Are you thinking of leaving your current role and taking on a more innovative project, or joining a different Salesforce consultancy?
Perhaps you feel as though you’ve got as much as you can out of your current client project and are hungry for something bigger (and more exciting?).
Whether this will be only your first or second Salesforce job, or if you’ve been working with Salesforce for years and are interviewing for a Technical Consultant role, making sure that your next position is with the right company, be that a client-side business or a consultancy, is essential for your end career goals.
The first step in taking action is deciding what you want from your Salesforce career, and to then come up with a career development plan which will help you achieve your goal.
After solidifying your career plan and working with a recruiter to secure an interview, to make your Salesforce career aspirations become a reality, you will need to ensure your new potential employer can provide the following.
Development Opportunities
Let’s start with this – because it’s one of the most important issues the candidates that I work with tell me is the reason behind their desire for a new job.
It’s no secret that Salesforce is expanding on one of the most extreme growth curves of any company that came out of the dot com bubble.
Recent data predicts that Salesforces revenue will grow from $1,155 million in 2019 to almost $24.5 billion in 2022, creating with it 3.3 million jobs during that time; honestly, this information never ceases to amaze me! It’s such an exciting time for Salesforce candidates, and my advice is to take advantage of this current expansion period, enhance your career prospects by seeking out the roles which will take you the furthest forward.
If your plan is to work your way up to Technical Consultant, will you be able to achieve this goal faster by joining a well-established client-side company, or taking a Salesforce Consultant job at a smaller, developing consultancy?
Finding out the extent of your career opportunities with the company you are interviewing with is top of my list of things to look out for in your interview. Keep in mind these questions to ask your interviewer-
- What does success look like in this company?
- How far will I be able to develop my career with this company/consultancy?
- Can you share with me some of the success stories of current or former employees?
But as well as providing you with excellent career prospects, you will also need to find out if your new company is the right ‘fit’ culturally.
Company Culture
Salesforce has one of the most distinctive cultures of any modern tech company – you can guarantee innovation, a forward-thinking space and a focus on sharing ideas.
But as the Salesforce brand has grown, and there are now countless Salesforce partners and client companies, this has altered slightly what it means to work ‘for’ Salesforce. With clients like Spotify, Toyota, Adidas and even Amazon Web Services at the more high-profile end of the business, all the way down to small start-ups, plus the vast range of partner consultancies, choosing your next Salesforce employer means choosing one that aligns with your values, your vision and your career goal.
The importance of finding the right culture fit cannot be understated – it has been proven that employees who are happier at work outperform those that aren’t, and ultimately it improves your mental health and overall wellbeing.
Make sure you analyse whether or not this company is truly right for you, make sure you get a good feel of what the working conditions, the team and the overall environment of what the company is like.
Innovative Projects
Marc Benioff is one of the most innovative and unconventional leaders of our time – he famously started Salesforce with a few friends from his one-bedroom San Fransico apartment, and this inception laid the foundations for the ethos of the company: forward-thinking and fast-paced. Benioff said in the early days that Salesforce’s motto was to ‘get it done, right, first time’.
I’m mentioning this because that ideology has never left Salesforce and the people who are drawn to working for the platform – the Salesforce candidates I work with are incredibly innovative and are always hungry for the next exciting project, and this is what drives them to seek out new challenges.
The candidates who come to me looking for new client-side companies and new projects all have one thing in common – they want to be in a role where they will never stop learning. A good Salesforce recruiter will be able to put you in touch with the companies who are the cutting edge of Salesforce technologies and find you roles where you feel your skills and knowledge are really being utilised.
If you leave your Salesforce interview with the feeling that this company will not be able to fulfil your innovative ambitions, then this could be a sign the company isn’t right for you.
Work-Life Balance
Let me end by talking about work-life balance, because a big part of deciding on a new role is whether this job will be able to fit with your current lifestyle and if it will be able to accommodate for any potential changes in the future.
How able (or willing) is your potential new employer in accommodating your current lifestyle – plenty of Salesforce freelancers enjoy long winter holidays (and who can blame them?) so although taking a high profile role in a client-side company could provide a higher salary, it will undoubtedly mark an end to such flexible working arrangements.
And think about the future, too.
As a successful Solutions Architect, you might feel professionally ready to take on a much more demanding role, but at what stage are you in your personal life? If you’ve got a young family, is taking on a new highly demanding project feasible, or even realistic?
Make sure you feel 100% comfortable knowing that this company is the right fit for you, to avoid having to reassess your career again in six months.
Finally
If this article had got you thinking about your own Salesforce career, and you would like to discuss your options, get in touch with us today. We have some of the longest-standing Salesforce ecosystem contacts and knowledge, and we can help find you your perfect role.
About Resource On Demand
Resource On Demand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company, now also focusing on growth Cloud markets.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations to grow their technology teams. Supporting companies to fill Cloud roles that span across Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, Human Capital Management and the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532