Never miss an opportunity because of certifications!

David’s note: This one’s for all the certification skeptics out there, you know who you are! Very proud of you Mamatha for being open minded and investing in yourself! Can’t wait to send you a free t-shirt LOL!

Hi David,

Hope you had a wonderful holiday! :)

First of all, I wanted to THANK YOU for creating the SFDC99 community, you are amazing David!

Here’s my story on how I got 5 certs in 3 weeks! Due of COVID, I couldn’t visit my family for holidays this year so I decided that I would use this time to challenge myself and get 4 certs in 2 weeks.

I have been working in Salesforce industry since 5 years but never took any certifications because I honestly didn’t believe in them. For me, hands-on experience added more value than getting certifications. I know there are a lot of people out there who value hands on experience more! Believe me, I totally understand you!

So what changed?

I asked one question to every Salesforce professional I ever met and that was – Do you believe in hands-on experience or Salesforce certifications? Most of them said they valued experience but certs was the only way they could gauge if an individual has required knowledge. After watching your videos on YouTube recently about certifications, I decided that – I never want to miss an opportunity just because I didn’t have certifications!

In Nov 2020, I challenged myself to get 4 certs in 2 weeks and started my journey on Nov 23. I am working full time so I did pull a few night outer’s on this journey. Honestly, It was a lot of fun and it felt like I was playing a game and before I knew it, I was 4x certified so I wanted to keep the momentum going and got the 5th cert the next week.

I am happy to say that after 3 weeks I am 5X certified and definitely more confident than I was before! Here are some tips for anyone who is starting their journey:

• Set a goal, no matter how small
• Commit to your goal and that means weekends too ;)
• Schedule your exam and work towards it, you can always reschedule if needed
• SFDC99 has great resources on how to study for certs, great place to start!
• Invest in FocusonForce, this helped me a LOT
• Finally, Believe in yourself! You can do it! :)

Happy New Year! Here’s to getting more certs in 2021! :)

• Trailhead: https://trailblazer.me/id/mchitukula
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/mamatha-chitukula

-Thanks
Mamatha Chitukula

UPDATE!
I wanted to get Application Architect in 30 days by completing Platform Dev 1 cert but I failed. That was the first cert I failed so far so decided to take more time to prepare. I reached for the moon, missed and landed among the stars with 5 certs! :)

I was very hard on myself for failing but I am still proud of my journey!

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