Fall seven times, stand up eight.

– Japanese proverb

Finally, I have this certification. This has been a journey for me, and taken much longer than I anticipated. I did fail the first attempt, but was given a retry (make-up exam) in the sections that I’d failed. I subsequently failed that too. My second, full attempt saw me pass, and in fact I found it quite easy so let me help you learn from my mistakes.

Attempt 1

Late last year I booked in my board review exam. I’m not going to go into the detail of what the board exam entails it’s because this has been discussed in detail here, here and here. I spent a lot of time preparing, and had some ad hoc coaching from the UK SFDC certification team but in the end the hypothetical exam destroyed me. Here’s why:

• I’d been developing apps for nearly a year and was rusty with regards to various features of the platform used heavily in projects e.g. sharing, roles, content, knowledge
• I missed the “formal coaching” that SFDC offers for those that pass the board exam, and thought I wouldn’t need it

Together these two things meant that my approach to the hypothetical, and my real-world experience were weak. I knew I’d failed 2 hours into the 4 hour board. Luckily (I suppose) I did very well in the other areas, and my case study was rock-solid so I was given a “make up” exam (2 months later) in my weakest areas.

Attempt 1.1

At this point I’d been back into consulting and oiled my rusty hinges. I also brushed up on any areas of weakness and felt quite prepared. However, the destruction this time around was even worse, I knew I’d failed in the first hour! The reasons here were:

• I felt the hypothetical here was much more difficult
• I focussed too much on creating the presentation, and too little on understanding the question
• I panicked and solved problems that didn’t exist

Attempt 2

Six months after my original attempt I was back in the swing of consulting, working in every role imaginable from sales through to QA and release management. I’d also gone through the “Seed the Partner” official coaching. I honed my approach to the hypothetical and brushed up on Summer 13. And I passed. And it wasn’t that difficult, here’s why:

• I’d gone through the official coaching with SFDC
• I’d known the theory all along, but also had the opportunity to flex the old consulting muscles
• I convinced myself not to panic
• I read every word of the hypothetical at least twice, focussing on understanding instead of focussing on creating the presentation
• I drew. I’m not very comfortable with Powerpoint as an architecting tool but for some reason felt compelled to use it in my hypothetical previously. This time around I did what I was comfortable with, telling a story backed by several diagrams drawn in front of the judges as I presented.

I’ve also developed several assets that helped me to study and will be sharing them in a series of posts in the coming weeks.

– Wes Nolte, Force.com MVP, Certified SFDC TA, BBQ Master