What Happened to Salesforce’s Biggest Career Programs?

One of the most notable strengths of the Salesforce ecosystem has always been its strong sense of community. The Trailblazer community has enabled Salesforce professionals to stay connected, help each other learn, and support the most in-need groups such as Veterans looking to get back into the world of work. 

However, with uncertainty surrounding some of Salesforce’s biggest communities and resources such as the Salesforce Military group and the Well-Architected team, cracks are showing in the foundations. 

The Current State of Affairs: A Bleak Economy

In a time where hiring is minimal, funding is limited, and opportunities are scarce, where do you turn?

Unfortunately, these are all issues that the Salesforce ecosystem –  amongst other tech ecosystems – is currently facing. 

2024 was a tumultuous year for the cloud giant. While the strong development of Agentforce and positive end-of-year earnings marked clear areas of success, Salesforce also faced mass layoffs, missed revenue targets, and falling stock prices.

Although we’ve only just entered 2025, job cuts continue to persist. The devastating effects of these events have been felt across the ecosystem, with Megan Tuano, a Senior Salesforce Business Analyst and Tech Content Creator, stating the current market status quo is causing a “wave of uncertainty”.

“I definitely see open positions, but the competition is very high,” she said.

She stresses that jobs are available, but that applicants need to be “ready for the challenge” if they do apply.

Stephanie Herrera, the founder of Salesforce Saturdays and the co-founder of PepUp Tech, also says she’s been noticing the strain in the job market. 

“Before, it felt like if you could spell ‘Salesforce’ you could get a job in the market,” she said. “There were so many opportunities for people transitioning into tech at an entry-level.”

The continual market saturation and the myriad of different entryways being promoted as a means into the ecosystem are both factors that Megan has noticed have some of the biggest effects. She said that Salesforce bootcamps are one of the most notable controversial entryways for beginners.

“People were really pushing those bootcamps – not just Salesforce-specific ones, but ‘how to code’ ones too. Like, pay $300, leave your job, and come get $80-$90-$100k+ salary salary. That’s not real.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg too; support from Salesforce has always been important and is arguably more important now than ever.

What Support Was Out There?

Salesforce’s dedication to the different corners of its community and its ecosystem has always been something that the organization have shone a light on. Describing themselves as “doing well in business while also doing good in our communities since day one”, the cloud giant built up groups and resources that would benefit even the hard-to-reach members of the ecosystem. 

A stand-out group includes Salesforce Military and a stand-out resource has been Salesforce Well-Architected, pioneered by the Well-Architected team. 

Salesforce Military

Salesforce Military (formally Vetforce), is a program that provides free training and resources for military and spouses. Acting as a way to help these individuals forge a career in Salesforce, this initiative has been key in the support of transitioning careers in the military community as well as bringing members of multinational armed forces together into their own support network of Military Trailblazers.

Support is delivered through a multitude of different pathways and resources including career-specific, tailored Trailhead Trailmixes, exams, fellowships, and interviews for completely free. 

Program applicants can achieve Salesforce certifications for free in one to six months, springboarding them into an advantageous position to take on the Salesforce Fellowship Program, which offers 12 weeks of paid job training to new Trailblazers.

The program also used to provide perks such as flights, hotels, and tickets to some of the most sought-after Salesforce events such as TrailblazerDX and Dreamforce.

Salesforce Well-Architected

The Salesforce Well-Architected program has been an initiative designed by Salesforce aimed at providing best practices, frameworks, and guidance for designing scalable, high-performance, and maintainable Salesforce solutions.

The program has been particularly focused on architects, developers, and technical leaders who wanted to ensure their implementations aligned with Salesforce’s recommended architectural principles.

This has been delivered through a guided framework, collaborated-on best practices and reviews, architect resources and training, and a real investment in community efforts where architects could discuss and refine best practices, similar to the Salesforce Architect program and Trailblazer Community groups.

What’s Available Now With Salesforce Military?

Feelings of uncertainty first started emerging late last year, and in January, Matt Pieper, a notable voice in the ecosystem, posted a LinkedIn status that would shine a pertinent spotlight on every crack and crevice of this issue.

Other community members quickly joined the discussion, stating their frustrations at both the lack of new resources and the lack of communication surrounding this.

Serina Caballero, a Salesforce Technical Product Manager, said that it was “so good” to see this issue brought to light. 

“While the resources still available are incredibly appreciated, seeing new members join and not be able to get the information they need is disheartening – especially for those transitioning service members and Veterans who see the automatic interviews and are met with no-shows,” she said. 

Anthony Latunski, a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant, shared his experiences with the Salesforce Military Talent Alliance Program and how it helped him break into the ecosystem. He also spoke on how over the last couple of years, he found himself in positions where he would have “loved to use it again”, but that the main issue is that the companies listed didn’t have any available job opportunities – a common trend across the whole ecosystem.

“What’s worse is that they wouldn’t even schedule the interview that is meant to be guaranteed. I wish Salesforce held the companies that signed up for the TA program to at least interview and provide that feedback.

“If a certain number of Vets report that they didn’t get an interview, the partners should be removed from the program.”

A New Chapter for Salesforce Military

Despite the uncertainty that has been simmering for some time now, there is a breadth of good news on the horizon. Leah McGowen-Hare, SVP of the Salesforce Trailblazer Community, told Salesforce Ben that she had now taken ownership of the program.

“I now have the privilege of owning the program, and we’re now looking at relaunching it,” she said.

She admitted that over the last couple of years, factors like internal reorganizations and a turbulent economy have impacted the program, and it “didn’t quite have a home”.

“It hasn’t had the marketing – it hasn’t had the love,” she said. “But the program never died – let’s be very clear on that. 8,500 people joined last year, and over 860 of them obtained one certification or more.”

When asked about her opinions on the lack of communication the community has been complaining about, she was very quick to admit this was a mistake that was made.

“I will own that there was a lack of communication about the status of the program; where it was, where we were going,” she said. “But as long as it’s under me, I will communicate transparently and honestly, like what we’re doing now.”

“There are people who are truly committed to this, who will do whatever it takes just to keep it rolling.”

What’s Available Now With Salesforce Well-Architected?

On the Well-Architected side, the situation is similar. A spokesperson from Salesforce told Salesforce Ben:

“The Well-Architected Program in its current form has ended. We’ve appreciated the engagement from the community to learn architectural best practices. Architects are a key part of the Trailblazer Community, so we encourage them to continue engagement, access resources, and build connections there.”

Members of the ecosystem began picking up on this long before Salesforce made an official statement, with one person on Reddit expressing their frustration, saying: “This happens so often with the actual good content Salesforce put out. Just randomly killed without a word.”

Shifting Mindsets: The Mistakes Made

Perhaps the most notable miscalculation that Salesforce made with two of its biggest communities was a lack of communication that left many members of the ecosystem in a state of limbo, unsure of what support was available to them. 

With Well-Architected, despite obtaining a statement from a spokesperson, there has been no official public statement at the time of writing this post. Although it can be argued that the state of affairs was well-inferred across the ecosystem, a perceived lack of transparency from Salesforce has left some members of the ecosystem feeling uninformed.

With the Salesforce Military program, the community has noticed a lack of development – this much is clear. Salesforce has responded to concerns surrounding this, with Patrick Stokes, the EVP of Product and Industries Marketing at Salesforce stating that the mothership had acknowledged that resources and focus had been “limited”.

“[We understand that this] has caused real problems and concerns,” he said. “The good news: leadership is refreshing its commitment for 2025 with real funding and headcount.”

This caused more concern than relief for members of the community. Matt responded directly to Patrick, saying that Vets and military spouses had heard this kind of sentiment before.

“[We] immediately saw no action,” he said. “[It left] these as placating words rather than genuine interest.”

However, now that Leah is spearheading the program, the community has its best chance of prospering, which has been missing for such a long time. Leah’s track record at Salesforce – all the way from her Master Global Technical Instructor days to her employee strategy and engaged Trailhead/Trailblazer work – has been extremely successful, so we can only hope that this kind of success follows this initiative, too.

The All-Encompassing Agentforce

Members of the ecosystem have also attributed the all-encompassing focus on Agentforce as a negative when it comes to how other areas of the platform and business are prioritized. 

A lot of criticisms of Agentforce have been made throughout the ecosystem, with some citing the mammoth push of the platform as a big reason other things have been pushed to the side.

A commenter on Reddit shared their thoughts on this sentiment, especially regarding the disestablishment of the Well-Architected program. 

“This is so backward. Agentforce is only as good as your data, underlying flows, and integrations. Architecture is more important than it has ever been.”

At a time when the messaging surrounding AI focuses on making sure that datasets and processes are clean and orderly first, this approach does beg the question of how closely Salesforce is following its own advice. 

What Needs to Change? The Bigger Community Picture

Although Salesforce should be aware of how the ecosystem feels about how the loss of these two communities has been handled, a much bigger picture needs to be considered in tandem. This refers to how the wider Trailblazer Community operates, handles challenges, and supports each other.

Salesforce MVP Stephanie Herrera says that although Salesforce should’ve rethought its community strategies, it is the responsibility of the wider ecosystem and community to work out solutions as a collective force.

“You have to lean heavily on your network,” she said. “You can’t just wait for opportunities to come to you anymore because they’re few and far between.”

She spoke of a community shift that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has unfortunately resulted in unfavorable individualistic thinking in the ecosystem. 

“In 2022, when the world came back, I feel like people were learning to ‘people’ again. We also had the rise of the influencer. People realized ‘I can do this and make money and be famous’. That also impacted the Salesforce ecosystem.

“Our community went from a ‘we’ community to a ‘me’ community.”

According to Stephanie, this resulted in the community suddenly becoming more focused on status and individual accomplishments than collaboration and human connection. This is now more applicable than ever in the current economy – something that Stephanie agreed with, saying, “there are people worried about keeping their homes.”

How To Get Above Water Again

The good news is that there is a way to get “above water” again.

If we take the Salesforce Military program as an example, the program does fortunately still exist. It is a program that fosters a community that needs it more than ever, but the ecosystem doesn’t need to wait for Salesforce to make the improvements as a last resort.

“Salesforce doesn’t have to be the one to do it,” Stephenie said. “We can do it for ourselves, and I think people need to think locally.”

Michael Leach, the CEO of iDialogue, offered his support in light of the lack of Salesforce Military developments after Matt got the initial conversation started, illustrating how the first stepping stones can fall into place.

“I suspect [the program] has run its course, and the vet community once again needs to self-organize,” he said. “I think we can rally 3-5 others pretty quickly if you’re interested.

“This time around, I would not focus on one platform. Let’s identify the forward-thinking employers of today and create a path for Vets.”

Working in tech, it can be easy to come off of the online space that many of us spend so much time in, but it’s something that Steph says will be key in getting the ball rolling with this kind of movement.

”We spend way too much time on social media and need to get back out to ‘who’s in my area? Who lives within this area?” she said. “Let’s find a simple place to all meet and skill each other up and give each other that connection. I’m not gonna wait for Salesforce to provide that to me.

“There is a need – let’s show them how it’s done.”

Final Thoughts

In light of this discussion, I think back to the well-known saying: “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Although Salesforce undeniably has a responsibility to continue to provide the best opportunities they can for their communities, the work doesn’t start with them – it starts at home.

We can learn from the unfortunate events of Salesforce Military and the Well-Architected program and make better-informed decisions about how we can support the members of our community who need the support the most. 

Stephanie’s sentiments around ‘showing Salesforce how it’s done’ will be crucial here – you can’t ignore a campaign happening under your nose, even if you’re Salesforce.

In the immediate future, if you want to get involved with shaping the future of the Salesforce Military program, keep an eye out for virtual sessions regarding the 2025 Salesforce Military Kickoff. These sessions will be a chance for Salesforce to hear your feedback and what you would like to see from the community going forward.