Are Salesforce Certifications Important When Hiring An Admin or Dev?

How much value should you assign to Certifications when hiring a Salesforce Administrator or Developer?

Our honest answer is that you should place little importance on them.

Do not treat Salesforce Certs (no matter how many a candidate has obtained) as a barometer for actual capabilities on the platform.

Yes, Certifications are an excellent starting point and may demonstrate general knowledge within a Salesforce product area. But they are narrow in scope.

Acquiring a Certification does not involve:

• Edge cases.

• Constraints for specific problems you will encounter.

• Real word application.

A Certification demonstrates an individual’s commitment to learning and expanding their knowledge on the platform. This is HUGE, particularly when investing in junior or mid-level talent.

However, I’ve seen too many companies overestimating someone’s qualifications simply because they have a Marketing Cloud Admin or CPQ Admin Certification.

Similarly, I’ve seen companies overlook incredibly strong talent because they weren’t Certified.

The big exception to this rule

There's a clear exception to this rule and it's the Platform Developer II Certification for Advanced Developers. This has various prerequisites and tests more objective knowledge of the platform, so you can rest assured that a Platform Developer II is highly capable in Salesforce development. Need help vetting candidates? Let's jump on a call!