I want to preface this by saying that Salesforce, like any large corporation, is different depending on the team, department, or organization you are in so while I will review MY personal experience I recognize that others within the company or your experience if you come to work here will vary.
Having said that I can say that my org, department, and team all follow the values that come from the top, and not just lip service. We truely operate not only as a team but as a family. We check in on each other, cover for each other if someone has personal business to attend to, and genuinely care about each other more than just co-workers. When your manager or higher checks on you, you know it is because they actually care about you as a person and not just to find out when you'll be back to work or fully productive again.
Bottom line Executives promote a culture of trust and family and treating each other as people and not resources. They also ensure there are policies and tools to enforce it, and are constantly (almost to a fault) looking for feedback on how to improve and ensure they are going in the right direction.
And oh by the way the work itself is usually interesting and challenging. As someone that works in what was a traditionally Systems Operations (Sysadmin, Systems engineer, devops whatever you want to call it) we are constantly evolving and growing ourselves. Any negatives I can say about it are the same you would get from any company. The difference is we mitiga
ProsGreat people, excellent vacation policies, personal and professional support
Conslarge corp problems. Departments in turf battles, others fighting to stay relevant in changing landscapes, leading to even more aforementioned turf battles
Massive change brings big opportunities, but presents hardships internally
Salesforce is making big changes in our world and it feels great to be a part of that process. Every day I work with companies using Salesforce to transform the way they do business. As the company expands, my opportunities do as well. Since working at Salesforce I have gained new skills that opened up new doors should I ever leave. There are also growing opportunities internally. Along with promotions, I have also been encouraged to move laterally at times to gain new experience.
Along with career growth, I also appreciate the way Salesforce treats employees. My salary has always felt competitive with the industry average. The employee stock program has been a great way to create a stronger financial foundation. I have also been allowed to change my work location when needed, including opportunities to work remote. Remote work is dependent on the role.
The downside to hyper growth has been the disruption internally. I don't mind change, but sometimes change happens without understanding the downstream impacts. I have seen executives overlook two separate organizations creating duplicate products and processes. I have also seen the opposite, when an executive team combined multiple groups without realizing what would be lost. In one example, a group was disassembled, only to be reassembled from the ground up later by a different team. Not only was it inefficient, it also brought resentment from the people who were initially required to move.
Another concerning tre
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Technical Program Manager | Herndon, VA | Aug 14, 2019
You want fast? This place goes fast. It's "fun chaos" at an Enterprise with the soul of a Startup.
Priorities change fast here. Your first 3 months will be trying to make sense of it and feeling frustrated, until it eventually clicks that "the rules are made up and the points don't matter" (like Whose Line). Salesforce is approaching 40,000 employees but in many ways has retained that "start-uppy" feel of pivoting on a dime to build and release products sourced right from customer needs.
It gives you whiplash early on, and everyone is constantly asked to do 200% of whatever they could possibly do (which is why the "80-20 rule" matters so much for work-life balance and mental health here). Eventually you learn to kind of shrug, say "Whee!", and go with it. Then it's fun! Learn to prioritize and advocate! Don't say "Yes" to everything, because the job will take everything from you it can if you let it, when we're going this fast.
One of the coolest things about working here (a bug or a feature depending on you), is how openly the company wears its socially progressive stance on its sleeve. Philanthropy and pursuit of equality permeates the entire place's DNA, which infuses a sense of "purpose" into what could otherwise be cold or boring enterprise cloud software.
Other recruiters have attempted to poach me multiple times and often told me how "impossible" it is to get people to leave Salesforce. The high compensation and sense of purpose is a huge part of why.
Go to Dreamforce and see for yourself! Customers are RABID for this platform, they love it. It feels
I've worked at Salesforce for over 5 years now and all those things you hear are true. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but it just never does. I enjoy my daily responsibilities (checking in with the team, collaborating with internal and external customers, bettering myself with available development trainings), my team, going to work in the morning, my leaders, my direct and indirect peers, the perks, the technology, the workspaces, the investment in learning and growing and that I have flexibility.
The best part of the job is that as a result, I've become a better human being. It sounds crazy and cheesy and drank-the-koolaid-ish, but I truly am able to be a better parent, member of my family and of the community. That kind of knowledge and engagement is contagious and Salesforce's investment in its employee's well-being by default extends to those around them. My friends and family volunteer more, listen and learn about our community with what I take back to them (i.e. one of our employee groups hosts local expert guests to cover topics like homelessness in our city, eduction, food deserts, climate change, etc.) and engage on a different level in their communities.
The hardest part of the job is related to change management. It can be really rough. In the end it always works out and does in fact prevent any kind of boredom, but it's tough getting there sometimes. I've never considered leaving Salesforce through even the toughest days.
ProsBright colleagues open to giving and receiving feedback, amazing unique perks, cool locations, fun opportunities.
ConsChange management, remote leaders/direct reports, limited to no travel depending on role
Beautiful downtown Bellevue office. Salesforce touts itself as one of the best companies to work for, there are many employee perks. Fitness monthly benefit, good health insurance, most teams have bonuses (but watch out, sometimes its incredibly hard to meet your bonus), gym in building, free company swag, reimbursements for things like BOSE headphones, etc.
Teams are a bit disconnected, largely because there are a large amount of remote workers across the country. Hardest part of the job was having a new manager every 2-4 months and never meeting that manager in person. Expect to use online chat a lot (google hangouts) and almost never log off. There are many extra bureaucratic hoops you will be expected to jump through, many online trainings to complete. There is a lot of red tape and bs. The culture is the hawaiian "ohana" which means family, but it can be a little much. Look up Ohana Salesforce songs on Youtube to understand.
The cons are that there are limited career progression options, especially in the Bellevue Hub. There is a lot of "throwing people under the bus". Hard to trust people, even though Salesforce says their #1 value is trust.
Pros"#1 workplace" according to Forbes, Zen Bellevue office, free snacks, many employee perks
ConsManagement, competitive culture, make yourself look good by making others look bad
Great Company, Values, Business Model. Fragmented Management.
My time at Salesforce (Indianapolis, Marketing Cloud) was interesting to say the least. I came onto a team that previously had a long rep sheet of attrition. With all the attrition, comes a lot of lost "tribal knowledge", which makes it more difficult for a developer to figure things out. During the 2 years of working with the team I was on, my work was focused on fixing bugs and keeping the system afloat for a particular product. The customer use and adoption of the product grew significantly while the team members and management became more fragmented. A team of 8 engineers quickly became a team of 3 in the span of 6 months. As one of the 3 remaining, we were expected to keep up the work volume with less head count. It quickly became a big stress ball and I made my exit from the company.
Management is spread too thin across teams and becomes disassociated with what is actually happening on the ground level. Said management has pressure from higher up, which trickles down to the teams.
Salesforce as a company is amazing. I can't praise them enough. There are just some issues in some of the Marketing Cloud teams.
ProsSnacks, Barista Bar, tech reimbursement, work from home, flexible time, too many to list
Consmanagement pressure, work life balance, release schedule, always on call
Growing Tech Company Becoming More Political And Less Fun
Salesforce is changing. Some things for the good like the amazing office spaces, especially in hub cities where there is a "Tower" building. The views, environment, as well as amenities on those top floors and throughout the building is very good by any standard.
Cleary revenue is growing, and lots of new acquisitions expanding the footprint, making the company seem like an innovator.
However Salesforce is also incorporating all the worst things about a big company. Everyone is becoming selfish, promoting their own things, undermining other people's initiatives, promoting employees they like or who have worked with them before as opposed to anything resembling merit, and layers and layers of bureaucracy to get anything done.
The worst manifestation of it is the 3-tier system of employees at the company. Small group of favorites (10%), 40% larger group of general employees who are no different in quality or ambition than any other company, and 40% of people who are actively pushed down. The remaining 10% are brand new so not yet in group or another.
In summary if you like big companies with some perks, work at Salesforce. If you actually believe most of what Salesforce says matter, go elsewhere as things are only getting worse.
Salesforce is a great place to work. They truly value their employees and continuously work to make it a more enjoyable work place. There are a lot of perks such as fitness reimbursement, commuter discounts, company iPhone, laptop and iPad,volunteer time off, floating holidays, etc.
A typical day at work for me involves meetings with various teams. It all depends on the project I'm working on at the time. Overall, I'd say its a very collaborative culture here.
Obviously at Salesforce, I've learned to use the app quite well. I've also broadened my knowledge of technology and learned about trends in the industry.
My co-workers are great. It's a very casual culture here. Everyone asks how your weekend was, happy hours occur regularly, team dinners about once or twice a quarter. Overall everyone is pretty pleasant to work with.
The hardest part of the job is probably the typical struggles that go with working for a large company. Things need to move quickly, but obstacles can make that difficult. My department is relatively new though, so I'm sure the kinks will get worked out as we work together longer.
ProsCorporate phone, laptop and tablet, volunteer time off, fitness reimbursement, great healthcare
ConsDifficult to move around if you are a junior role
This is definitely the hardest job I've ever had -- as a tech writer, there are so many tools to use and processes to follow, and you need to do it all well from the get-go!
There's Perforce for checking files in and out and for build testing. GUS is our internal implementation to track bugs and releases. Gdoc and Quip are our collaborative word processors. Sheets and Quip are used for spreadsheets. PDF, of course, for reviews and documents. SnagIt for screenshots. We've just moved to Slack, which we are all trying to figure out how to use and use well. Acrolinx for evaluating and correcting our writing. And oXygen for writing our content using DITA. I think oXygen is the world's crabbiest word processor - we really fight with it and the DITA constraints!
Along with all these tools are processes and guidelines, and they can get pretty intense. It's hard to master, and it's constantly changing.
The good news is that your colleagues are eager to help! And, they know how hard it is at the beginning. Keep a humble, beginner's attitude, and reach out for help - you'll get it, and them some!
ProsGREAT benefits! And for all ages and stages - parenting, new babies, retirement, everything.
ConsHard to get promoted - lots of effort on YOUR part to document why you deserve it.
Dysfunctional Organizations, Hostile work environment, poor management and no support from HR/ES
This is the most dysfunctional environment that I have ever experienced. The organization has terrible leadership who care more about self preservation and growing their kingdom than doing what is right for the business and employees. There are no clear decision makers and the org operates more like a dictatorship than anything else. Rude and bully-like behavior is tolerated and management works to sweep things under the rug for fear of exposure to ES/HR. Speaking of ES/HR, they do not support employees and seem more like a gatekeeper and protector of management vs really helping to aid in the success of the employee. If you go to ES/HR, they will let your mgt know at which retaliation takes place. Incompetent, arrogant and unprofessional managers are rampant and there are zero consequences for poor behavior. Professional maturity is nonexistent.
How this company keeps winning Fortune Top Corp is beyond me! Maybe there are pockets of the company that have good teams but there are many areas that mirror what I have experienced.
Salesforce is Amazing for some, but Support is a nightmare for most
This is by far the best job I have ever had. Working at Salesforce has changed my life. I love the benefits, the people I work with, and our customers. The work that I do to help customers leverage powerful technology can be very rewarding. Just don't work in Salesforce Support if you have other options.
Even with new executives, they still think Salesforce Support is a call center that handles simple requests and their lack of technical acumen is a detriment to customers. There is no formal training for Salesforce Support Engineers on Salesforce Products. The current training is just trailheads over 60 some days to pass 3 certs on their own and the rest we hope they learn on the job with a guide. New Products SOMETIMES have a deep dive walk through, but often we are not trained on new products as they roll out. Their answer going forward to this tribal knowledge gap - caused by a lack of product documentation in many cases - is to hire those with developer backgrounds. It is unclear how a developer background and an updated service console can account for these challenges that are typically solved by formal training, better product documentation, and a rock solid scope based on our already clearly documented terms of service.
The outsourced workers, my teammates, have it even worse as they are not treated as equals. They are typically bullied into meeting unreasonable customer and account team expectations with less training or they are fired (losing their signing bonuse
ProsIt is a job that can change your life, It is the best job I have ever had given the concerns, rewarding work, great teammates, teammates that are empathetic to the challenging ramp period
ConsPoor Executive Leadership, Poor hiring practices that lead to burnout, lack of meaningful actions to address cheating, at times - unclear paths to advancement, lack of technical leadership at the executive level, lack of understanding of frontline day to day, no formal training, unrealistic expectations from customers
Questions And Answers about Salesforce
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at Salesforce? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
1 to 3 months depend if there is hiring freeze.
Answered Jul 24, 2019
They hire new interns every Monday, Process is easy, bring your resume and look your best
Answered Aug 11, 2017
Does Salesforce have remote work positions available?
Asked Aug 17, 2017
Yes you can work remotely
Answered Apr 10, 2019
Yes. Remote options for most (or all) offices, and some people just work remotely all the time.
Answered Feb 10, 2018
On average, how many hours do you work a day at Salesforce?
Asked Jul 15, 2018
On average I work at least 8 hours a day
Answered Jul 8, 2019
I would work 40 plus overtime
Answered Sep 24, 2018
How did you get your first interview at Salesforce?
Asked Feb 27, 2018
I applied and was not picked for the organization I applied for, then I applied again with a referral to a different org, and I am happy here five years later.
Answered Oct 6, 2020
I was recruited by a former manager from a previuos company to come to Salesforce and work for him.
Answered Aug 26, 2020
What is the interview process like at Salesforce?
Asked Feb 27, 2018
The interview process was challenging and I did not get hired the 1st time I tried. Stay persistent and find a position that is correct for your abilities.
The interview process I had was a presentation in front of a panel of three Sr Mgrs.
Answered Jun 22, 2021
3-4 people. Can be done via phone or Google hangout. Then 1-2 face to face.
