People Behind the Certs – Vishal Verma – saasguru

SG: Let’s get started. Why don’t we start from the beginning? Please tell us about your education/ career before entering the Salesforce ecosystem.

VV: I completed my Bachelors in Computer Science and I was placed in one of the MNC’s where I was trained in Salesforce. From there I came to know about the Platform and the capabilities the Salesforce as a CRM have.

SG: That’s awesome. Now we would love to know what was the tipping point when you said, “I want to make this change,” and what was the trigger for that?

VV: I found that Salesforce platform is not limited to our imagination. It provides some out of the box feature and cloud that solve the business needs of the present and the future while assuring the businesses of better results. Most important benefits that it offers is flexibility and customization. It can be integrated with other other system.

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SG: You achieved many certs along the way. Can you share three things with us?

1. Why do you value certificates?

2. What are the challenges associated with the process?

3. What are your top tips for being successful in cert exams?

VV: Why – Each & Every Salesforce Certification has a specific goal. PD1/PD2 focuses on your development skills and customization, ADM on Out of the box capability and there are many other Salesforce Cloud certifications too which focus on Sales, Service, Community Cloud.

I’ve always been someone who believes on hands-on. All the certifications I’ve achieved were after really understanding how things worked on my experience while working on the project.

Challenges – Salesforce provides many resources/Communities preparing for the certification. I focus more on topics related to my exam to be more confident enough. I practice the scenarios in my developer org to see the exact output if I have any doubts. I see challenges on the timeline.

Tips – Important tips definitely would be hands-on and more knowledge on the topics. Complete trailhead modules and practice mock questions available over internet.

SG: What do you enjoy most about your work as a certified Salesforce professional?

VV: Being a lead and Architect, I just love exploring new feature of Salesforce when its is released how it can support to solve the business problems. As a certified Salesforce Professional, I can easily understand what are the different Salesforce cloud we can utilize when I communicate with my Business, I can suggest them better and approachable solutions to their issues.

SG: Time for gratitude!! Finally, is there anyone (individual or company) that you would like to take this opportunity to thank for their role in helping you along your journey? If Yes, what was their role in your success?

VV: Actually I have a long list of the people. Starting from Kaushik, Saurabh & Satyajit when I started my career in Atos as a fresher. Life would not have been the same without your help and guidance in every aspect.

I would like to thank Surjakanta, Gaurabh, Ankit & Anjum for always helping me as a mentor and lead when I was associated with Capgemini.

Last but not least, many thanks to Maantic especially Apurv & Shashank for believing in me and helps me to set an example every day.