I discovered Trailhead recently and have been learning like crazy. I'm seeing amazing opportunities, but it seems you always need to have a certification. I don't have access to an org in order to gain experience using the platform. All I have is Trailhead and I'm wondering if that's enough to gain employment Thank you!
Yes, Use with Trailhead Trailmix for preparing your exam from here:
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/credentials/administrator
also explore the trailhead admin related superbadges to understand the some real use cases:
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/superbadges (filter as Salesforce Admin Role)
also refer the practice admin test:
https://www.salesforceben.com/salesforce-admin-practice-exam/
https://developer.salesforce.com/files/ti/thi/THI-000393/administratorpracticetest.html
also register and attend the free Salesforce Certification Days Webinar from exports:
https://trailhead.salesforce.com/credentials/cert-days
all the very best for preparing your exam!