David’s note: I have so much respect for what you did Jeremiah. You went to extreme lengths to achieve extreme results. I sincerely believe that you have a God-given talent as I’ve only seen a handful of people ever push themselves like this. I believe you are destined to succeed and it would be an honor to shake your hand one day!
Hello David,
I was so inspired by your blog and the success stories of Mayank and Adam that I decided to beat the “5 certification in 6 weeks challenge”.
Following my first degree in Information Technology I spent 4 years in the British Army working on Oracle CRMs. This gave me the appetite to pursue a second degree in Computer Science. I confess I was still not set on which career path to specialise on. All I knew was I wanted to forge a successful career in IT. With the plethora of IT careers to pick from, I could take the red pill and stay in ponder land but I stumbled across Salesforce back in 2013 whilst researching the best technologies to specialise in. I was so amazed at the flexibility that Salesforce offers and I was convinced I should give it a try.
At this stage I already had a promising job as a .Net developer, I felt like changing platforms would mean starting from the scratch again with zero experience in Salesforce. I was more worried about the cost of funding training courses to learn Salesforce. I was thinking, without a stash of cash, it would take me months to save up, and whilst I didn’t have access to the bank of mum and dad, I had to think of a plan B. So I was at my drawing board asking myself ‘How do I get into Salesforce, how do I become a Salesforce developer?’ I even called recruiters to understand the minimum requirements and level of experience necessary to break into a career in Salesforce. Most told me 3 to 5 years’ experience would be the requisite to break into Salesforce.
My Salesforce ambitions were dampened, as I only had 1 year experience; then I stumbled upon David’s blog SFDC99. I read all the articles and how to get a job as a Salesforce developer. I was so inspired at David’s success story and told myself, if David can do it, so can I. At the same period, my company downsized and I knew it was my perfect timing to make the move into Salesforce.
I started learning about the admin side of Salesforce following David’s article. After getting some admin knowledge, I offered my services free of charge to not for profit organisations as an administrator. I got lots of rejections but I persevered and got a couple of volunteer positions as a SF administrator. I had finally made it… well made one step further on my journey and more importantly I was practicing and getting real world experience.
By now, my passion for Salesforce was in the clouds and I was eager to demonstrate this drive further. I joined my local Salesforce user group (London Salesforce admin and developers group) where I met so many like-minded people. Everyone was helpful and encouraged my passion and ambition to succeed.
Following many interviews and rejections, I got my first proper job developing on the Force.com platform (quiet cheer). I didn’t slow my SF growth, if anything I doubled my determination. I continued learning every day to improve my skills using David’s article Guide to passing all Salesforce certifications. I was so inspired by Mayank and Adam’s success stories that I said to myself I want to also match and even better that record. If they could do it in 6 weeks, I will aim to do it in 5 weeks.
I started studying for 4 – 5 hours every day after work. All day on Saturday and Sunday after church, I burnt the proverbial ends of the candle. I also used my commute to and from work on the train to study. Every minute of my spare time was used for studies and practice. I watched all the training videos I could find online and completed all exercises. I printed all the documentations listed on the training guide which I still have for reference purposes. I took the exams one after the other in the order in which David prescribed and through all my practice and study I got all 5 certifications (Salesforce Certified Admin (201), Force.com Developer (401), Advanced Admin (211), Sales Cloud Consultant, and Service Cloud Consultant) in 5 weeks. Thanks to David, I did not have to pay a single penny for the training, all I did was follow his advice and it worked for me.
What next for me? I have ambitions to do my Dev 501 and eventually CTA in the near future. Therefore I am more motivated than ever to demonstrate my knowledge and expertise as a Salesforce professional. I have been fortunate enough to have started a new position as a Salesforce Lead where I hope to grow and keep adding to my learning. I agree with David when he said “To be a good developer, you have to be a good administrator” with my new role, I will consolidate all the stuff I have learnt and gradually work towards 501 whilst exploring the declarative part of the Salesforce Platform. I code for 2 hours every day after work, but not weekends for the now.
Thanks David, I look forward to shaking your hands and saying thank you in person! You are truly my Salesforce role model!
Want to tell the world your story too?
Email it to sfdc99.mailbag@gmail.com and your story could be heard around the world!
Very inspirational – Congrats Jeremiah!!
Need help for Golden 5 cert path or priority
please help with the order in which I should attempt –
Cert Admin
Platform Developer
Advanced Admin
Sales Cloud Consultant
Service Cloud Consultant
congrats Jeremiah . I would like to say thanks to you for sharing your experience…Can you help to get job in sales force and could you suggest me regarding the certification…
Congrats, and good luck in your search! I’m so glad you sought / made your volunteer opportunities & really made the best use of your time! Cheers, too, to David for curating great resources and providing inspiration! (I recognize you from the Udacity class stating you “dream in Salesforce!” I bet Jeremiah does too, now!)
Can Some body help me I want to learn SFDC however am just a END USER .
Any help will be a great for me .
Thank You
Muhammad, you can start with Trailhead and keep practicing, try to implement in your Dev ORG any idea that comes to your mind (that is useful to any business), Like David says you have to eat, live and sleep salesforce!
I want to beat that challenge! 5 Cert in 5 Weeks?!?! I´m a Marketing Mayor with 7 years experience as a SFDC Admin/Dev (point & click), working my way first to learn to code in simple languages like HTML, Javascript and CSS (freeCodeCamp, Codeacademy, Udemy, etc..), I keep training in Trailhead any challenge that it is there (Try the Superbadges), I keep trying crazy things in my Live Org (the company to whom I work with), I just did a configuration of a Project Management App, working on doing the Gantt for the project scope in Visualforce (It is hard for me), but as i´m in sales, I have to have customers and then admin Salesforce!
I will do this challenge if possible in 4 weeks or Less!! that´s a personal challenge!
To get back to Muhammad try this link below and keep reading here in sfdc99
http://trailhead.salesforce.com
David,
Again love the help that you give us! Keep up!!
Jeremiah, CONGRATS!! You are a BEAST!!! Great work!!
Alex Valdes
Great comment Alex!
I’ll be on the lookup for a success story from you one day!!!
Jeremiah you are such an inspiration!
David
Wow! Congrats. Thanks for sharing your story — very inspirational. I have 2 with 3 more to go and coaching my colleagues in the process too.
Good insipiration to learners
Great achievement Jeremaiah.
Jeremiah – you have inspired me – keep up the great work and the perseverance !
Hands down that is the most impressive SF certification achievement I’ve seen yet. I know Salesforce staff themselves are trained up hard and fast to get the ‘Golden 5’ certs, but more your story proves that with sheer willpower, discipline and determination you can do it on your own. You’d be an asset to any organisation using Salesforce with that sort of true grit.
Congrats Jeremiah!!
Congrats Jeremiah! Absolutely incredible
Congrats Jeremiah. Your story is inspiring as much as Mayank & Adam..