Recently I've been spending some time exploring the Salesforce platform, a widely adopted CRM and low code platform. Here is a summary of what I've learned so far:
The trailhead learning platform is pretty neat (and free)
Get Started with Hands-On Platform Development:
Overall I really like the Trailhead learning platform. There are tons of easy to follow and free tutorials. I also like the way they have tried to make the experience fun and used gamification and colorful content, badges and points to keep you motivated in your learning journey.
The way the developer sandboxes can be easily spun up and linked back to the learning modules is impressive. Once you have completed an exercise the website can run a check to verify you have completed things correctly via your linked environments.
There are lots of jobs!
At the time of writing, when I searched Seek, an Australia job site, there were 183 open contract positions and 934 jobs advertised. Many of them long well paid contracts, which support working remotely.
So it seems there is a lot of demand for people with Salesforce skills in the market presently. There also seems to be plenty of demand in the MS Dynamics 365 space also.
I figure working on a CRM / low code platform as a developer is less sexy than working on some custom cutting edge javascript fronted application on the latest tech, so I expect that is why there are so many openings.
If you are more interested in guaranteed work and plenty of business, then specializing in the less interesting CRM / low code space might be the way to go.
Skills coding in C# and Java are easily transferable
I enjoyed learning about the APEX coding language and found it very easy to pick up with experience in coding object oriented languages like C# and Java. The documentation and tutorials were clear.
There is support for Visual Studio Code and also a very neat web based IDE (Developer Console) that includes a test runner.
The web based IDE (Developer Console) is impressive
The web based Developer Console has a code editor, an execution console (execute anonymous window), logging and debugging all built in. This was very handy when trying to learn more about the platform when on a restricted work machine without permissions to install the required packages to get VS code set up.