Why Even Senior Salesforce Professionals Are Struggling To Find Work (And How to Overcome This)

It’s a hard time to be in the Salesforce ecosystem – and not just for entry-level professionals. Even some of the most experienced minds in the business are feeling the sting of the competitive job market at the moment, with some describing the U.S. job market as the worst it has ever been. 

If you have the experience, you’re in a better position than many in the industry, but you may still benefit from the wisdom of some of the most experienced professionals in Salesforce. 

Stand Out With a Specialism

Having a lot of experience typically means it’s wide-ranging, and this certainly has its merits. 

But while you may have lots to talk about on your resume and LinkedIn profile, it’s often the best approach to zone in on one specific set of skills you’ve developed and market yourself as an expert at that, according to Founder & CEO of Groundwork Apps, Paul Battisson.

Paul told Salesforce Ben: “It’s important to define what it is you are good at doing and what you want to do now. One of the things I struggle with is when you’ve done a lot of things, it’s hard to be able to say, ‘This is actually what you want to hire me for’.

“Someone can hire me to go and build them custom objects or custom fields and admin an org, if they want me to. Do I think that’s the best use of their money or my time? No. But I can do it.

“What I probably am better off being pitched at is as an architect, where I sit there and say, ‘Okay, do you want to come up with a strategy and a roadmap?’ So I think part of it is knowing what you’re good at, positioning yourself on that, and doubling down a little bit and focusing on those areas.”

Paul added that he is kept on retainer for several businesses precisely because he has defined what he is good at and what his specialty is. 

“For more experienced people, you might want to offer yourself out on retainer rather than a standard contract because you have that experience for people to draw on over the long term,” he said. 

Developer Relations Advisor at Westview 1, Peter Chittum, agreed with the idea.

He said: “Take your expertise and sell a fraction of it to a bunch of clients. I think there could be a lot of opportunities there, particularly because it can be really hard to justify a whole headcount right now for a lot of clients who are tightening their purse strings. 

“But it’s a lot easier to sell somebody 1,500 dollars or pounds worth of your time per month. That’s a tiny amount fractionally of what somebody would need to pay for a full-time salary of that expertise. And then scale that to five, six, 10 clients – that’s a really decent income for anybody.”

Peter added that, if you have an industry focus and a deep knowledge of the healthcare or financial services industry, for instance, along with Salesforce, then it would be good to find the financial services clients of Salesforce and see if they’ll buy your services.

He also agreed that having a clear focus can help with your career, particularly because recruiters are better able to discover you and properly pitch you to potential employers. 

Peter said: “When I was a hiring manager, the recruiters I worked with were going on this composite of attributes that I had to give them that was a rough approximation of who might be able to do the job. But in developer relations, it’s a lot of things, so there was a lot of getting it wrong.”

But, he added, if there’s a specialty that you can point to that draws people to your USP, that can be very helpful, from the perspective of a hiring manager. 

“If you fit into a nice neat bucket that fits certain jobs for recruiters, I would say go with that; you’ll certainly get a lot more ‘bites’ than if you’re trying to canvas for everything. But kind of have this general wishy-washy approach to who you are and what you do.” Peter Chittum, Developer Relations Advisor

Know Your Worth

We told Paul about a post on the Salesforce subreddit that detailed a job posting in Canada offering $80,000 Canadian for a CTA position, and asked him whether he thought it was reflective of the dire state of the ecosystem at the moment. 

He said: “I think 80,000 Canadian dollars for that role, that’s someone in HR who doesn’t understand what they’re doing, if I’m being honest. That would be what I would consider an outlier. 

“I don’t think it’s got to be doom and gloom. My thought is to make sure you differentiate yourself as to what you’re good at. 

“I’ve said before, we’ve seen people who have gone away and say, ‘I’ve done 20 certs in three weeks and look at me’, and it’s like yes, but you have no concept of actually delivering a project. You’ve just done a lot of certs. But because of the way the ecosystem was, it was very easy for you to find work of many different varieties, and so you didn’t have to specialize, focus, or differentiate yourself so much.

“When I talk to people about working together, I say to them, ‘I’m not going to sit here and do these things for you. I don’t think that’s a good use of your time or my time. What I will do is I’ll sit here and do these things for you because that’s where I’m bringing 15 odd years of Salesforce experience and whatever other experience around it, you’re paying me for that.’

“The opportunity is there for people to sit down and define themselves so they can be differentiated out there in the marketplace. If you want to be paid a certain rate or a certain amount, you have to explain to people why they are paying you that rate and that amount and why they can’t pay someone else less and get the same thing.”

Paul said that the value of being an experienced professional is not simply understanding how certain products and services work, but being able to communicate effectively with people, including C-suite executives. 

He added: “I think if you find yourself saying no to people, you’ll actually stand out more than if you say yes to people sometimes. It’s really that thing of turning around to people and saying, ‘This is what I’m good at and this is where my strengths are.’ 

If you focus on those, then you can validate why you’re being paid that rate or that amount. And you can then actually start to focus on what you want to do, which I think is just as important as what you’re able to do.”

Use Your Network (Even if You’re Not LinkedIn Famous)

One key advantage for veterans in the Salesforce ecosystem is a network of contacts that they can rely on. 

While newer professionals might still be making a name for themselves, those who have been around for 10 or more years will have, in the course of their work, likely made many valuable contacts along the way.

This isn’t just true for big LinkedIn names and influencers, either. Even for those who prefer privacy to maintaining a social media presence, simply doing a good job on a project and being personable can be a great help.

Paul said he gets a fair amount of work through knowing so many people in the ecosystem. He told Salesforce Ben: “It’s people I’ve known for years who message me and say, ‘Hey, I’m looking for someone to help with this. Can you help us?’ And there’s a big part of that.”

There comes a point in one’s career when opportunities come to you, rather than having to spend lots of time seeking them out for yourself, Paul added. 

Paul, who has the honor of being a Salesforce MVP, says he does not actively go hunting for consulting work as much anymore because that’s not where he sees his career going, and is instead building apps at an app business. 

He said: “I am lucky enough that I still get people reaching out to me, saying, ‘Hey, I’m just looking for someone to do a little bit here or a little bit there, or can you help me with these parts?’ 

“The good news is that this kind of thing can happen. The bad news is it takes 15 or 16 years to build up to a point where you’ve got that.”

But Paul stressed that you do not have to be a well-known figure in the ecosystem who “doesn’t shut up on LinkedIn”, but having a network of contacts simply means knowing people you have worked with previously, and having strong relationships with other people in the ecosystem.

Don’t Fret About AI… Yet

Paul says that artificial intelligence is not currently having a huge impact on the ecosystem for the most experienced members, because AI is not yet architecting and designing systems or talking to C-suite people about their long-term strategy for integrating commerce solutions, etc. 

“AI is very, very good at coming up with solutions based upon what it’s seen before. But AI has not undergone the experiences of sitting down at 2 a.m. and figuring out why it is that this specific thing isn’t working and what’s gone wrong with it. It hasn’t gone through the edge case and the nuance, or sitting down and understanding the politics and dynamics in a room of why this VP and that VP secretly hate each other and are both vying for the same solution.” Paul Battisson, Founder & CEO, Groundwork Apps

Remember Your Transferrable Skills

Peter said that, hypothetically, if he were looking to fill a position on his team as a Salesforce ISV, it would be somewhere in the mid to senior level developer. He looked at two applications – one has three years with Salesforce, and the other worked as a Java developer and then had a year with Salesforce – then there are reasons to pick the second candidate. 

He added: “On face value, some engineering managers might be more interested in the Java developer who has that background before coming to Salesforce. Maybe they have a broader experience with object-oriented programming, and they’ve clearly made the jump to Salesforce, so they don’t need to train them.

“They’ve also demonstrated that they can move between two different programming platforms successfully. This now means that – as an ISV – that’s not as important. But if we talk about hiring somebody who’s an IT app person – Salesforce might be our investment today, but five years from now, let’s say we switch to ServiceNow, Oracle, SAP, or whatever. Maybe I’m going to want somebody who I know can switch gears and is open to moving to something different.”

This is to say, there is an argument that you can certainly market yourself well for the specific position you’re applying for, but particularly in more senior developer positions, if you’ve shown a track record of being able to move between technology stacks, that looks “really good on paper” to a hiring manager – and an engineering manager specifically, Peter says. 

Final Thoughts

It’s a hard time for a lot of people in the Salesforce community, and senior professionals are no exception. 

It seems to be something of an employer-centric market right now, with businesses able to be incredibly picky with who they hire, with some advanced-level roles reportedly on offer for what are arguably extremely low salaries. 

Even Salesforce MVPs and those with 10 or more years of experience are feeling the pinch, so it might not be a bad idea to brush up a little on what your unique selling point is – and remember to keep in touch with key people in your network. 

You never know when an opportunity will come knocking – or dry up completely.