Just a few years ago, it seemed to some like having the word “Salesforce” on your resume was a golden ticket to all sorts of positive things – from job offers to benefits to pay rises.
But the ecosystem seems a very different place to be right now, with many members complaining of fierce competition and a job market seemingly very much favoring employers, who can afford to be selective with such an abundance of talent out there.
“I Was Fighting Off Recruiters… But Now it’s Crickets”
Salesforce professional Gabie Caballero told Salesforce Ben she has seen a decline in the Salesforce job market in recent years, especially since the coronavirus pandemic.
She said: “In 2020, I was able to jump three times and triple my salary. That would have never happened before, because even though I had Salesforce training and I was an ‘accidental admin’ way back from 2009, they wanted to see that certification.
“So I got certified during the pandemic, and that opened up doors. I was basically fighting people off with a stick. I had recruiters coming at me all the time, trying to pull me away from whatever position I was in. It was crazy. And now it’s like crickets. I haven’t heard anything from recruiters in quite some time actually.”
Gabie added that this year had been “very slow”, but she had started to see more posts on LinkedIn from people in her network saying they are hiring.
She said this might be indicative of a new trend where people are trying to hire more directly within their own extended networks, rather than traditional recruiting.
Gabie said that it is currently an “employer’s market”, which is a shift since the coronavirus pandemic, when the situation was more favorable for employees due to a labor shortage.
“People were fighting, competing for talent,” She added. “Now you’ve got all these layoffs that happened from Google, Meta, Salesforce, the government, you got all this talent out there sitting in the talent pool.
“So employers, they can do that now, they have a lot to choose from, and they can be extremely picky. This is reminiscent of what happens during recessions in the US; I remember back in 2008, it was similar. I was looking for a job, and the bar was set so high. It was impossible.”
Gabie said that we are now in similar territory, where employers want someone to meet such a wide range of criteria.
“Employers want a lot more for a lot less… They want some senior admin roles, even some things where they want you to do AI or Agentforce, and I’m not that impressed by the salary, to be honest with you.
“That would be a lateral move for me right now. So, do I really want to jump and have twice the amount of work for the same amount of money? Probably not.” Gabie Caballero
State of the Job Market
Earlier this year, Salesforce Ben reported how the job market was going through a potential reset, meaning ecosystem members would be saying farewell to some of the benefits of the coronavirus pandemic tech boom.
The 2020 State of Salesforce Report had shown signs of “digital acceleration”, and the news was generally positive through to 2022, but this did not last in the following years.
Since 2023, the cloud giant has been carrying out rounds of layoffs, and if we look at 10K’s 2024 Talent Ecosystem Report, we can see that the supply of professionals has grown by 19% in a year, with demand decreasing by 37%.
In Salesforce Ben’s salary survey, 87% of our respondents said they feel the market has become more challenging in recent times, and a quarter of professionals said it takes three to six months to get their next role.
Our survey also revealed that, out of 24 top roles, 16 had seen a decrease in salary when comparing the earnings of those who landed a job in the previous 18 months to those who landed a job in earlier years.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Salesforce Ben recently reported how Tal Frankfurt, the Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, said he had noticed a significant “momentum rise” in the U.S. market.
He said that he had been noticing two primary trends within the United States market – rising demand for managed services, and noteworthy entry-level/apprenticeship growth.
“Interest in our Talent for Good apprenticeship program has surged, and we’re now projecting that line of business to double in size,” he said. “Across the broader organization, we’re anticipating 20–30% growth in staffing this year alone.”
Talent for Good’s objective is to close the skills gap for people looking to get into the Salesforce ecosystem.
Tal added: “Organizations want to continue evolving and supporting their Salesforce investment, but many are opting not to hire full-time developers or administrators. Instead, they’re turning to flexible, scalable managed service solutions.”
It certainly seems a very different picture now for Salesforce professionals, with workers going from a position of great strength to one of relative weakness over just a few years.
The future is, of course, uncertain. But, there are still signs of hope for the ecosystem, and it may simply be finding balance between the highs of the early 2020s and the current lows.
