What Salesforce Certs should I sit?

Summary

This blog offers practical advice on choosing the right Salesforce certifications, based on your role, experience level, and career goals. It cuts through the noise and explains why certification isn't a one-size-fits-all journey, and how to decide what’s worth your time.

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce certs are useful but should be chosen based on your role and goals.

• Don’t chase badges for the sake of it, align them with the value you bring to clients or employers.

• Start with the cert that closes your biggest knowledge or credibility gap.

Introduction

During my Salesforce career I have built teams of Salesforce professionals and mentored countless team members through their growth journey. Without a doubt the most popular question I have been asked when doing so is:

"Which certs should? I sit and in what order?"

This actually poses a bigger question that is worth exploring:

"Which Salesforce certs are actually worth doing?"

So here’s my take, based on eight years in the ecosystem, lessons from my own path of coming from a non-technical background, and what I’ve seen through guiding others on their journey.

Essential Certs

1. Admin Certification (Certified Administrator)

This is the entry point, your foot in the door. Almost everyone starts here. It gives you a solid foundation on the platform, and if you go through Trailhead’s trailmixes and superbadges, you’ll gain some practical know-how too.

But let’s be clear: the Admin cert no longer guarantees you a job. Think of it like a BCom degree, once a near-guarantee for employment, now just a baseline.

When I landed my first consulting job in 2020, I had the Admin cert and some accidental admin experience. That combination was enough, then. Today, it likely wouldn’t be. You’ll probably need to supplement it with hands-on experience, internships, or entry-level roles. It’s a crucial cert, but don’t expect it to carry you on its own.

2. App Builder Certification

Often underrated, and harder than people think. It took me a few tries to pass, and I’ve seen many others in the same boat, they complete Admin and think App Builder will be a doddle, only to get a rude awakening.

App Builder is sometimes viewed as “Admin 2.0,” but I’d argue it’s more like “Platform Developer 0.5.” It begins shaping your mindset to think like a developer, without writing code by using declarative tools.

The payoff? You’ll gain practical, deployable skills: building flows, actions, dynamic forms, app pages. If you pair this with superbadges and Trailhead content, you become a real asset on project teams.

3 & 4. Sales Cloud and Service Cloud Consultant

I group these together because:

• Which one you do first depends on the projects you’re working on.

• Together, they give you deep knowledge of the core platform, still the beating heart of Salesforce, despite the rise of industry clouds.

  
  

When I moved from Nonprofit Cloud (NPSP) to Commercial Real Estate, I had to build everything from scratch, no packaged solutions to lean on. It was a steep but valuable learning curve. These certs gave me the confidence and platform knowledge to make that pivot, as the lessons and knowledge gained by sitting them was invaluable

If you want to move fluidly between sectors or clouds do not overlook these certs.

5. Experience Cloud Consultant

I call this the final piece in the Consultant trifecta (Sales, Service, and Experience Cloud). I always tell mentees: get this under your belt before you even think about the architect path.

Why? Because increasingly, clients and partners expect external-facing portals, and Experience Cloud is how Salesforce delivers that. Knowing how to use it, and where it breaks down, has been invaluable for me in countless projects.

Bonus Certs I Consider Must-Haves

Sharing and Visibility Architect

This is the cert I use every single day. Whether troubleshooting why a user can’t see a record, or configuring field-level security, it’s the unsexy but essential work that studying for this cert will help with.

Of my 14 certs, this one delivers the most day-to-day value.

Platform Developer 1 (PD1)

This was hands-down the hardest for me. I don’t come from a coding background, and yet this cert opened my eyes.

It forced me to understand Salesforce as a database, learn Apex basics, SOQL, and the LWC framework. I still can’t write code, but I can brief a dev, compare Screen Flows to LWCs, and have informed discussions about solutions.

As a lead consultant, that’s gold.

But What About Agentforce Specialist?

Ah yes! I've been asked this a lot lately, even by the director of a local college.

Here’s my take: it’s a good cert, and the agentic future is real. But it shouldn’t replace foundational knowledge.

Doing Agentforce before App Builder is, frankly, in my opinion, like putting the cart before the horse. Maybe you can slot it in before the consultant-level certs, but never instead of them. To be a valuable team member, you need platform fundamentals first.

A Word on Industry Cloud Certs

These are great, but do them when it makes sense.

I got certified in NPSP because I was working in that sector. I’m now eyeing the new Nonprofit Cloud and Education Cloud certs. But Financial Services Cloud? That doesn’t align with my current work or previous experience, so it’s not a priority.

Industry cloud certs work best when paired with real-world sector experience. That’s when the data models and use cases click. For example, when looking at Net Zero Cloud, I realised I needed to learn a whole new vocabulary just to understand the data model, and that was before I even tried to implement it

Final Thought: Certs vs. Experience

We’ve all met folks with ten certs and a year of experience. I’ve worked with Application Architects who couldn’t build a Lightning Record Page. I've worked with a guy with just Admin but ten years of experience, and he was an absolute legend, the most competent person I have ever been on a team with. I’ve even had someone tell me I lacked breadth because most of my work was on NPSP, with limited integration exposure.

So here’s my advice

Certs are great, but back them up with action and experience. Use Trailhead. Build things in a dev org. Stretch yourself on real projects. The more you play, the more you learn.

That’s how you grow. That’s how you become valuable.

I hope this helped provide clarity for those navigating their path in the ecosystem. I’d love to hear your thoughts, what’s worked for you, and what would you add to this list?

If you need help and support, or manage a team that you feel would benefit from mentorship and coaching to enable their Salesforce growth, get in touch to see how I can help.