How to Become a Salesforce CTA

The Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA) credential is the ultimate credential in the Salesforce ecosystem and one that is extremely difficult to obtain, however it worth gold-dust in our industry and really stands you from the crowd.

I would stand firmly and say that in the Technology Industry this is definately the hardest credential to obtain and proves that you really know your stuff about enterprise architecture and are one of an elite few. This is one of the hardest things I have done in life, and therefore it is my biggest accomplishment. Salesforce CTA's are a special and elite bunch.

Here are the reasons why:

(1) Consultancy Ability: You need to be a strong Salesforce consultant and on-the-spot thinker to be able to pass this credential. You need to know your stuff really well to be able to apply it in a highly time pressured scenario, and be able to explain highly technical concepts in a manner that makes sense. This is an art, and one that every CTA must have.

(2) Breadth and Depth of Knowledge: Not only do you need to know about all the different CTA topics, but also you have to have a deep understanding of each of them. Simply skimping the surface or talking that jargon will not get you through, you really must understand the finer details of each of them.

(3) Credibility: You need to be credible and the judges must feel like you have the technical prowess and business skills to be present as a CTA on the customer site. They should feel comfortable putting you in their shoes in front of a customer to allow you to be a holder of this almighty credential.

(4) Committment: To peservere through a 3-4 year study plan when you have a full time job and family commitments is not easy. It really shows a commitment to this platform and this credential.

I achieved mine in May 2018 after a long journey or learning, training, consolidating and preparation, and I will say it was all completely worth it. Here's the learning path that I took:

Stage 1 - Trailmix Preparation

Go through EACH and EVERY article in detail which have been listed on the Architect Trailmix: https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/users/strailhead/trailmixes/architect-trailmix-master

I strongly suggest you do not take any shortcuts in Stage 1. It is really important that your foundation is strong and that you understand each and every article that is listed here. Form your study plan around this and go through each article to the level that you understand it. I would strongly suggest you write notes in Google Drives to summarise what your have read in the article (you will thank me when it comes to revising everything again)

Stage 2 - Architect Certifications (Systems & Application Architect)

As part of your learning for Stage 1 - make it your goal to take the 6 (perhaps more now) Architecture certifications that Salesforce introduced as it is a good way to consolidate your knowlege and also earn something for the learning time you have put in. These will also test, how much you have understood and highlight any gaps in your knowledge, or things which are not clear. This step is now mandatory for those who are wanting to appear for the CTA, and i'd suggest doing these exams as you are going throuh the respective modules.

Stage 3 - Exam Preparation & Mock Exams

So once you have achieved the Salesforce System and Application Architect credentials the next step is to get yourself ready for the review board. These will be the most important weeks in your life, and the right form of preparation is vital. Here are my tips to success.

(1) Find a mentor. I don't think this exam is possible on your own and you need a coach (existing CTA) to guide you through the process and make you ready for this exam.

(2) Solve the publicly available case studies and present these to your mentor. 

(3) Formulate your presentation approach. Are you going to be presenting all slides, all paper, or a mixture of them both. You are allowed to present using hand-drawn pages, or PowerPoint, Word, Excel, depending on what suits you the most. Treat each mock exam as an opportunity to try out a new presentation approach, until you find something that works, and allows you to solve the case study and have a working presentation in the shortest time. I eventually got to a hybrid approach: diagrams on paper slides and written stuff in PowerPoint. 

At a broad level your presentation must talk cover:

High Level Requirements

Users & Licenses

System Landsape

Single Sign On

Data Model

Sharing

Integration Flows

Process Steps

Large Data Volumes and Management of these

Data Migration

Governance

Stage 4 - The Review Board Day

So you've booked a day and now it's time to be hung drawn and quartered in front of 3 seasoned veterans of the ecosystem. Well, it is and will always be scary but follow these tips to try and ensure a good performance on the day:

(1) Get a great nights sleep and finish off your revision early the day before.

(2) Grab a good breakfast - enough to last you with energy for the 2hr case solving session that is about to come.

(3) Calm your mind, and stay focused. A great Sanskrit quote that I love to mention here is: 

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction.

So my point is here, focus on doing, and doing a great job - do not worry about what the outcome is going to be. Fearing about the outcome will spoil your on the day performance. Just perform and perform well, what is to-be, will-be.

I'll be writing additional articles with pointer about the day itself.

Stage 5 - The oh so long wait for the results

So this is scary, and super scary. I had 2 sleepless weeks wondering what the outcome is going to be. Best advise i would give is go on a long holiday after the review board is done. You can't change/effect the outcome anymore so just forget about it and wait for the paper to arrive.

Stage 6 - The Results

If it's a pass, then woop woop, hats off to you and welcome to the club.

If you have failed, do not be morose, you lacked in some areas and you have a chance now to brush up on those. Take is positively, work on those improvements and appear again to really WOW the judges with what you know. DO NOT give up!

So thank you for reading this post! I look forward to providing more contributions soon.