Pros
Salesforce has several things going for it if viewed from the outside. - They have a truly exceptional product which makes it easy to sell and believe in - They offer an ESPP program which, considering the company's growth rate, is a very lucrative benefit for employees taking advantage of it - Their benefits are above average; Health insurance, dental, vision, discounts from other companies (hotels, gyms, consumer goods, services), paid volunteer time off - Plenty of training and self growth opportunities - Supportive managers (with exception and to the best of their ability) - CEO everything he makes himself out to be and more. Truly the only reason Salesforce had a fighting chance in the beginning.
Cons
Now that we have gone over some of the marginal benefits of working for Salesforce, lets spend some time reviewing the truly disappointing aspects that seem to be ignored when the poll for "Best company to work for" is taken: 1. Quotas are not based on past territory performance averages but are instead standardized across the board. Compounding on this is the fact that territory assignments are completely based on need not performance. This means that someone with Alabama as their territory must meet the same quota as someone with California or New York as their territory. This creates resentment among reps and leads to many people leaving for better offers. 2. Outdated school of thought around increasing revenue growth and productivity. This may be obvious to some, but hiring people like Keith Block, who helped grow and create the very companies we at Salesforce are trying to bring change to, could only cause issues. The most significant of which is their belief that increasing the number of activities increases their revenue growth by the same percentage increase. This doesn't work. All it does is make employees resent management. Keith, if you read this, look up "Marginal Product of Labor" and think about your current growth initiatives of mandating unachievable minimum activity levels for your employees. 3. Salesforce is currently paying their new hires more than their tenured sales dev reps. Think about that. How does a company claim to care about their employees yet pays well below the industry average and doesn't roll out pay increases to all employees in a department. Benioff likes to talk about gender pay equality, but I know for a fact there are experienced women making less then inexperienced men in the same position. This goes the same for the reverse. What makes this even more upsetting is that they did not inform anyone of this. The reps found out on their own. Again, decreasing trust in management. 4. Stagnent internal growth. They promise promotions in 12 months or less but in reality, they have created such a toxic work environment people are looking for ways out of sales dev slowing this process to 15 months or more. 5. Politics, politics, politics. For a company that claims to have that "Start-Up" feel, they seem to suffer from all the major issues you find at larger companies. Management is run completely top down with zero confidence in others leading to low level managers being the bearers of bad news rather than mentors. 6. Below average compensation. I won't say much more on this, but the starting salary here means you're living paycheck to paycheck in San Francisco. I could go on, but I think these give you an idea of the way the company is headed. In case you were wondering, this decline in work environment began right around the same time Keith Block was brought on. Interesting coincidence some would say. All of this essentially leads to Salesforce creating one of the most sought after employees in the industry while simultaneously pushing them to the point that they would rather change companies than stay at the "Best place to work" in the Bay.
