Even the most confident, secure, and experienced professionals can experience career anxiety, and it’s a phenomenon that transcends industries. In the often cutthroat world of tech, the pressure to perform can rise quickly, and sometimes, it won’t matter if you’ve been in a role for 20 years or two months – the stability of your job or your future can quickly come into question.
For many Salesforce professionals, this is likely a very familiar feeling. From general career anxiety to the apparent “midlife crisis” situation many professionals are currently facing, this is something that can be difficult to overcome. That’s why I’ve gathered the opinions and insights of three Salesforce MVPs who have helped them out with their own struggles, and hopefully, in turn, can help anyone reading this now.
Are Salesforce Professionals Experiencing a Midlife Crisis?
Although it may sound comical at first, many Salesforce professionals are actively navigating a midlife crisis of sorts. My colleague Henry Martin explored this in detail, uncovering that the community was currently struggling with Salesforce’s company politics, their identity in the ecosystem, and the potential ways artificial intelligence is set to disrupt their careers.
We’ve debated whether a career in Salesforce is a good idea or a bad idea, and there are compelling arguments for both. However, what either side highlights is an uncertainty around Salesforce, Salesforce careers, and careers in tech in general.
Professionals currently have to have a lot of considerations in mind – AI, job market saturation, the state of the economy. According to our latest salary survey, nearly 90% of respondents said that the market has been more challenging to navigate compared to previous years, and only 36.4% of respondents said they were staunchly satisfied with their jobs.
This is bound to foster uncertainty among professionals and, in turn, lead to career anxiety. Our salary survey has also shown that respondents are worried about future automation, an oversupply of talent, the disruption of existing roles, fewer career opportunities, and stagnating salaries. How do you overcome that?
“It’s Natural to Feel Anxious”
Paulina Pytowska, a Salesforce MVP and Senior Business Solutions Consultant at Capgemini, told SF Ben that it is only natural to feel anxious when “the only constant seems to be change.”
“The current uncertainty in the Salesforce ecosystem is real,” she said. “Projects are changing, hiring is evolving, and AI is reshaping how we work.”
“But while change creates uncertainty, it also creates opportunity. Rather than asking whether AI will replace us, I think we should ask how it changes the definition of our work. AI can take over repetitive tasks, but it cannot replace curiosity, empathy, critical thinking, business understanding, or the ability to build trust with people.”
Paulina’s advice focuses on something intrinsic that all of us should remember in the AI era: the importance of soft skills, or perhaps more importantly, human skills.
There is no point in trying to beat AI at its own game – we will not be able to solve mathematical problems faster, or code more efficiently than it can. But an AI will never be able to express empathy or adapt to the emotions of clients and customers in the way a person can. Soft skills are undoubtedly the number one skill for Salesforce professionals across the board right now.
“Instead of giving in to fear, we should focus on developing the uniquely human skills that technology complements rather than replaces,” Paulina said. “In a fast-changing industry, adaptability is becoming our most valuable skill.”
“Understanding the Company’s Direction Helps Me Prepare”
Justyna Krajewska, a Salesforce MVP and Application Architect at Stibo Systems, told SF Ben that she believes the biggest challenge for Salesforce professionals right now is the turbulent job market, largely driven by oversaturation, layoffs, and changes in the tech landscape.
Working on the customer side rather than the application side, Justyna’s perspective on the situation is slightly different, but she explained that the biggest thing that helps her stay calm in her role and the market is to have a finger on her company’s pulse.
“There’s still some anxiety, but understanding the company’s direction helps me prepare,” she said. “I try to stay up to date with the latest changes and requirements, and I set aside time regularly to learn and keep up.”
Keeping up to date with Salesforce’s releases, let alone the wider tech market’s, can be a challenge in itself. As Salesforce continues to announce new AI products, rename products, and backtrack on strategies, being in the know is much harder today than it used to be.
However you choose to keep up to date – through Trailhead, events, Help pages, forums, podcasts, videos, or even us here at SF Ben – it’s important to find the best avenue for you. What works for someone else might not work for others.
Justyna encourages everyone to “stay curious and keep learning.”
“Be open and ready,” she said. “Change is constant, and things are shifting quickly. Salesforce professionals need to stay flexible and take on a wider range of roles.”
“Community Mattered Too”
For Salesforce MVP and Salesforce CRM Analyst Dangsenpenan Nokshuwan, there is a particular uncertainty within the Salesforce ecosystem currently that seems to be coming from multiple directions.
Some of this is influenced by factors we’ve already discussed like the job market, AI, and the speed of change, but Dangsenpenan says that a lot of us miss another important player.
“Layered on top of that is something the community doesn’t talk about enough, which is comparison fatigue,” he told SF Ben. “Our space is generous and visible, and that’s genuinely a gift, but the constant scroll of certifications, sessions, and announcements can leave even seasoned professionals feeling behind on a race no one actually signed them up for. It’s external pressure and internal doubt landing at the same time.”
Overcoming career anxiety was less about the ‘overcoming’ part and more about learning how to work with it for him. Learning how to tackle comparison fatigue involves narrowing his definition of success to something he actually owns, which is the quality of the work, the people he helps, and whether he’s still curious.
“When I stopped measuring myself against other voices in the space and started measuring against myself, ensuring that I am growing no matter how small, this helped a lot of the noise quiet down,” he said.
Another facet that helped Dangsenpenan quell some of his anxieties was engaging with the Salesforce community. The community has always been known for its openness, generosity, and support, and leaning on that was a significant help.
“Community mattered too,” he explained. “Having a few people I could be honest with about the wobbles, rather than performing confidence, made the anxious moments a lot less isolating.”
Final Thoughts
Career anxiety is a natural part of having a career in the first place, and it isn’t always something to be worried about. Anxiety can be turned into motivation, encouraging us to explore new avenues in our jobs and work out how to become more confident doing something.
However, if you’re actively experiencing career anxiety that doesn’t feel like something you can transform into something positive, that’s okay too. Rely on your community. Make sure you’re keeping up to date with your company and industry if you can. Share information, absorb information, and take it one step at a time. In the words of Confucius: “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation, there is sure to be failure.”
