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Salesforce Developer skills: what to learn first, and what can wait

Salesforce hiring managers screen hard on a few basics, and everything else can come later. Get Apex, SOQL and the data model solid before you touch integrations or architecture. The order below is the one that tends to get people hired fastest.

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Step one

Gets you the interview

Apex triggers and classesApex is the language on every posting, and screeners want to see triggers with handler classes, not code pasted straight into the trigger body.

SOQL and governor limitsYou need to write relationship queries and explain why a query in a loop fails, because that's the first thing a technical screen probes.

The data model and sharing basicsLookups, master-detail relationships, profiles, permission sets and org-wide defaults decide what your code can see, so developers who skip them write security bugs.

Flow BuilderKnowing record-triggered flows tells a manager you won't write Apex for something an admin could maintain with clicks.

Step two

Gets you the offer

Lightning Web ComponentsMost new UI work is LWC, so you should be comfortable with modern JavaScript, the wire service, @api properties and calling Apex from a component.

Test classes that assert behaviourTest data factories, Test.startTest, System.runAs and HttpCalloutMock show you write tests that catch regressions instead of just clearing the deployment bar.

Asynchronous ApexQueueable, Batch and Scheduled Apex are how real orgs process large data loads and callouts, and interviewers ask when you'd pick each one.

Salesforce DX, the Salesforce CLI and GitTeams that deploy from source want someone who can work in VS Code, use scratch orgs and open a clean pull request rather than build change sets by hand.

Step three

Gets you promoted

Integration patternsNamed Credentials, Apex REST services, Platform Events and Change Data Capture let you connect Salesforce to an ERP or billing system, which is where senior work lives.

Large data volume designSelective queries, skinny indexes, data skew and archiving plans keep a big org fast, and architects are judged on exactly this.

CI/CD pipelinesSetting up Copado, Gearset or GitHub Actions with validation deploys and static code analysis such as PMD makes you the person who runs release night.

Code review and org governanceLeading reviews, writing trigger framework standards and deciding what goes in Flow versus Apex is what moves you toward lead developer or technical architect.

Certificates worth your time

Certificate	Best for	Effort	Worth it?
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I	Anyone applying for a first developer role, including admins moving into code	A couple of months of evenings plus Trailhead practice	Worth it. Recruiters filter on it and it covers the Apex and SOQL basics interviews test.
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II	Working developers aiming for senior or lead roles	Several months alongside real project work	Worth it once you've shipped production code. It's hard to pass on study alone and signals depth to hiring managers.
Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder	Web developers new to the platform who need the declarative side	A few weekends	Useful if you lack admin background, less so if you already came up through admin work.
Salesforce Certified JavaScript Developer I	Developers who spend most of their time building Lightning Web Components	A few weekends if you already write JavaScript daily	Nice to have. It helps for front-end heavy roles but rarely decides an offer on its own.

Exam content and maintenance rules change with platform releases, so check the current exam guide on Trailhead Academy before you book.

Put it on your resume like this

Weak

Wrote Apex triggers and Lightning components for the sales team.

Strong

Rebuilt 6 legacy Opportunity triggers into one bulkified handler framework, cutting save errors on 50,000-record Data Loader imports to zero and raising meaningful test coverage from 68% to 91%.

Questions people ask

Should I learn admin skills before Apex?

Yes, at least the basics. You can't write good Apex without understanding objects, relationships, sharing and what Flow already does. Many developers spend some time as admins first, and it shows in how they design.

How much JavaScript do I need?

Enough to be comfortable with modules, promises, async and await, and events. Lightning Web Components are standard web components with Salesforce decorators, so general JavaScript skill carries over directly.

Is Aura still worth learning?

Learn to read it, not to build new things in it. Plenty of orgs still have Aura components you'll maintain or migrate, but new UI work is done in LWC.

How do I practise without a job on the platform?

Sign up for a free Developer Edition org, work through Trailhead superbadges, and build a small app with a trigger framework, a component and an integration to a public API. Put the source in a public Git repo so an interviewer can see it.

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