Trailhead: A New Way to Assess Candidate Skills in Recruiting

With the Trailblazer.me profile, Trailhead is reinventing the resume for learners to showcase to current and future employers what they know, what they have learned, and what they have mastered. Discover how to use Trailhead to assess a candidate’s skills with this handy guide.

In today’s accelerated digital transformation, Salesforce customers and partners need skilled talent to help them go digital fast.

We know it can be challenging to recruit, assess, and hire top talent. We also know that the recruiting process can be a long and involved one when assessing whether or not a candidate is the right fit for a role.

According to Manpower Group, 45% of employers say they can’t find the workers with the skills they need.

Do you wish there was an easier way to understand a candidate’s knowledge, experience, and how they approach real-world business challenges? Or that you could easily access a candidate’s past work?

You’re in luck! With Trailhead, a Trailblazer’s learning, expertise, and experience across Salesforce communities is captured on their unified profile. All you have to do is ask for their personalized URL.

When you ask a candidate about Trailhead in recruiting conversations and interviews, you learn about their skills, solution approach, and thought process in a whole new way.

Check out these four tips on how to use Trailhead to better assess a candidate’s skills.

1. Discover their Trailblazer.me profile

Trailblazer.me lets all Trailblazers showcase their Trailhead rank, badges and points, superbadges and certifications earned, expertise, and Trailblazer Community activity, as well as their product and job experience.

If you’re looking for a specific skill, search for it under the badges displayed or projects completed, or check out the skills graph to see what they have accomplished on Trailhead.

🌟 Pro tip: Check out a profile walk-through in this short video.

2. Ask for superbadges

Trailblazers earn superbadges to show employers that they can apply their Salesforce knowledge to real-world business challenges.

Trailblazers must tackle a business case with complex requirements, stakeholders, and data to build the solution by completing a series of hands-on challenges, which are validated upon completion.

These superbadges take up to 16 hours to complete and need to be unlocked by completing initial modules. You can even ask Trailblazers to show you their work in their developer edition org — challenge them to walk you through it!

Suggested questions to ask include:

• How did you approach your solution?
• What other solutions did you consider and why?
• What special requirements were critical to the solution?
• How did the problem impact each major stakeholder?
• How would you approach this for the company’s particular process or Salesforce org?

Think about a current business challenge or project at the company; ask how the candidate can solve for it or add value using their skills learned in the superbadge.

If the candidate can speak to what they’ve learned in the context of your business, it demonstrates their ability to apply their knowledge on the job.

3. Check for Super Sets

Super Sets are role-specific collections of superbadges that further test candidates’ foundational knowledge of a specific role.

Trailblazers who have dedicated significant time to complete Super Sets are investing in building deep expertise related to specific Salesforce roles.

• Admin Super Set: Learners demonstrate knowledge across reports and dashboards, business administration, and security.
• App Builder Super Set: Learners prove that they understand the ins and outs of process automation, security, and app customization.
• Developer Super Set: Learners deep dive into business process automation and Apex coding.
• Einstein Analytics Super Set: For the Salesforce Consultant role, learners take a leap toward their consultant career by using Einstein Analytics to tap into the power of data and provide valuable insights.

🌟 Pro tip: Check out the Superbadge Case Interview Guide for Recruiting Candidates with Salesforce Skills.

4. Dive into their Trailblazer Community experience

While Salesforce skills are certainly important, we know that there’s much more to a great candidate! Want to know how a candidate is engaging with the Trailblazer Community, volunteering to lend a hand, and teaching others Salesforce?

Dig into their Trailblazer Community Connections & Activity on their Trailblazer.me profile to check out the questions, answers, and ideas they have contributed to. The profile not only captures their learning but also provides a well-rounded view of who they are.

You’ll also see the Trailblazers who are plugged into the community — those who speak at and help organize Community Conferences, participate in Salesforce Saturdays, or volunteer with a workforce development organization.

Ask your candidate how they have been involved in the community to gain insight into how they might give back at their next company.

A valuable recruitment tool

Trailblazers invest significant time learning and earning on Trailhead. They are always eager to show off their work to employers.

In short, as you evaluate and get to know your candidate better, you can learn a lot from their Trailhead work including their work products, approach to solutions, and ways of thinking.

For more best practices and resources, check out the Trailblazer Connect for Employers page. To stay connected, join the Trailblazer Community for Employers to engage with other recruiters, share ideas, and network.