you want to become a Salesforce Developer, then the first step is to become a good Salesforce Admin. You can become a successful developer once you understand the platform very well and complete the business requirements with out-of-the-box features.
After becoming a good Salesforce Admin, decide the Salesforce career path based on your self-assessment. If you love coding, then move to the developer path; you can decide on a consultant or business analyst.
11. Set the Roadmap to Become a Developer
If you want to become a developer, then after learning administration, you need to start learning coding. As a developer, you need to learn coding languages like Apex, JavaScript, Aura, and LWC.
You should also learn the following:
- Learn about the OOP concept in programming language
- Learn Apex Fundamental
- Apex Trigger
- Learn Java Script to become a good lightning developer
- Salesforce UI components like Aura and LWC.
- Backend Development: It is highly recommended that you start learning backend development with Apex. Where you learn the basics of Apex, Triggers, Batch Apex, and Test classes.
- UI Development: Once you know the basics of Apex, it is time to become a UI developer. Where you need to learn JavaScript, Aura, and LWC
- Get Expert With Tools: Learn about different development tools that can simplify your life and increase your productivity. Learn about GIT and DevOps. Learn about how Salesforce deployment works.
- Sr. Developer: Once you know the basics of Apex and UI development. It is time to learn different Design patterns and frameworks.
- Technical Lead Developer: Make your goal to become a leader in your stream. For that, you need to be a good architect and have an understanding of solutions.
12. Volunteering Opportunities With Nonprofits
If you are not working and are new to Salesforce, then start finding volunteering opportunities with nonprofits and education cloud customers; it would help you gain hands-on real-time experience to solve real-world problems and is also considered and counted as work experience by most companies.
13. Find An Adviser
Find an adviser or mentor for you. If you are already working, then work with your senior developer or try mentorship program. This is one-to-one as well as many programs where a newcomer can directly get a mentor assigned to them who could guide them right from exploring the Salesforce platform to landing a job by helping with cv preparations, mock interviews, support, etc.
14. Get ready for the Salesforce Developer Interview
Once you have good knowledge of Salesforce and have hands-on experience, it is time to get ready for the interview.
15. Find Salesforce Developer Jobs
Once you’ve acquired the knowledge on how to become a Salesforce developer, the next step is to find a developer job.
Once you have developer knowledge, the next step is to find a developer job.
Skills Required By A Salesforce Developer
To be a proficient Salesforce developer, you need to have the following skills:
1. Analytical Skills
It helps to analyze your clients’ needs and design the appropriate software. You would need to logically understand the customer requirements and analyze them deeply. So detailed analytical capabilities and a keen ability to translate them into relevant design/code are other qualities that you must have to start your Salesforce career and build a long-term career in Salesforce.
2. Communication Skills
Salesforce projects require teamwork. It’s not one-man work. You need people to survive this work. So you need exceptional team skills. Seamless collaboration with people and the ability to orchestrate your efforts with other members of the team are also important. You should be able to put across your point by translating the technical concepts into jargon-free general terms.
3. Computer Skills
You cannot do without computer skills. It’s one of the basic skills you need to be an efficient Salesforce developer.
4. Problem-solving Skills
As a Salesforce developer, you will deal with problems. Problems are the bread and butter of developers. Just like every other digital product, Salesforce is not free from errors or bugs. For that, you need exceptional problem-solving capabilities and practical debugging knowledge. It will allow you to overcome the challenges quickly and maintain the flow of the process.
5. Programming Skills
To become a successful Salesforce developer, you need to have a good understanding of MVC design and be comfortable with coding and development tasks. Other related elements like Bootstrap, jQuery, etc. also, play a role in the Salesforce project environment. Programming skills are the software development technical skills necessary for coding and development. It’s beneficial for these professionals to have experience with a range of programming languages or elements.
6. Attention to detail
Another important skill you should have as a Salesforce developer is the ability to pay attention to details.
Attention to detail relates to a person’s ability to complete their work meticulously and identify potential anomalies within it. It’s essential for these professionals to be able to identify possible issues to fix throughout development, preventing future issues.
7. Creativity
You should also be able to think outside the box. You need to develop creative skills, which will enable you to think of unique solutions to problems.
Is Being A Salesforce Developer A Good Career?
Opting for a career as a Salesforce developer in 2024 continues to be a highly promising and rewarding choice within the dynamic tech landscape.
Salesforce remains at the forefront of customer relationship management (CRM), assisting businesses in comprehending and addressing customer needs through cutting-edge cloud-based applications designed for marketing, sales, and service.
Financially, the prospects for Salesforce developers remain robust. As of 2024, the average annual salary for a Salesforce developer in the United States hovers around $95,000, including potential bonuses. Salaries vary based on factors like location, experience, and role demands, with reports of some developers earning well over $130,000 annually, underscoring the lucrative nature of this career.
The demand for Salesforce developers continues to surge. Projections for 2024 indicate sustained growth, with the Salesforce ecosystem expected to generate a considerable number of new jobs. This growth reflects the ongoing and widespread integration of Salesforce across businesses of all sizes, solidifying the need for skilled developers.
The versatility of the role further enhances its attractiveness. Salesforce developers are not confined to working solely for Salesforce; they can contribute their expertise to various organizations, customizing Salesforce applications based on unique business requirements. This flexibility allows developers to gain diverse experience while working on projects aligned with their interests and skill sets.
How Long Does it Take to Learn Salesforce?
To learn Salesforce, first you need to learn Salesforce Admin stuff, which takes almost 1-2 months. Then, based on your past experience and hard work, you can learn coding within 2–3 months. You can become an expert in five to six months.
Conclusion
The journey to become a Salesforce Developer can be tiring at times, but we’ve made it clear and easy by providing the basic guide for you. If you follow these steps, one step at a time, you will reach your goal of becoming a successful Salesforce developer.
Remember, this journey you want to embark on requires patience and continuous learning. Engage with the Salesforce community, ask questions, and never stop exploring new aspects of the platform.