Once upon a time, the Salesforce ecosystem was known for rapid growth and impressive salaries, with a reputation for having a strong community and a progressive culture.
But people who were drawn in by opportunity, stability, and values are now reassessing whether there really is a future in Salesforce. A challenging employer-led job market, scrutiny over government contracts, and controversial remarks from Salesforce leadership have led some to consider other careers.
While the pandemic years provided a boom, there is a growing sense of uncertainty around purpose. After noticing conversations on social media about a ‘millennial midlife crisis’, SF Ben founder Ben McCarthy asked his LinkedIn followers if they had been experiencing a ‘Salesforce midlife crisis’, falling out of love with corporate jobs in the rat race. Here’s what some in the ecosystem are saying about the Salesforce professional’s ‘midlife crisis’.
‘Marc Benioff’s Comments Affected Us’
Allyson Clark, who was until recently Principal Solution Engineer at Salesforce, said that, for a raft of more personal reasons, she has been considering what exactly her next move should be.
She said: “I also think a lot of us have been affected, as you’ve also covered, by some of the comments Marc Benioff has made and actions he and others in the industry have taken (i.e. throwing DEI out the window so fast our heads spun).
“I work at Salesforce so I’ve had a front row seat, and they’ve made me think that the company no longer has the same values I thought it did for so many years.”
Allyson, who describes herself as falling into the ‘Xennial’ generational bucket, explained that she has seen a great deal of tragedy in her life recently, including ill parents and the deaths of some people she knows, including a close colleague. She added that LinkedIn these days is saturated with posts about stress-induced hospital stays or tragic diagnoses.
“And I’m supposed to be all LETS F***ING GO about ACV and vibe coding?” she said. “I’m having a hard time finding the same enthusiasm for technology in the face of all this loss and heartbreak, not even to mention going through pandemics and seeing World War III trending.”
As for what’s next for Allyson, she says she is not quite sure yet. “I think it would feel good to be doing something that felt helpful to my community and to my friends and family,” she said. “Maybe something with a more tangible result than anything we build in the cloud.”
Salesforce Used to Be My Identity
One Salesforce professional, who has worked in the consulting space for more than a decade, said they have seen the company shift from its startup ‘Ohana’ roots into a “corporate behemoth”, not living up to its values.
The professional, who asked to remain anonymous, told SF Ben: “For me, Salesforce used to be my identity. I loved Salesforce, I was on the Kool-Aid hard. I bled blue and was passionate about helping customers adopt Salesforce into their business.”
They said they first started falling out of love about five years ago, and only remain in the ecosystem because of difficulties exiting their business.
“But my heart is not there anymore, and it kills my soul when I see account executives (AEs), their managers, and their senior leaders behave unethically, in the interest of personal gain,” they added.
They said that they regularly see AEs behave as if their number one value is annual contract value (ACV) and nothing else. The source claimed that they have seen situations where AEs would tell them not to raise valid concerns about the reality of their Salesforce investment because it would slow a deal down, or put a deal at risk.
The source said: “Through the years I’ve seen this behavior become the norm, often hearing ‘I can’t offer that, because it will put my commission at risk’ and, more recently, ‘If I don’t get this deal, I will lose my job’.”
They claimed that the “fear” that some AEs are under drives them to behave poorly. “Now I take the side of the client 100% and often warn them against buying ‘too much product’ to start with,” they added.
I’m Being Asked to Participate in Making Myself Obsolete
A Systems Architect at a company of around 2,000 people told SF Ben that they had spent years carving out a place in the Salesforce ecosystem, but recent shifts in the landscape cast doubt on whether jobs like theirs will exist years down the road.
They said that there are a few key causes of this: “First and foremost is AI. I work at a tech company and internally, the subject of AI is constant and inescapable. My team and I are under incredible pressure to insert AI into every possible workflow (regardless of the actual benefit).”
The architect claimed that during a recent company-wide meeting, their CEO said that the future they are working towards is one where “every task currently done by humans will be automated by AI.”
“It feels very much like I’m being asked to participate in making myself obsolete,” the architect said. “And this sentiment is by no means unique to my company.”
But aside from AI, many foresee a shift in the CRM space, they added. While some claim that CRMs in general will become irrelevant as users move towards using an LLM and some backend database to handle all their tasks, this “feels less likely to me”, the architect said.
Another possibility is that Salesforce will lose its status as the industry standard CRM.
“Salesforce has claimed to go all in on AI, but as many in the ecosystem will tell you, the impact of Agentforce has been middling thus far,” the architect said. “I also feel that Salesforce has lost focus on the fundamentals.
“I worked on a Revenue Cloud implementation recently and was shocked at how incomplete the product felt. This can be said for many other parts of the platform as well.”
They added that they are concerned by sentiment on LinkedIn and other business media about abandoning Salesforce. “There really doesn’t seem to be much love for Salesforce, especially among actual end users,” they said.
Regarding the future, the architect said that they are at something of a crossroads.
“It may well have been a mistake for me to specialize so heavily in Salesforce,” they said. “It definitely doesn’t feel like the value of my expertise is increasing.”
They are now considering stepping back into a Revenue/Sales Ops role, or other PaaS specializations like Gainsight or ServiceNow.
‘I Studied With a Psychic Medium for Eight Weeks’
Michelle Littlefield, a former Solution Architect who has been in the ecosystem since 2012, says she decided to leave a career that she had built over 15 years and start anew.
She told SF Ben she was working for a company that was acquired by Salesforce in 2022, and was “one of a very few” who chose to walk away in the acquisition. At the time of the acquisition, Michelle says she was already burnt out and looking for an exit path.
Michelle said: “When the announcement was made… I wrote on a sticky note, ‘Do not sign’ and taped it to my computer monitor. I just needed rest.”
She said how she took a year off entirely, focusing on volunteering in her children’s school and running for the local school board.
“I took a pottery class with my mom, and studied with a psychic medium for eight weeks. I traveled with my daughter and a former colleague to see Taylor Swift. And I’ll just say I spent lots of time reflecting on how my life experiences have made me into the person I am, especially professionally, as I approach my mid-40s,” she said.
But the need arose financially to jump back into Salesforce around 2023, and she began consulting on her own, both directly to clients and functioning as a subcontractor through another partner.
Michelle thought that working independently could help her avoid some of the pitfalls of her previous consulting days, but unfortunately, it didn’t take long before she found herself back into the same habits that “ran me into the ground”, she told SF Ben.
A year into independent consulting, Michelle and her husband opened a retail business in their hometown of Gorham, Maine.
“Recently, I received my first certification maintenance reminder after having stopped actively doing Salesforce work. And for the first time, I considered what might happen if I just deleted it and never looked back,” she said.
“I have found so much more fulfillment opening my eyes to what is happening directly in my local community that I don’t want them to be clouded again by the chaos and demands of a 60 hour a week tech job.”
But, she added, she is still “not quite ready” for that leap – and completed the maintenance within a few days.
‘More Enablement, But I’m Thinking of Leaving’
One senior Salesforce professional, who asked to remain anonymous due to potential professional repercussions, told SF Ben that it was good that Salesforce’s technology had evolved over the past 15 years.
But, reflecting on their own future, the source said they were considering leaving the ecosystem altogether, citing concerns about internal politics and what they see as a disconnect from customer-centric values.
“There’s a feeling that things are being mis-sold,” they said. “It doesn’t align with why I got into this in the first place.”
While they would not rule out taking another Salesforce role, the source said they are actively exploring opportunities in other platforms, including competing technologies. Others are making similar moves, they said.
On the positive side, the source said that the expansion beyond core products into industry-specific solutions helped organizations with more complex needs adopt the platform.
Also, the introduction of free training resources like Trailhead has been a significant improvement, lowering barriers to entry for new talent.
“There’s far more enablement now than when I started,” the Salesforce professional said. “People can access high-quality learning without the same cost or gatekeeping.”
The wider community has also matured, with user groups expanding beyond major cities and offering networking and development opportunities. The source added that there has been a noticeable shift towards sustainability at events, with less emphasis on merchandise and more focus on environmental impact.
However, these gains have been offset by growing concerns over pricing and competitiveness. The interviewee said Salesforce products are increasingly seen as expensive relative to their functionality, with some customers opting for rival platforms offering better value.
They added that the company’s culture has also shifted, with layoffs contributing to increased pressure on employees. They described smaller sales territories, higher targets, and greater levels of micromanagement, particularly in small and medium business segments.
Final Thoughts
Midlife crises are not unique to Salesforce, but the Salesforce ecosystem does not seem to be what it once was. People fall out of love with their careers and want to go make a difference, do something they really love, or maybe do nothing at all for a while.
Are you having a Salesforce midlife crisis? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
