I'm so new to this I didn't realize people getting stuck completing badges in Trailhead was a thing. I'm specifically using it to learn what I need to get a certification.

Thank you, David. We admins will always have mad love for Trailhead. Your video is a reminder that it while vital, it represents an idealized Salesforce customer org. The modules are suited for building baseline skills. The slings and arrows of real life orgs is where we really advance our careers.

Just started the Trailhead journey. I'm so glad I saw your video and will definitely focus on certifications. Thanks, David your videos are educational and funny-:)

I have to admit this vid really did touch my heart. I saw on LinkedIn the other of an admin who proudly posted his achievement of having finished every single badge within 2 years (over 1.2k), people who commented on the post were all like this is amazing but I couldn't help but think how much he could of learnt had he spent it on practical. Quantity doesn't not equals to quality and is a real shame how many misunderstood that.

Your videos have been so helpful. Wish you continued success!

Great video, beginner here and I’m even more excited about this new journey. I’ve used salesforce your years and excited to get on this end of it.

Is it ok for me to say that I LOVE THIS VIDEO?! This is perfect. You nailed it. Big time.

Just when I think you topped it off, you come out with something even better setting the bar high. KEEP GOING!!. All you said makes sense, and I can relate so much to it. While running for being a ranger I realized so much of the time I was on auto-pilot. A great person knocked some sense in me, THANKYOU!. I reflected on the situation, flipped it on its head and that's when I got the first certification.

Great video & advice David! Come back out to Las Vegas, and we'll take you up to the Red Rocks, until then take care!

Great content. You are officially my Salesforce Mentor whether you want to be or not.

So true. I use Trailhead for overall product interest or to complement cert training but find the best way to learn is on the job. As I’m a solo admin it can help solve problems but usually these are solved in ‘answers’ or a blog more than in Trails but in context the learning goes in way easier. It’s a great tool for new learners especially.

Wish I could give you more than one like on this one. About to go check out your trailmix 🏃‍♀️

Awesome video, awesome confidence. Liked and subscribed.

Awesome David.. I’m big fan of trailhead with 450+ badges .. I agree with you, trailhead gives a trail to navigate the Salesforce forest 🌳 , it’s up to us to go deeper without trails and come out of it by learning ourselves. My wife works in Salesforce and big fan of you 😊😊😊😊 .

I think the best way to study from trailheads is through completing trails and then complete superbadges.

I am from Salesforce, thanks for sharing your salesforce knowledge and experience.

I love how you build interest with great titles. I gotta learn that. Brilliant video. Very helpful.

I'm strongly agree with you. While I was making some trailheads challenges and then I watched this video and I'm moving to a course on force.com to prepare for the developer I instead on keep completing trailheads. Regards from Peru

David, you are an inspiration! I've no background in any of the tech or a good qualifications. I'm inspired by all your videos and please be my mentor.

Hi David, Thank you for the awesome content as usual. When are you releasing Apex Academy #4 and 5?

David - I hear what you are saying, BUT....in my own experience, I tried using some of the courses from the SF cottage industry training companies. Tried FoF (your sponsor, I know), Mike Wheeler (didn't you do a YT commercial for him back in the day?) and Certified on Demand for the Admin exam training. After FoF and Mike Wheeler, I failed the exam TWICE - major bummer. CertifiedonDemand actually references the 'Prepare for Your Salesforce Administrator Credential' trailmix. As you may recall, this trailmix is very time-consuming, but it is EXCELLENT. After failing the exam twice, I really thought I was incapable of learning new material - and I have been a programmer and business analyst for over 15 years. Going through this trailmix has made me very comfortable with SF concepts. If I can overcome my own PTSD over exam failures, I will work up the courage to take the exam again, and hopefully, pass. Keep on doing what you do, David - you inspire us!

Your videos are always so informative. I started learning Salesforce after watching your earlier videos. I was definitely feeling kind of lost on Trailhead by myself. I will be following your Trailmix from now on.

Great video David, keep em’ coming (I see what you did there with the title). I totally agree with your comments/advice. Here are the 4 things that drive me to keep tackling badges. 1 - real life project with a product I am unfamiliar with. Ranked #1 best place to start 2 - certifications 3 - new release features / testing / personal POCs 4 - features I hear about and I’m passionate to learn I’m always eager to do hands on modules bc those tend to stick more. Superbadges are my favorite.

Hi @David, I've been following your advice so far. This one 'focusing on certs more than Trailhead' really helped though thanks to badges you get voucher to take certs. Been working on PM side, but now found out the more I do, the more I know and the more I can support, heading now to more Apex diving. Thanks for your great advice, you're inspirational and really helped me !!!

Question: how does focusing on certs relates to real life experience? I ask because I want the SFMC email specialist cert...but i haven't used the software. Would it affect me in my job hunt?

Did you try stand up comedy? Boy I love your videos. You have taken the education to a whole new level.

Thanks a lot for these videos

Question to you David. I wanna go for the Dev_1 certificate. Should I follow the Trailhead and then reroll your 15-weeks course or should I choose only your course ? I own 3 certificates and I realized that Trailhead is mostly for the basics and I had to reroll courses from other platforms. What is your opinion ?

How can I enable Einstein analytics .. when press on it, a window appears telling there is an error and the error id is 433481424

awesome video david brother

Dang I build trailhead and wrote first mockup and POC. I still have those papers and photos of Fremont home where I discussed on whiteboard with my wife and then in office

You are focusing more on the roots and direction to learn sf... #Best advice on the internet regarding sf... #IAmSeriousFollower!!!

I am new to salesforce. Just heard about it somewhere on a facebook group. I want to get into salesforce development. I do have some knowledge in programming languages (primarily java script and python). My problem is I have no idea where to start. When learning to code there are a ton of resources that take you from absolutely no experience to professional in just a few months. Are there any structured courses i can take?

What are ways I can go about preparing to get my certifications?

Once again an awesome video.

David, I have heard some people say that moving certification to trailhead it's diluting the quality of the exam itself and they're lowering the bar by moving part of the certification to trailhead. Would love to hear your thoughts on this . PS: Hope you enjoyed watching Rafa dish out some breadsticks in Rome 😀

Hi David I'm starting Salesforce carrier which role is better admin or developer

Hi David, I am not sure if you have answer this question. Is there any portal or site where we can find some volunteer Salesforce work to get real world experience.? Please do share.

Trailhead gives you at least some hands on experience for features you may not have. If you are prepping for a job interview for a company that uses features you have never used, trailhead is the best answer. How else can you get hands on experience with something like Einstein Analytics or Pardot without buying them? This is what it’s good for. Also the trail mixes for architect exams are great and give you all the PDF links you need to study.

Could you please update the trailmix if there are any new things needed in 2022 September

Hi could you suggest how to prepare sales force admin test .i am very new to IT industry.

I was into Salesforce badges until I realized my employer doesn't care. I'm only several badges away from Ranger status, and it will probably stay that way for a while.

So I had to stay utill the end of this video leaning on your promised "Recommended Alternative Approach" and I honestly didn´t hear nothing about this. Maybe I´m wrong, but, can you please tell me? Thanks

Well said sir!

You say that we should have a certification for every 25 badges. So do you have a list of just 25 badges to get the first admin certification? The badges list you gave us in the description has almost 150 badges and nearly 200 hours of work. So how are we supposed to know what badges to do to prepare for the admin certification? Or how are we supposed to know what 6 certifications we should have after completing all the badges in the trail mix?

I guess I'm always the first one to view your videos ..and the first one to comment on them! If this doesn't explain my love for Salesforce..what else will 😀

I have scheduled my Admin exam in October end. I have completed the whole official guide Trailmix, admin Beginner and Admin Intermediate Trailmix. I am revising it again but still scared. Any more resources to prepare for Admin exam?

who can I speak live on trailhead as trying to start with Salesforce admin

I stopped studying on trailhead 1.5 years ago. Quit my boring IT service company's Salesforce Dev job for pursuing a Master's degree. Now I'll be heading to Salesforce early next year as an SWE!

Super badge is very frustrating sometimes :( .. can't get solving errors

Interesting Video. I just discovered Trailhead. Due to the Pandemic I been furloughed. I am interested in Instructional Design. Is there a Career Path ( and certifications) for this or something similar? Just to clarify, the certifications you earn in Trailhead can aid in landing a job? They are legit, in other words? Thanks!

I'm just a passed out graduate and from my brother's words I'm impressed by trailhead website I have started to learn Salesforce but , I can't learn at a stretch and with consistency. Please give me some suggestions so that even I would be able to proudly say that I'm an Salesforce developer.

Can you help me out...I teach at a transfer school to kids who HATE school and avoid it with mastery. Several of them have started down the Salesforce Trailhead rabbit-hole and really think this is going to be the career for them....meanwhile they can't pass 9th grade English on Google Classroom...What do I say to these kids who can barely read and write and think they are going to make $150,000 next year with Salesforce?

I honestly use trailheads only to learn about things that I need to use or could be useful for my job, other than that i focus my attention more on the certifications

for me , the near to certification experience are the super badges of trailhead

I'm very new to Salesforce. Its been 1 month. When will you recommend me to take a certification exam?

4:56 Great LOTR reference!

Could you please let us know the topics where most of the clients are interested ??? If you want learn something in next 2 yrs what would be that one ???

Thanks David.

David, great advice as usual!

Great point.... Can I add point 5. Trailhead and Certifications assume a set of core skills - the understanding of the principles of systems implementation. Therefore there is no training/certs that cover.... COE/governance, MDM, business analysis, impact analysis, (business) change management. There are 1000 OrgConfessions.com (org horror stories) and root cause analysis shows the top 4 issues are Analysis, Architecture, Documentation, Implementation process. Here's some trailhead live content train.elements.cloud/live

good video, again.

I'm barely using Trailhead, thanks for the heads up!

I just completed the Pathfinder Training Program - many Trailmixes and exercises designed to take a student from zero to certification. There was a live training element, about 40 hours worth. Even after being introduces to Focus on Force and other cert prep materials, I still think you need to spend time poking around in and building out a sandbox ("playground") org to really put everything into perspective. I agree with you wholeheartedly about spending too much time in Trailhead - it's a great resource, but not the best source of knowledge is curiosity and exploration.

@David what are your thoughts on Super badges?

Thanx for trailmix.

As I sit here just finishing the Trailhead "Trees to Combat Climate Change" badge, one of 1022 I've managed to earn over the last 5 years including all 20 SB's, I stumbled onto your latest video. Very interesting way to get an addict to consider what in the world they are doing. I only have 5 certs (including PD1/PD2) at this point, so that is a ratio of 1 cert for every 200 badges. Not to bad. Seriously, I get it. We need a balance. Basically, I complete badges and tuck those pieces of info into the back of my brain. Might need some of it someday. Anyways, I'm now onto the new Javascript Cert. Help me Trailhead!

Do you think it's worth it being a Salesforce developer. I am a MERN stack developer and I am looking to move into this industry. I want something very niche and uncommon.

Thank you for the fresh content! As of yesterday, I have 1 down and 5 to go on my 6 cert goal! Is there a better way to practice configuring features from the exam guide than working through the Trailhead Trailmix that correlates to the cert exam I am pursuing? I’m following your Ultimate Salesforce Certifications Guide, and the Trailmixes to me seem to be the best way to check off your first bullet point regarding practice configuring features under “Study for Understanding”. Would so appreciate your perspective as I work to allocate my time on education most efficiently and effectively. Thank you!

that smile at 8:21 is hilarious!

Absolute truth!

Thanks

David, I see a lot of comments that talk negative about trailhead. I don't agree with any of them. What would have happened if trailhead doesn't exist? I see trailhead as a great learning platform for people to get started. Trailhead + Work Experience has made a lot of difference for me because I tend to learn a lot of things that I have never done in my business. Btw, awesome SF t shirt.

The college and university going person's example is so me😄

Absolute. Super. Hero.

True that 🙌

Great Video and words of Wisdom! I agree with you an org in the real world is not represented in Trailhead. As a new administrator, you can end up inheriting a badly designed org. There is no trailhead badge that helps you fix a poorly designed org and related processes! Thanks again really helpful video! Appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge!

This just seems like a Salesforce Trailhead sales pitch rather than a proper critical review of Trailhead

Great video, David! Many thanks for sharing the important badges that one should target. I have a question for you. You have mentioned not to waste time in doing random trialhead badges. In your posts, you had also mentioned about following the official guide for each certification. The guide has a link to the official trail mix. This trailmix contains a bunch of badges. Are you suggesting that one should complete the entire official trailmix for a certification before taking an exam? Almost each one of them takes about 50-60 hours minimum! If your answer is No, then it would be very helpful if you could provide us a mapping between the most important modules/trails badges and the certifications associated with them. For eg: If I were to target the Service Cloud certification, then which are the modules that we should focus on. What would be even better in the long run is a trailmix that you can create for each certification that covers the most critical modules. Thanks in advance!

This is so true! I got 70 badges and my admin 201 before getting my first job and there is so much I don't know. Trailhead doesn't teach you formulas or workflows in a way that you can use in real life. Working with an admin and developer that have over ten years of experience has helped way more.

Who have solved Ursa major's solar components organization issues on trailhead ???😅😅😅 Brother is trailhead superbatch holds same value as that of certificate?

🙋David I have to say you speak the facts 💯.... 🍻🧑‍💻🎅

For it is written bots versus trendsetters

David, I earned my administrator certification the day after watching your certification tier video, in which you said that certification doesn't carry much weight 😂

I was kiddin about dislikes 😂😂😂(Really cool n down to earth guy)

❣️

Nail it!!!

trailhead bubble world v.s real world. can't agree more.

Truth

I understand that I should do nothing but just go to the description of every video and watch the videos you list there.

i tried trialhead and i think its not that good. Its not interactive. its a step by step guide. i think video's would be way better then the text layout guide. I started a project and couldn't do it because the zip file did not unzip. Trialhead i use once and prob wouldn't use it again until they make it more active with demos and proper files to complete the project. Im sticking to get the certificates . who cares about badges anyways

right on thanks Brother

Agree 95%. The one benefit for novice users badges have it it creates muscle memory for where to find things in the back end. Always going back to do badges allows you to continually find where you need to go for certain things. Everything else is on the money.

where is your trailmix

Does the 7 dislikes mean 7 SF employees have watched this? You are so smart and funny dude. And thanks for sharing your Trailhead Mix!

I would like to offer a different viewpoint. Trailhead is a great way to get a baseline understanding of concepts and the products Salesforce offers before you dive deeper into the topics. I use Trailhead all of the time, in fact I am one of those people with more than a 1000 badges and not one moment of it has been a waste of time. Using the knowledge from Trailhead alongside of independent study and hands on work has been key for me. I have earned (learned and applied the skills in the workplace) 14 certifications including Application Architect and now I'm using Trailhead and the hands on experience I get with working with clients to study for my last push to System Architect. Trailhead is a resource just like any other - a starting point. You then have to put work and effort into applying the skills you learn to the business challenges you are presented with. People learn differently - Trailhead is a great tool for many, it just may not be the right one for you. Either way, it IS possible to build a career around the skills Trailhead introduces you to. Is it easy to get a job based solely on your Trailhead skills? Probably not, but everything worth something requires effort. Put the effort in and there will be place for you in this line of work.

Work at Indian consulting companies and get certs in 15 days yes questions and cheating done openly and certs questions are all over the places

Don't Know Why I Feel Salesforce Badges is more Worthy Than Salesforce Certification if we are Talking about Knowledge in the Current Scenario !!

Last 20 seconds :D

It's funny i just started with all this and what you said is how i thought you were supposed to do it. You use the tools to learn and get certifications. I thought jobs want certs not virtual useless badges. hahaha