Don't believe the hype - lots of cool aid and group-think - Senior Solution Engineer Salesforce Employee Review

2.0
Sep 21, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Phenomenal products. The platform is unreal, honestly they sell in spite of themselves a lot of the time. Most lost sales are of our their own doing. Pay is ok - they don't expect much, and pay accordingly. A lot of autonomy, the brand buys a lot of credibility and the opportunity to get involved in great work and great customers.

Cons

Sadly a very big strong culture of group think, not a lot of true independent thought going on (generally actively discouraged - a lot of "but this is the way we've always done things"). Culture is predicated on a lot of cool-aid drinking - espouses values "trust, customer success, innovation, equality", these look nice on a slide but are sadly mostly lip-service. The company simply expects people to believe these things because they have a well established brand, rather than earning them and living them day to day (which an alarming number of people do not). Most of the actions they take in this space (equality especially) are often quick-fixes that look nice on a headline but don't fix the underlying problems Fundamentally most of these values and even the view around "making the world a better place" are absent inside the company. Once you're in, it's all about the current quarter's revenue and not much else. Long-term customer relationship management or strategic planning are almost entirely absent from KPIs or discussions, everything is about the immediate sale opportunity and how much money it will bring in - Customers' relationship managers generally get shuffled every year, so the customer never really ends up with a strong relationship. They generally depend on the fact that once you've bought and invested in the system and embedded it into your processes, it's too expensive to switch, and palm off implementation to 3rd parties and don't take ownership of success/failure for the customer, too busy already focussing on the next quick sale.

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4.0
Jul 9, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've spent over 8 years with Salesforce in various management and individual contributor roles, all customer or partner facing. Some of the pros: - vibrant, fast paced culture - smart, fun, aggressive colleagues - management is focused on latest tech trends and staying or becoming a leader for many of them - by and large, customers and partners are very positive about the technology - good benefits and perqs - hip urban culture at HQ - a chart-your-own-course mentality that rewards those who aggressively seek out the job they want and pursue it, or sometimes even create it

Cons

After my long tenure and many Dreamforce conferences, I'm nearly fried. To say the culture is fast paced and the focus is always changing is an understatement. The reason Salesforce always seems on top, and chasing the latest trend, and in the press, is because employees are expected to run harder, carry more, cheer loudly, and pivot constantly. It's the world's biggest startup in behavior. But at the same time, with the recent influx of top career sales leaders from Oracle and what appears to be a board-level mandate for doubling revenue, employees are being asked to do even more with even less, fill higher quotas with smaller territories, less help, and the big company bureaucracy is rearing it's ugly head. Worse still is the politics. When you hire a bunch of smart, aggressive people, and put them in an environment of outsized expectations, throw in a bunch of re-orgs and changing management, and sprinkle with uncertainty and constantly changing priorities, you inevitably get people back stabbing each other and throwing others under the bus to appear smarter and more worthy of promotion. The few at the top will get very, very rich. The rest will lose the sense of personal ownership and start to wonder why they've given up health and family

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Salesforce Response
2y
It's not often that you get the opportunity to respond to a review 10 years in but your comprehensive and thoughtful review has managed to hold on as one of our most popular even a decade in :) It’s exciting to see that the things we love most about the Salesforce of today — super smart colleagues, being at the forefront of tech trends and establishing ourselves as leaders in the space, great benefits and perks to name a few — haven’t changed in the past 10 years. We acknowledge the challenges you faced, such as the pace, shifting priorities, and internal politics. Your advice on maintaining our foundational vision while avoiding big-company bureaucracy is helpful as we continue to grow as the #1 AI CRM. Salesforce is committed to balancing growth with employee well-being and staying true to our core values. We appreciate your insights and dedication over the years. Thanks again for your feedback!
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