It was only two months ago when this happened:
Quite a few people have reached out asking about the preparation for the exam and guidance, hence me writing this here for accessible content.
Generally
So any certification I do is within context, with that I mean already having worked on the product in question for some time.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle
That’s how my brain works, else I find it an abstract activity mostly hanging on memory over experience. And well after all I am a Scrum Master, empiricism is a thing!
For this particular certification I had some experience just when Salesforce acquired Wave (wow thats quite long time ago). And also before this exam, I had some on-the-job experience for just over a year.
“Salesforce highly recommends a combination of on-the-job experience, course attendance, and self-study to maximize your chances of passing the exam.” —Trailhead
Exam Guide
The above sentence is from the exam guide, it used to be a pdf but now embedded in Trailhead.
The exam guide is ALWAYS your starting point, I’m so surprised how many people don’t use this resource (some don’t even know it exists! How?!)
The exam guide is designed to help you evaluate IF you are ready to successfully complete the exam. And gives you a break down of all sections and topics that will be covered, and also what is expected from you. For example on this particular one some below:
- intended for individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and experience with data ingestion processes, security and access implementations, and dashboard creation.
- has a minimum of one year of experience
- experience with other business intelligence (BI), extract-transform-load (ETL), analytics, and reporting tools.
- experience leading technical projects.
You even have the exam outline where you can open each section:
Resources
Did I mention the exam guide?… Seriously use it! I literally created my own document from it and broke down each item, defined the logic and considerations. For example I did this one open one for Pardot years ago, just to give you a flavour.
Talking about empiricism, my ever top resource is… a dev edition! Where I try all & more! Practice practice practice – I’m a bit old school like that: Take the cert guide breakdown each item, define logic and then go play with it.
A good complimentary content for me was this video series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvsQRDGviQo&list=PLjJeA2SstEtIIwI30ULDS5XKmacqcLcmt that runs through all items.
Also topped up with Peter Lyons videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkNDwCEl-BbAsaGSQ7I6Xtg
And the wonderful blog https://www.salesforceblogger.com/categorized-overview/ from Rikke Hovgaard to reshape some of the concepts.
Doing a mix of writing it up myself, trying out the concepts, then watching some videos on same concept and reading up so more, helps me to stay focus. I change the flavour of the channel for content consumption whilst keeping the topic focused.
Sooooo what are you up to?
Also the aim is not passing an exam but showcase that you already have the knowledge and experience.
This post is really nice and informative. The explanation given is really comprehensive and informative.