How I'd learn Salesforce in 2026, starting from zero

No certifications-first, no 500 hours of videos. A Developer Edition, one project you care about, and a public log of what you built.

Build before you badge

Certifications open interviews; projects survive them. A working org that solves a real problem — your club's memberships, your side hustle's invoices — teaches more than any amount of passive watching.

The weekly loop

Build something small, break it, fix it, write two paragraphs about what you learned, in public. Twelve weeks of that loop beats a year of consuming content — and the log becomes your portfolio.

Where the jobs moved

Pure point-and-click admin roles are consolidating; admin-plus roles — admin plus Flow, plus data, plus a scripting language — are growing. Learn declarative first, but do not stop there.