As a Salesforce consultant, there’s a balance between investing your time and energy into learning more about Salesforce or developing other skills.
One of my students asked me what it would take to obtain the Certified Technical Architect (CTA) certifications, the pinnacle of Salesforce technical expertise. I challenged him by asking whether that was the right move at all.
To explain why I asked this, let’s take a step back for a moment.
Before Salesforce, there was Siebel CRM. Before that was SAP. And I’m sure something existed before then.
The Salesforce ecosystem is currently thriving, and will be around for a long time to come. That being said, there will be a moment when the next CRM will dominate the market. And most of your Salesforce technical knowledge will not be transferable.
Thus the question becomes, should you always go “all in” with Salesforce, or should you also invest in evergreen skills?
An evergreen skill is something you can leverage in almost any professional setting. They will continue to serve you for the next 20 years. Things like
- negotiation
- speaking skills
- design principles
- technical strategies
- change management
The takeaway
When you are just started working with Salesforce, it makes total sense to learn as much about it as you can. Over time, recognize that evergreen skills are also important (perhaps even more). Determine the exact ratio that works for you and invest in yourself wisely.