Amazing products, unbeatable in the market but culture has tanked - Director, Alliances Salesforce Employee Review

4.0
28 Aug 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay is above average; Salesforce is too big to be acquired by anyone; Public image is exceptional - especially in the Bay Area; Products are State of the Art in many areas; unlikely to fail for a long time; unbroken record of continuous growth

Cons

Culture has tanked after the massive layoffs in 2022/2023: politicking and backstabbing has always been an issue, and while being addressed it has increased massively after the layoffs as people are afraid for their jobs. There was no structure to the layoffs and a ton of critical & successful people were being let go - so everyone basically is afraid of being next. Salesforce is in a constant process of restructuring. The larger we've become the less likely it is to be able to have any way of impacting your trajectory. If you're lucky enough to stay in the same role for longer than 18 months, it's very likely that your management will have changed during that time. Branding yourself is therefore critical. If you're not successful in building your brand aggressively, you'll end up just being shuffled around with no say in the matter. Career planning is almost impossible because of that. No matter what role you apply for: it won't be the same in 12 months and you might end up doing something completely different over just a few years - if you want to or not. As we've grown to a real enterprise, micro management has taken hold. Salesforce used to operate on a system of trust and avoiding administration: needed to travel? just do whatever is necessary, the company trusted you to not overspend - results were what mattered. Nowadays it's like all other large enterprises: multiple approvers for every parking ticket and travel restrictions en masse. Traveling to customers was easy and encouraged, today it's unreasonably hard to travel.

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5.0
5 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing workplace culture Great benefits Great career growth pathways Favorite job of my entire career Great leadership

Cons

None. You work hard but it’s so worth it.

4.0
9 July 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
1y
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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