Top 12 Salesforce Developer Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today’s hiring scrum, a Salesforce developer doesn’t just need experience. You need a resume that telegraphs specific, hard-won skills. The right mix shows you can bend the platform to your will and ship real results across changing business winds.
Salesforce Developer Skills
- Apex
- Lightning
- Visualforce
- SOQL/SOSL
- Salesforce DX
- CRM Analytics (formerly Einstein Analytics)
- Flow (and Process Builder)
- REST/SOAP APIs
- Salesforce CLI
- LWC (Lightning Web Components)
- Salesforce CPQ
- Heroku
1. Apex
Apex is a strongly typed, object‑oriented language that runs on Salesforce servers. It drives custom business logic, automation, and integrations far beyond what declarative tools can cover.
Why It's Important
Apex lets you encode complex rules, bulk-safe processes, and secure integrations directly on-platform. When clicks can’t reach, code finishes the job.
How to Improve Apex Skills
Master fundamentals and governor limits. Think bulk-first, always.
Follow best practices: bulkification, one trigger per object, efficient SOQL/DML patterns, and defensive coding.
Write meaningful tests (well over 75% coverage), with assertions, bulk scenarios, and negative paths.
Use asynchronous patterns wisely: Queueable, Batch, Future, and Platform Events.
Adopt code reviews and pair sessions to spot edge cases and smells early.
Refactor relentlessly. Small classes, focused methods, clean separation of concerns.
Track seasonal releases and adjust for new features or deprecations.
Work in real org scenarios: build, break, fix, repeat. Side projects sharpen instincts.
How to Display Apex Skills on Your Resume
2. Lightning
Lightning is the modern Salesforce experience and framework family. It spans LWC, the app builder, dynamic pages, and a design system built for speed across desktop and mobile.
Why It's Important
Lightning delivers fast, componentized UIs that end users love and admins can shape. Developers wire in data and logic without reinventing the wheel.
How to Improve Lightning Skills
Prefer LWC over Aura. Smaller, faster, standards-based.
Reduce server chatter. Batch calls, cache responses, and lean on Lightning Data Service and the UI API when possible.
Design for performance. Limit heavy components, virtualize long lists, lazy-load resources.
Tune record pages with Dynamic Forms and Dynamic Actions to reveal only what matters, when it matters.
Profile with Lightning Inspector and browser dev tools to hunt bottlenecks.
Follow secure coding norms (Locker, CSP) and keep dependencies tidy.
How to Display Lightning Skills on Your Resume
3. Visualforce
Visualforce is the legacy markup framework for custom Salesforce pages. It still shines for certain use cases and embedded admin experiences, though most new UI work belongs in LWC.
Why It's Important
Many orgs run critical Visualforce pages. Knowing how to maintain and optimize them prevents painful rewrites and keeps the lights on.
How to Improve Visualforce Skills
Use standard controllers and extensions where possible; keep Apex lean.
Optimize SOQL. Select only needed fields, filter selectively, avoid N+1 queries.
Tame View State. Keep it small, mark transient where appropriate, prefer rerendering fragments over full page reloads.
Enhance with JavaScript and remoting for snappy interactions.
Apply consistent styling via SLDS or carefully scoped CSS.
Handle errors gracefully with messages and Apex exceptions surfaced to the UI.
Measure. Check load times, reduce heavy components, and cache sensibly.
Design responsively for mobile contexts.
Cache common data with Platform Cache when it makes sense.
Track platform changes that affect Visualforce behavior and security.
How to Display Visualforce Skills on Your Resume
4. SOQL/SOSL
SOQL targets precise datasets from Salesforce objects. SOSL searches text across many objects and fields at once. Together, they’re your surgical blade and your wide-net scanner.
Why It's Important
Everything runs on data. Efficient, selective queries keep apps fast, limits happy, and users smiling.
How to Improve SOQL/SOSL Skills
Select only the fields you actually need. Smaller payloads, faster results.
Use indexed fields in WHERE clauses. Aim for selective filters.
Avoid negative filters like != and NOT IN when you can restructure positively.
Leverage relationship queries, semi-joins, and anti-joins for complex logic without extra round trips.
Paginate with LIMIT/OFFSET where appropriate; for huge data, use Batch Apex or REST nextRecordsUrl. In Apex, use Database.getQueryLocator for batch jobs.
Analyze the Query Plan to detect non-selective predicates and adjust.
Prefer SOSL when searching across many objects or fields; narrow scope to specific objects and fields for speed.
Aggregate when counting or summarizing; don’t fetch rows just to tally them.
How to Display SOQL/SOSL Skills on Your Resume
5. Salesforce DX
Salesforce DX is a set of tools and conventions for modern development: source-driven projects, scratch orgs, version control, CI/CD, and packaging that keeps teams moving in lockstep.
Why It's Important
It turns Salesforce development from ad hoc clicks into repeatable, auditable engineering. Collaboration gets cleaner, releases get calmer.
How to Improve Salesforce DX Skills
Put everything in version control. Commit often, branch smartly, and review with rigor.
Work in scratch orgs for quick, consistent environments. Script their shape so setups are reproducible.
Automate tests and deployments with CI/CD. Validate every change before it touches production.
Adopt unlocked packages to modularize code, manage dependencies, and speed deployments.
Standardize project structure, naming, and conventions so teams never guess.
Complement DX with DevOps Center if your org prefers a guided release flow.
Keep tools current and refine pipelines as the platform evolves.
How to Display Salesforce DX Skills on Your Resume
6. CRM Analytics (formerly Einstein Analytics)
CRM Analytics brings native dashboards, modeling, and AI-driven insights into Salesforce. It blends data, spots patterns, and surfaces predictions where work happens.
Why It's Important
Developers wire analytics into apps so users act on smarter signals, not hunches. Better visuals, better decisions, better outcomes.
How to Improve CRM Analytics Skills
Start with clean data. Validate, dedupe, and document sources. Garbage in, guesswork out.
Design dashboards with intent: minimal noise, clear KPIs, fast filters, and responsive layouts.
Use dataflows and recipes thoughtfully; schedule refreshes to match business rhythms.
Apply Einstein Discovery for predictions and prescriptive insights where they help real decisions.
Secure with row-level rules and permissions; test access paths thoroughly.
Profile performance. Optimize joins, limit granularity when possible, and cache common aggregations.
Package and reuse assets; build analytics apps users can navigate intuitively.
How to Display CRM Analytics Skills on Your Resume
7. Flow (and Process Builder)
Flow is the automation powerhouse for Salesforce. Process Builder is legacy and on a retirement path; new automation should be built in Flow, with migrations planned where Process Builder still lingers.
Why It's Important
Fast iteration without code, with power when you need it. Record-triggered flows can replace most workflow, process, and even some Apex patterns—cleanly and at scale.
How to Improve Flows & Process Builder Skills
Choose the right trigger. Record-triggered flows for data changes, scheduled flows for batches, screen flows for guided user actions.
Design before building. Diagram paths, loops, and error points to avoid rework.
Build for bulk. Filter early, minimize loops and DML, and avoid recursive triggers.
Use subflows to keep logic modular and maintainable.
Implement fault paths and robust error logging so failures tell a useful story.
Test with debug runs and realistic bulk scenarios. Verify order-of-execution interactions.
Plan migrations from Process Builder to Flow to consolidate automation.
Document decisions and assumptions inside the flow and in your repo.
How to Display Flows & Process Builder Skills on Your Resume
8. REST/SOAP APIs
REST is simple and stateless, great for web and mobile. SOAP is structured and strict, often favored in established enterprise patterns. Both are first-class citizens on Salesforce.
Why It's Important
Integrations connect your org to the rest of the business. Solid API chops let you push, pull, and orchestrate data safely and at speed.
How to Improve REST/SOAP APIs Skills
Reduce chatter. Batch operations with Bulk API 2.0 when handling large data sets; use composite resources to cut round trips.
Secure the edge. Use OAuth 2.0, Named Credentials, and External Credentials to manage authentication cleanly.
Design for resilience. Clear error models, retries where appropriate, idempotency for write calls.
Version deliberately. Sunset old versions gracefully and document changes.
Pick data formats wisely. JSON for REST in most cases; SOAP messages in XML when required.
Expose custom endpoints with Apex REST when out-of-the-box resources don’t fit.
Monitor usage and performance with event logs and integration observability.
Consider async alternatives: Platform Events, Change Data Capture, and Async SOQL for streaming or massive workloads.
How to Display REST/SOAP APIs Skills on Your Resume
9. Salesforce CLI
Salesforce CLI lets you script your orgs, deployments, tests, data moves, and more. The newer “sf” CLI unifies commands, while “sfdx” remains widely used.
Why It's Important
Automation beats repetition. The CLI turns manual chores into one-liners and pipelines.
How to Improve Salesforce CLI Skills
Keep it fresh. Update regularly (sf update or sfdx update) to pull in fixes and features.
Use plugins to extend capability. Standardize your plugin set per project.
Script everything: auth, scratch org spins, data loads, tests, deployments, and post-deploy steps.
Prefer JSON output when piping results to other tools for deterministic parsing.
Create aliases for orgs and common targets so commands stay short.
Pair with VS Code extensions for a smoother local dev experience.
Document your command playbooks in the repo for the whole team.
How to Display Salesforce CLI Skills on Your Resume
10. LWC (Lightning Web Components)
LWC is Salesforce’s modern, standards-based UI framework. It’s lean, fast, and plays nicely with the wider web ecosystem.
Why It's Important
It helps you build reusable, high-performance components that look sharp and behave predictably across devices.
How to Improve LWC (Lightning Web Components) Skills
Design modularly. Small, composable components beat monoliths.
Fetch data efficiently with @wire and the UI API; use Lightning Data Service for CRUD without extra Apex when possible.
Minimize DOM thrash. Use lifecycle hooks judiciously and lazy-load heavy resources.
Honor security. Respect Locker, sanitize inputs, and avoid unsafe DOM operations.
Test with Jest and debug with Lightning Inspector and browser tools.
Document public APIs for components so others can adopt them quickly.
How to Display LWC (Lightning Web Components) Skills on Your Resume
11. Salesforce CPQ
Salesforce CPQ (part of Revenue Cloud) streamlines configure‑price‑quote. It codifies product rules, pricing, and quotes so sales moves faster with fewer mistakes.
Why It's Important
Developers tailor CPQ to the business: product rules, price logic, approvals, and custom UIs that snap into the selling flow.
How to Improve Salesforce CPQ Skills
Model products and rules cleanly. Keep constraints explicit and test edge cases.
Use Flow for approvals and complex interactions; reserve Apex for heavy logic or integrations.
Optimize quote templates for clarity and brand polish; precompute values to speed generation.
Integrate with ERP and billing via APIs or middleware to reduce manual reconciliation.
Build LWCs for guided selling and performant configurators.
Guard data quality with validation rules and sensible defaults.
Tune performance. Review SOQL patterns, cache reference data, and audit long-running scripts.
Track release updates that affect pricing, bundles, and document generation.
How to Display Salesforce CPQ Skills on Your Resume
12. Heroku
Heroku is a PaaS for building, running, and scaling apps. It pairs beautifully with Salesforce via Heroku Connect and a rich add‑on ecosystem.
Why It's Important
When you need a custom experience, heavy compute, or services outside core Salesforce, Heroku gives you runway without wrestling servers.
How to Improve Heroku Skills
Pick dyno types that match workloads; scale horizontally for concurrency, vertically for heavier threads.
Tune Heroku Postgres with proper indexing, connection pooling, and sensible query plans.
Add Redis for caching and queues to cut response times.
Adopt CI/CD with review apps for safe previews and quick rollbacks.
Watch metrics and logs. Alert on latency, errors, memory, and throughput.
Harden security: config vars, secrets management, dependency updates, and TLS everywhere.
Sync data with Heroku Connect when you need near-real-time alignment with Salesforce.
Leverage marketplace add‑ons for monitoring, search, email, and more instead of reinventing them.
How to Display Heroku Skills on Your Resume
