With so many businesses now using MuleSoft for all their connectivity needs, the demand for MuleSoft professionals is reaching an all-time high. Are you interested in learning MuleSoft? Do you want to know what MuleSoft is and how it works? Then this guide is for you!
With the MuleSoft Women in Tech event at Salesforce Tower upcoming on Wednesday, October 12th, we reached out to Akshata Sawant, a Developer Advocate at MuleSoft, to share her best practice on how to get started in the MuleSoft ecosystem.
In this guide, Akshata will talk you through how to learn MuleSoft: from how it works, to the prerequisites needed to learn the tool, and where you can find free MuleSoft training. Want to skip to a section you’re interested in?
Use the links below:
But first, let’s get started with what MuleSoft is and how exactly it works!
What is MuleSoft and how does it work?
In the simplest terms possible, MuleSoft is a middleware integration tool. But what does that really mean?
Well, with the advent of so many new technologies over the past few years, the rate at which data is generated has increased exponentially. MuleSoft allows businesses to effectively utilize data and integrate it into their systems, without needing a million different tools and services.
While MuleSoft is a middleware integration tool, in a lot of ways it can also be seen as a connectivity tool. MuleSoft’s style of API-led connectivity is a highly methodical approach where businesses and professionals categorize APIs in a reusable and composable manner—it’s incredibly effective and unique. Best of all, you can manage the entire lifecycle of an API through MuleSoft.
With Anypoint Platform (an iPaaS platform that caters to integration needs) you have tools to manage your API lifecycle, such as Design Center, Exchange, API Manager, Anypoint Monitoring, and Runtime Manager. And with Anypoint Studio, which is an Eclipse-based IDE, you can build applications in MuleSoft with drag-and-drop features that are low-code, making the integration seamless.
Combine these two things, and you can effortlessly design, build, test, deploy, and manage your APIs and applications through MuleSoft.
To make things even simpler, MuleSoft also boasts a huge amount of “out-of-the-box”, pre-existing connectors, templates, and accelerators to make it even easier to conduct your integration.
All of this combined is why Gartner cited MuleSoft as “a Leader in 2021 Enterprise iPaaS and Full Life Cycle API Management” as well as a “Visionary in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for RPA.” Which makes the argument for learning MuleSoft even stronger.
So, now that we have a good understanding of what MuleSoft is (as well as what it’s capable of), let’s look at how to learn MuleSoft!
Who can learn MuleSoft?
The most important thing to say here is that anyone can learn MuleSoft. It’s a low-code tool, which means it can be picked up by anyone who is able to put in the time and dedication it takes to learn a new technology!
In fact, Revolent specialized in cross-training tech professionals from a wide range of backgrounds in technologies like MuleSoft. If you’re interested in starting a career in this incredible technology, check out their MuleSoft careers program now.
That being said, there are a few backgrounds and experiences that will help you get to grips with MuleSoft a little faster. Let’s take a look at those:
- Anyone with an affinity for low-code tools: If you don’t really enjoy spending hours on coding, but still want a technical-based job, MuleSoft could very well be for you. With MuleSoft, you can build integrations in a variety of ways, all with using minimal code.
- Software Developers or Architects (current or former): If you’re currently a Software Developer or Architect (or have ever been one) who wants to change career paths or add a new technology to your resume, consider MuleSoft. The demand for MuleSoft is so high at the moment that becoming certified could lead you to an even more lucrative career path!
- If you’re a student or have recently graduated and you’re willing to learn a new technology, MuleSoft is a great place to start. The demand for MuleSoft is incredibly high, so if you’re willing to learn a new technology, then there’ll definitely be a great job out there to follow it up.
Now let’s take a look at the prerequisites and skills needed to learn MuleSoft.
Skills needed to learn MuleSoft
Anyone can master MuleSoft, even people with little-to-no coding skills, as it’s easy to learn and requires very little background knowledge on the subject. However, there are a few things you’d probably want to brush up on before starting a journey in MuleSoft:
- Webservices, Rest and SOAP APIs, HTTP Protocol
- Basics of RAML and OAS
- Basics of API and API Lifecycle
- Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Enterprise Integration
- Basics of Cloud Computing
If you manage to get to grips with these topics before you start learning MuleSoft, it will make it a lot easier (and quicker) to master the technology.
MuleSoft career paths
Based on your current experience and expertise you can choose to become a MuleSoft Developer, Integration Architect, Platform Architect, or even work in Operations. Each of these roles has its own journey and learning path, which you discover here.
Regardless of the choices that you make later down the line, most professionals start by earning their certifications as a qualified MuleSoft Developer. To do that, you’ll need to learn MuleSoft Certified Developer – Level 1, widely known as the MCD-Level 1 certification.
And what resources will be useful for learning those? Let’s take a look at some of these.
Great resources for learning MuleSoft
The MuleSoft Community is one of the most active developer communities in the world. We have a cohort of MuleSoft Ambassadors, MuleSoft Mentors, and MuleSoft Meetup leaders, whom you can reach out to for any guidance and mentorship.
MuleSoft Meetup leaders host events virtually and in-person, so you’ll always have the opportunity to interact with other professionals, no matter where you are in the world! You can find your nearest Meetup location here.
And that concludes my MuleSoft guide. I hope you find it useful and I wish you all the best on your MuleSoft career journey. Happy learning!
