In times like these, there are few certainties. We still don’t know when things will get back to “normal,” and we’re still waiting to see the full impact the global quarantine will have on the economy and the consulting industry. While some of the Experts in our 10K Community have more work than they can handle right now, others are on hold with delayed projects or have clients who have canceled projects altogether.
If you are among those that find themselves with a little extra time on their hands (for perhaps the first time in a while), we would like to help. While our foremost goal is to match our 10K Experts with customers who need their existing skills, we also want to help these experts to expand their skill sets in the areas where we see the most customer demand.
Introducing 10K’s Certification Scholarships
This is why we’re announcing today that we will be providing certification scholarships for 10K Experts who want to get certified in one of the following high-demand areas: Configure Price Quote (CPQ), Community Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Mulesoft or Field Service Lightning.
The certification scholarship program, which will reimburse existing 10K Experts for their certification fees, will begin with ten certification scholarships, with the potential for more based on demand. If you are interested, click here to apply. The deadline for applying is June 15, 2020, and certifications must be completed by August 15, 2020.
Why Focus on These Skills?
We have specifically chosen certifications around these skill sets as they are, and will likely remain, in high-demand. Those with technical and specialized skills are not only in-demand but also some of the hardest people for Salesforce customers and partners to find and retain, especially when it comes to senior-level talent.
As the core Salesforce platform matures, skills like CPQ and Field Service Lightning that build on top of those core clouds are harder to learn and put into practice. This means those who have a certification in these areas will have a competitive edge when it comes to new opportunities, especially when it comes to independent contractors.
Check out our Fall 2019 Salesforce Talent Ecosystem research for a broader list of the most in-demand Salesforce skills.
Why Pursue More Certifications?
The easiest answer to this question is certifications set consultants apart. In a recent 10K survey of 300+ Salesforce program owners and stakeholders, 86% of respondents said certifications are important when looking for experts. Nearly half of the respondents said they were “very important.”
The bigger reason though is that change is constant. It’s one of the things that makes Salesforce and its ecosystem such an exciting and innovative space in which to work, but also challenges professionals that have made this their career. The Salesforce platform is always evolving, and anyone who claims to be an advisor or expert on that platform has to evolve and grow with it. This is why being growth-minded is one of 10K’s core values and something we and our customers look for when it comes to those joining our independent community of Salesforce experts.
Certification in these more advanced skills will serve professionals well in the coming months. While some projects may be delayed in the near term, we believe the long-term prognosis for the Salesforce economy will continue to be robust. Salesforce has become nearly synonymous with digital transformation and customer-centricity. If anything, the recent months have shown businesses just how important those two things are when it comes to competing in today’s digital age.
