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What is a Salesforce Developer?

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the Salesforce Economy is set to create 1.9 million direct and indirect jobs in India by 2024. For this reason and more, your friends and family might have recommended Salesforce as a career in the Information Technology (IT) space in India. Perhaps, one of your friends or colleagues is part of the #Journey2Salesforce program in India. However, what is Salesforce, and what does it mean to be a Salesforce Developer?

Salesforce is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that provides businesses with a single view of customers and out-of-the-box solutions and apps for marketing, sales, commerce, and service. Salesforce offers a wide range of out-of-the-box, no-code, and low-code tools like App Builder, Process Builder, Flow Builder, Experience Builder, which lets you build apps with just clicks. If you can’t find an out-of-the-box component, you can search on AppExchange, which has a rich set of pre-built apps and components for most needs. For further customization, Salesforce offers pro-code tools that allow developers to write code to build apps and automations.

A Salesforce Developer is someone who builds apps on the Salesforce Platform using a wide range of no-code, low-code, and pro-code tools it offers. A Salesforce Developer has an excellent understanding of all these tools and, more importantly, when to use which tool to help customers get the maximum benefit of the Salesforce Platform.

The typical job of a Salesforce Developer is very similar to that of other core technology developers like a Java Developer, Android Developer, .NET Developer, or a Full-stack Developer. Salesforce Developers follow the typical Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) to plan, develop, and maintain a fully functional application. When developing an application, they also follow industry-standard best practices like Version Control, Documentation, Static Code Analysis, etc. There is one key aspect where a Salesforce Developer differs from other core technology developers - writing code isn't always needed to build fully functional apps on Salesforce as it comes with a lot of pre-built solutions.

A Salesforce Developer has an excellent understanding of all the no-code and low-code tools that Salesforce offers. This approach is the fastest way to roll out apps to production. For actions such as the creation of Application Schema, creating and managing users and permissions, Input Validation, creating apps with tabs and responsive layouts, enabling apps on mobile, and many more - coding isn't required.

A Salesforce Developer has the programming skills required to build apps and components that cannot be built using the low-code and no-code tools. They use their programming skills to write backend or server-side logic using Salesforce's programming language called 'Apex' similar to other object-oriented programming languages. They also use their programming skills to write front-end or client-side logic using Visualforce or a modern web-standards based framework called Lightning Web Components. A Salesforce Developer can work with Query Languages, and on Salesforce they use Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) to retrieve data from the Salesforce schema. They use Data Manipulation Language (DML) to store the data into the schema.

A Salesforce Developer should have a good understanding of CRM Concepts such as Sales Process, Service Process, etc. and the terminology involved such as Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities, Quotes, etc. They know which of these processes are available out-of-the-box from Salesforce and how these processes are built.

To summarise, a Salesforce Developer is someone who has a good understanding of CRM Concepts, the tools that Salesforce offers, programming skills, and knows which tools to use to deliver the best and fastest results.

How can one become a Salesforce Developer in India?

You can get started as a Salesforce Developer with Trailhead - where you are right now. Trailhead provides a fun way of learning using bite-sized tutorials. You can practice what you learn using a Salesforce Developer Edition org, and you can sign up for a free Salesforce Developer Edition of the platform at developer.salesforce.com.

You can excel as a Salesforce Developer with a good understanding of the Salesforce Platform and gain the required technical skills to build applications. You can build applications using declarative development and also programming based development.

Declarative Development Skills

You can drag and drop the pre-built components and quickly create a real-time application. Salesforce Platform provides a rich set of in-built tools for Salesforce Developers to build the applications declaratively. The tools include:

  • Lightning App Builder - This tool can be used to create applications.
  • Flow Builder and Process Builder - These tools can be used to build business automations.
  • Experience Builder - This tool can be used to build customer communities that enable customer engagement.
  • Report Builder - This tool can be used to build reports and dashboards.

This is just a small list of available tools that you can use in your routine development. These tools are very intuitive and easy to adapt.

Programming Development Skills

The Salesforce Developer can build most of the applications using the declarative approach. They can extend the features using programmatic development. Various programming skills include:

  • Apex - If you are familiar with any of the object-oriented programming languages, you will appreciate working on Apex as it is easy to write code. Apex provides interfaces for most of the standard enterprise requirements, such as Database Triggers, Asynchronous Processing, etc.
  • SOQL/SOSL - The Salesforce Developer works with Salesforce Object Query Language (SOQL) to query the Salesforce data. The developer can use the Salesforce Object Search Language (SOSL) for a global search against the search index.
  • Lightning Web Components - The Salesforce Developer can either use the default front-end provided by the platform for the applications or build a rich front-end using modern JavaScript. Salesforce provides a modern programming model based on HTML and Ecmascript web standards called Lightning Web Components. It provides developer tooling extensions on a lightweight IDE (Integrated Development Environment) such as VisualStudio code, through which you can easily build Lightning web components.
  • Other Skills - If you have prior experience building apps using other technologies, some of those skills can apply to Salesforce as well. These skills can include JavaScript, Application Life Cycle Management, Object-oriented Programming, System Integration, Web Services, etc.

What is the best Salesforce Developer Tutorial for someone in India?

Have you searched for the best Salesforce training institute in Bangalore or Hyderabad? Are you considering paying more than a lakh to a coaching center? Stop. Take a look at #Journey2Salesforce first.

The Salesforce Developer Relations team in India has put together a free learning program to equip Indians with the minimum skills required to become a Salesforce Developer. All you have to do is register for the program, and we will send you a guided learning path that leverages Trailhead - our free, self-learning platform. In addition, we support you with mentoring sessions by experts from the ecosystem. You even stand a chance to win a free Salesforce Certification (PD-I) voucher.

What makes the program unique is that once you complete the program, we help you connect with employers looking to hire Salesforce Developers.

However, this program is not for students and is only for non-Salesforce IT professionals in India, who are looking to enter the Salesforce Ecosystem.

What is expected on a Salesforce Developer’s resume?

A Salesforce Developer’s resume isn’t very different from a typical resume that developers have. It should include technical skills, projects executed, experience, education, etc. Salesforce Developers typically add to their resume, certifications, Trailhead rank, and the number of Trailhead badges earned.

If you’re a Salesforce Developer, here are a few tips to remember when crafting your resume. Since the Salesforce Ecosystem is vast, there’ll be many Salesforce features, technologies, and tools you might have worked with. You must choose to highlight experiences that are attractive to the recruiter. For example: “Worked with Custom Objects” is not something you would want to include in your resume. Instead, it is essential to mention the role that you’ve played in the project, what value you have added to the project, and what you have learned from the project rather than listing down all the requirements of the project.

Most importantly, it is expected that you are truthful and honest in your resume. Please note that having a certification, Trailhead badges, or a well-crafted resume by no means will guarantee you a job. A well-written resume will only get you an interview, and you have to prove yourself to the interviewer.

At the interview, they will test your knowledge about the Salesforce Platform, basic CRM concepts, Salesforce solutions, and your technical skills. You must understand the customer and what their business is about. You must also know what their pain points are and how this project will help them. You must be aware of the scope of the project, the high-level requirements, and how those requirements solve a business problem. Most importantly, you must thoroughly know the module you are working on and how it fits into the overall project. For each requirement that you have implemented, you must understand why it has been implemented in a certain way.

Is a Salesforce Developer Certification necessary?

Once you have skilled up through Trailhead, you can prove your skills with superbadges and certifications.

Superbadges

The superbadges let you take the skills you've learned and apply them to complex, real-world business problems. The superbadges are free to earn and are part of Trailhead. You can prove your expertise in specific roles with the superbadges and take the next step towards getting certified and landing a top job.

Certifications

Salesforce Certifications are highly regarded and add a lot of value to your resume. You can highlight your skills with certifications and get a competitive edge that opens doors to new opportunities. All employers and customers prefer someone who is certified. Having a Salesforce Certification indicates that you know how to apply Salesforce skills to real-world problems. The questions in Salesforce Certification exams are designed to test your skills in the context of real-world problems. In some cases, having a Salesforce Certification gets you more pay.

Trailhead provides role-based guidance for your certification path. You can find the certifications for Administrator, Architect, Developer, Marketer, and Consultant roles.

Some of the certifications for developers are,

  • Platform App Builder certification highlights the developer’s skills and knowledge in designing, building, and implementing custom applications using the Salesforce Platform's declarative customization capabilities.
  • Platform Developer I certification highlights the developer’s knowledge of how to develop and deploy custom business logic and custom interfaces using the Salesforce Platform's programmatic capabilities.
  • Platform Developer II certification highlights the developer’s experience in advanced programmatic capabilities of the Salesforce Platform and data modeling to develop complex business logic and interfaces.
  • B2C Commerce Developer certification highlights that the developer has full-stack experience on Salesforce Commerce Cloud Digital.
  • Marketing Cloud Developer certification highlights the hands-on experience one has as a full-stack developer for Marketing Cloud creating personalized, dynamic messages, landing pages, and Marketing Cloud scripting languages. It also highlights that the developer is experienced with data configuration, manipulations, and advance segmentation, as well as reporting and analytics.

A developer can choose the Platform App Builder certification and prove their hands-on experience with declarative development. The developer can test their programmatic development skills with Platform Developer I and Platform Developer II certifications. If you’re new to Salesforce and are looking to start your career as a Salesforce Developer, you stand a chance to win a free Platform Developer I certification voucher through the #Journey2Salesforce program.