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7 x certified Salesforce MVP, training thousands of students with her Salesforce courses, including the Salesforce Certified Administrator Course.

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Salesforce Announce New Entry Level Certification

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The Salesforce Administrator certification is considered the baseline credential for any Salesforce professional and is often one of the hardest exams to pass, due to the breadth of topics and features covered. When starting out in your Salesforce career, it can sometimes be hard to attain enough hands-on, real-world experience in order to easily ace the exam.

With the existing skills gap, and the IDC predicting that Salesforce and its partners will create 9.3 million net new jobs by 2026, there’s a clear demand for a better way to enter the ecosystem. Never fear, as Salesforce have announced the Salesforce Certified Associate to address this need. Here’s everything we know so far about this brand-new certification.

What Is the Salesforce Certified Associate?

The Salesforce Certified Associate is for anyone with 0-6 months of Salesforce experience, looking to transform their career with Salesforce. That’s right, this certification is for you, even if you have no existing experience! It’s the ideal precursor to the Salesforce Administrator Certification, but it is not a prerequisite.

The Salesforce Certified Associate is designed to prepare Trailblazers for a career in Salesforce by validating foundational Salesforce knowledge, including what Salesforce is, what Salesforce does, and how the platform solves business needs.

The exam is split into four topics:

  1. Salesforce Ecosystem: 32%
  2. Navigation: 28%
  3. Data Model: 25%
  4. Reports & Dashboards: 15%

Unlike existing Salesforce professional certifications, such as the Salesforce Certified Administrator, this new certification will not require ongoing maintenance.

READ MORE: Salesforce Administrator Certification Guide & Tips

Who Is the Salesforce Associate Certification For?

The Salesforce Associate Certification is for anyone who is brand new to the ecosystem (0-6 months of experience) and looking to embark on a career in Salesforce. You do not need any technical expertise.

How to Become a Salesforce Certified Associate

The Salesforce Associate exam will test whether a candidate has a solid understanding of how Salesforce solves business needs including:

  • How a CRM platform can bring departments together and connect them with a complete picture of their customer data.
  • The benefits of an integrated CRM platform.
  • How Salesforce Customer 360 solves business challenges.
  • Essential terminology and concepts relating to the Salesforce platform.
  • The functionality provided by the Salesforce platform, for example, security, reporting, and data management.

Although no technical expertise is needed to pass this exam, it is helpful to have some understanding of various technical capabilities such as sharing, system customization, and user administration.

About the Salesforce Certified Associate Exam

  • The exam consists of 40 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions.
  • You will have 70 minutes to complete the exam.
  • The passing score is 62%.
  • The exam costs $75 to take and retakes are free.
  • The exam can be taken online or at a testing center.
  • There are no prerequisites to take this exam.
  • Resource: Trailhead Exam Guide

Summary

At Salesforce Ben we are huge advocates of making Salesforce technologies and associated jobs accessible to everyone, so we’re thrilled to see this new certification. What do you think? Will you be taking this certification or recommending it to friends and colleagues looking for a Salesforce career?

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27 thoughts on “Salesforce Announce New Entry Level Certification”

  3. Rick Hall

    Reply

    I thought that the Salesforce Administrator Certification was the entry level cert? If it’s already difficult to get a job with it, I don’t see this as anything but a waste of time.

  5. Cintia

    Reply

    As you should know, obtaining the first certification before September 30, 2022 is received a free Salesforce certification voucher. Do you know if this is valid also with this certification?

  10. Shobhita Agrawal

    Reply

    Hi Christine,
    Thanks for your very useful information.
    Kindly let me that is there any new certification announced for Salesforce Platform developers who have 1years of development experience.
    Thanks and Regards

  11. Michael

    Reply

    Do you think that having this certificate might be seem as a disadvantage in the community? From what I’ve seen, pretty much anyone can get this “cert” with next to no study. The only downside is having to pay $75USD. Meaning you could say you are Salesforce Certified and not really know that much about the Platform. 201 and 211 and The App Builder at least give prospective employers knowledge that the candidate has a strong base whereas The Salesforce Associate Certificate is likly to mislead some employers who have Salesforce embedded but might know absolutely nothing about the Certification model. To me, I might get this if I can find a $40 voucher that works if only to pad out my Cert count to 4x. I’m not sure i’d be comfortable even listing it on my resume…

    1. Christine Marshall

      Reply

      Hi,

      I don’t think it’s a disadvantage at all. Whilst more experienced Salesforce professionals may be giving the impression that this exam is a breeze, the content is not aimed at them and they do it a disservice to say it is “easy”.

      It is aimed at people brand new to Salesforce – having done the exam myself to enable me to write our study guide and tips – I can confirm that this exam is MUCH trickier and more technically complex than you imagine. whilst hand-on experience is not required, it expects an understanding of complex subjects such as multi-tenancy architecture, object relationships, security such as roles, profiles and permission sets, user management, report and dashboard features/limits and so on…

      I’d also put forward that it is a recruiter or hiring manager’s responsibility to understand to an adequate level the role they are hiring for, and to know what experience or certifications support that.

  13. Christopher

    Reply

    How do you sign up for this exam?
    Is it available right through Webassessor? or does Salesforce have to email you a link referral first? And how is that obtained?

  14. suneetha

    Reply

    Hi Christine,

    I am pretty new to trailhead and am not sure how to hoover and learn things. I am really interested in doing the certification ASAP. Can you provide me guide or trail questions bank to help me with my exam.

    Thanks,
    Suneetha

  15. Jess

    Reply

    Hi Christine,

    Can you please share which presentation mentioned this new certification? I want to go back and watch it, but I am having a difficult time finding it.

    Thank you,
    Jess

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