Stabilize Your Future: Salesforce Trailhead is Free and Here to Help
Author: Matt McCallum
This year has been stressful. It’s forced many people to look for new employment, examine how secure their job is, or assess how stable it will be in the future.
For those looking to add stability to their work lives, both CNBC and LinkedIn recently published articles on jobs that are currently and will continue to be in high demand. Software Engineer tops those lists, and jobs like IT Administrator, IT Support, Data Analyst, and Project Administration all make an appearance.
Don’t count yourself out if you don’t have experience with those types of jobs or think they aren’t for you.
Having skills and versatility is what’s important right now. No matter what your background is, or how you’re doing financially, there are free resources to help you gain skills and plan for your future, even if you:
- Have no technical experience
- Have no degrees or certifications
- Are unsure of what direction to take
- Live in an area without many job opportunities
Finding Stability
This is a blog about one of those free resources, Salesforce Trailhead. It’s something our organization uses to provide skills and training for employees, and it’s something I got involved with last year that had a positive personal impact.
Salesforce Trailhead is an online training and development platform that covers a broad range of topics. They offer direction on where to start and paths or ‘trails’ to move forward based on an individual’s interests and goals. You can follow a learning trail or create your own path, and learning is done at an individual’s own pace.
The courses and modules are presented in a gamification style of learning, making them more fun or game-like than traditional learning methods. You gain points, get badges, and earn credentials as you learn. Everything is tracked as you go, making it easy to revisit what you’ve learned and share it with employers or potential employers.
The platform also offers quests and challenges, community and mentorship support, and networking opportunities, as well as myTrailhead. MyTrailhead is geared towards organizations and allows them to personalize and brand learning and content for employees for a fee.
Free courses on Trailhead include topics such as:
- Self-Motivation
- Career Development Planning
- Best Practices for Working from Home
- Inclusive Leadership Practices
- Platform Development Basics
- Salesforce Einstein Basics
- Google Analytics Basics
- App Development Without Limits
- Salesforce Admin Prep
Salesforce and Salesforce Trailhead
You might be asking if it’s any good, why is it free? In 2014 Salesforce launched Trailhead as an online learning platform to give people the training they need to start a Salesforce career. In other words, where Salesforce gains more people being qualified to do the jobs they create, the Salesforce Trailhead user gains frequently updated learning opportunities and valuable skills—which can go beyond Salesforce employment.
That being said, coming from a Salesforce background, I know it’s a solid option if someone is looking for a job or career. Salesforce has predicted it will create more than 4.2 million jobs between 2019 and 2024.
Additionally, since COVID-19 many organizations have had to invest in digital transformations, meaning you’ll often see those high-demand jobs listed earlier with a Salesforce tag attached. Jobs are also trending towards remote work and will continue to do so. Consequently, making Salesforce a great option for a stable and lucrative job wherever a person lives.
Career choices aside, the Trailhead platform helps you gain skills to put on your resume at no cost and hopefully offers some direction if needed.