One of the First 500 ... I Hope ...
Well I did it, I signed up to take the test to become one of the "first 500" certified Salesforce.com administrators. Talked a bit about it in my post here, and I'm making the trek down to San Mateo to take the test next week. 60 multiple choice questions of Salesforce.com goodness. I downloaded the study guide, checked out the sample questions...and promptly had a minor heart attack.
I've been a "power user" for 4 years, built custom apps, implemented from scratch at one company and helped with a few others. I'm the guy people call with Salesforce.com questions...and I usually have the answers! But maybe this certification won't be the piece of cake I thought it was...and that kind of makes me want it more.
One of the beauties of Salesforce.com is the ease of use. When you understand the way it works, and how things relate to each other, it is easy to accomplish so much with very little further instruction. Or, there are easy to find hints or recommendations within the help and training section. I feel like if the exam were a "practical exam" which set me in front of a browser and asked me to accomplish things there would be no problem. But that's not how it works. There are 60 multiple choice questions, and you need to get 67% of them right in 90 minutes to pass.
Here is a sample questions from the study guide:
- Which of the following is a standard profile? (Select all that apply.)
- A. Sales User
- B. Marketing User
- C. Invoice Manager
- D. Contract Manager
Umm...Sales User, right? After all, Salesforce.com was born as an SFA tool and the majority of users are sales users so they should be set up right out of the box....and yes on Marketing User, but not the other two...I don't know, it's been a long time and I've created a ton of my own profiles, which ones did I create and which ones came with? Um...A and B?
WRONG! Sales User is not a standard profile.The answer is B (Marketing User) and D (Contract Manager).
I exchanged an email with a colleague with some connections at Salesforce.com regarding the exam last week, and her suggestion was to beware of the nitpicky questions like "how many custom fields are allowed on a record in Professional edition" and to prepare by downloading and printing out the user guide and making notes in the margins. The full user guide is 1700 pages long! I've never used Professional Edition! Holy cow!
I need to go study. Any tips or tricks welcome. Please post below. Please. ;-)
