Salesforce Career Options

In this blog post, we will talk about what Salesforce (SFDC) and Salesforce Career options are available in the Salesforce ecosystem. We will see different career choices you have or different job profiles that are available in the Salesforce job market. Also, we will cover which Salesforce Career Paths we can take to grow in the Salesforce ecosystem. Let’s start our Salesforce careers guide.

What is Salesforce(SFDC)?

SFDC stands for Salesforce dot com or Salesforce.com. Salesforce is one of the most popular and influential Cloud-based CRM systems. Over the years it has evolved and grown into “THE GO-TO…” option for every small, medium, and large-scale industry.

Sales, Service, Field Service, Mobile, Marketing, Net Zero, Non-profit, Education, Philanthropy, Commerce and CPQ. Just name it, and they have an OOTB cloud solution in place for immediate deployment – you just have to configure and customize it as per your industry and customer needs.

Let’s dive deep into the various career options and opportunities in this vast ecosystem. If you a new to and Fresher, then check How to get a job in Salesforce as a Fresher post to learn about the recruiting process.

Career options in Salesforce

To give a quick perspective of various roles and responsibilities in any Salesforce project/program team. Let’s have a look at the below diagram. This is a sample waterfall delivery-based model to showcase various technical and functional roles in a salesforce program.

Side Note- Waterfall delivery is a methodology- where each stage like requirement gathering, design, development, and testing, is a milestone, and a complete set of requirements for the whole program/project gets delivered as a single entity. We can talk about different methodologies in some other blogs.

Let’s talk about all the different Salesforce career options and equal opportunity in detail.

1. Salesforce Administrator

As a Salesforce Administrator / Admin, you hold a very important responsibility to correctly set up the Customer Org, their roles/ responsibilities, and Hierarchy in the system. You also set up which login user should see what kind of data- controlling the visibility of the screens, etc. Setting up OAuth, managing and setting up dashboarding, reporting, and any outbound/inbound communication channel setups, etc.

These days, we also see “DevOps” as a separate role for most of the programs where the DevOps person/team is responsible for managing and setting up the process for deploying data into higher environments, check-in checkouts of different teams, and moving the packages to higher environments like Integration environments (CIT, SIT), UAT, Pre Prod and Production.

Average salary (national): $ 95,000. Check a Salesforce admin guide to the role, salary, and how to earn more.

Salesforce Administrator Career Path

Here is a suggested path for newcomers, but your journey can differ based on experience and opportunity.

2. Salesforce Developer

As a Salesforce Developer, you are expected to be able to configure as well as customize the application to suit the customer requirements using Apex, flow, triggers, OOTB setups, process builder, LWCs, etc. Salesforce Developer is one of the most demanding skills in Salesforce industries. A Salesforce Developer is a programmer who builds Salesforce Applications on various PAAS platforms.

Average salary (national): $125,000

Check How to become a Salesforce Developer and the hiring process to get a job in the Salesforce ecosystem.

Salesforce Developer Career Path

Here is a suggested path for a new Salesforce Developer, but your journey can differ based on your experience and opportunity.

3. Functional Consultant

Being a consultant means having a “Know How” of the system. Not just following what’s required to be done- but also being able to suggest the processes that are industry best practices. A Salesforce functional consultant is responsible for creating a Functional Design Document for the whole set of requirements for the Salesforce team and being able to suggest process improvements based on Salesforce Best Practices. Check here to learn about 5 Skills Great Salesforce Consultants Have In Common.

4. Tech Specialist

To support the best practices suggested on a process level- we need to have a deeper understanding of how the technology works, and that is where the Tech Specialist plays an important role. Someone could be managing an expert at the Integration area, someone is excellent at LWCs, someone is handling the CPQ EPC (product catalog side of things), etc.- these are just a few examples of technical specialization roles in Salesforce.

5. Business Analyst

Right from the requirement capture, running customer workshops, requirement elicitation, interacting with different customer user groups, creating the business requirement document (BRD), and capturing the as-is and to-be processes- this all is taken care of by a Business Analyst(BA). Check here for the Top 7 Skills in a Salesforce Business Analyst checklist.

Average salary (national): $104,000

6. Salesforce Architect

To stitch through all the requirements across the project and to be able to suggest the best approach for all the set of requirements, an Architect plays a pivotal role. Salesforce Architect is responsible for gathering technical and functional details from each of the track tech specialists, BAs and available consultants to be able to come up with the overall approach of how the requirements will be technically designed and delivered. For any technical blockers- they are the key people on the program.

Average salary (national): $150,000

Check how to Become a Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA).

7. Designer

Similar to the functional consultant role- Designers work across the streams and systems and have a more considerable additional responsibility to see how Salesforce would fit in the overall program ecosystem. They would come up with the overall program-level design. This functional design covers the whole program, including interacting systems, inbound and outbound communications, APIs, user interaction flows, and how all the technologies/platforms fit together in the program.

Average salary (national): $112,000

8. UX Designer

The Salesforce UX designer is the one who comes up with the right way of representing customer requirements on the Salesforce screens. It’s not just about the UI design (how the screen looks and just developing those) but being able to bring in and enhance the customer experience in the system by conducting user interviews, creating system and flow mockups, screen designs, understanding current system usage challenges and bring improvements and coming up with the best experience for your customer.

9. Project Manager

In a traditional project delivery methodology (Waterfall, as explained earlier), a Project Manager is responsible for managing all these above roles deliverables, creating an overall delivery plan, managing project risks, challenges, resourcing, etc.

In the agile world (where requirements are split in smaller chunks and delivered) the project manager role is typically replaced by a Product Owner/ Product Manager.

Average salary (national): $90,275

10. Enterprise Architect/ Program Architect

Enterprise Architect/ Program Architect plays a crucial role on very high-scale implementations and is responsible for any/every interacting systems’ technical and business design.

An enterprise architect works with the representatives (PMs/Architects) from each platform/team (including salesforce teams) and even with the customer stakeholders/business users to understand their requirements and challenges and to see the feasibility and compatibility of the underlying systems and requirements.

11. Program Manager

A program manager sits on the top of this hierarchy. This role cuts across all the teams, similar to Enterprise Architect/Program Architect but is responsible for managing the customer teams, vendor teams, delivery teams, testing teams, etc. on an overall program delivery level.

Managing the program schedules, milestones, and delivery across the teams to adhere to the program goal- the program manager is responsible for this e2e. Managing customer stakeholder interactions, reporting to the steering committee and program sponsors, and controlling program risks, budgets, etc.

12. Salesforce Release Manager

The role of a Salesforce Release Manager is crucial in ensuring the smooth and efficient delivery of Salesforce solutions within an organization. The Salesforce Release Manager is a professional responsible for overseeing the planning, coordination, and execution of Salesforce releases within an organization. Learn more about Salesforce Release Manager Roles & Responsibilities.

Check the Average Salesforce Salary Guide.

Salesforce Career and Salesforce Job Market

Salesforce career paths that you can follow

How can you know which career path is right for you? Based on the above insights into the different roles, it’s up to your expertise and interest to get into the groove and start picking the roles for your upcoming assignments. If the functional side interests you more- then go for BA, Functional Consultant, and Designer roles.

The technical side is your arena, and if you love to code, Tech Specialist or architect is the right role for you.

You can also check Salesforce Management. If you want to follow the Salesforce Management path then flow below the path.

How to get started in Salesforce

There are standard as well as advanced trailhead courses for Admin, Developer, CPQ, Field Service, etc. Additionally, you also have Trailmixes which are customized learning paths by people in the salesforce ecosystem (called Trailblazers) – that give you real-time and a piece of hands-on knowledge with short exercises/ projects to grow your skill.

1. Trailhead

The only thing you need to get started in Salesforce is to register yourself on “Trailhead” and get started for free! Sign up for a new account, and voila! You have many ways to begin exploring any topic/role you want to grow in- search of what you want.

Trailhead quests are a fantastic way to earn some great Salesforce goodies to keep yourself motivated and updated. You can also help in the community by answering questions from fellow trailblazers, participating in the challenges, and getting rewarded!

Learn more about Salesforce Trailhead and the Salesforce community.

2. Salesforce Community

Also, make sure to associate with your local Salesforce Community group- you can join the group under the “Community” tab on the site. These communities host multiple events and talks to get you up to speed on the technical and functional topics, any new trending topics, updates, new releases, platforms, etc.

Learn more about Salesforce community events.

3. Certifications

Certifications are another vital milestone to prove your hands-on expertise- both in the community as well as for your customers. If your organization is a Salesforce Partner- you have an additional set of Partner learning resources available at your disposal- Partner Learning Camp!

Check out the list of all Salesforce certifications list and costs.

4. Partner Portal

It has partner launch event webinars, detailed additional topics shared exclusively for partners, and so on. There are specialized credentials introduced for partners too- Accredited Professional certifications.

5. Apex Hours

Apex Hours is a stop platform to learn Salesforce skills and technology. It has all the tutorials you need to start with Salesforce.com and become a master in it.

Where to learn Salesforce for free

Start learning Salesforce from Trailhead, and if you like recording, then check the Apex Hours YouTube channel. Check our Free Salesforce Training Series for different topics.

How to get a job in Salesforce as a Fresher

Salesforce careers FAQ’s

What Next

Check the post below to learn more about your career path.

• Managing Data Access in Salesforce
• Salesforce Program Manager
• Salesforce Salary Guide in 2023
• Salesforce Product Manager
• Are Salesforce Careers Recession Proof?

Summary

All in all, there are ways and means you can top your game with Salesforce! Just dive into it. It is time to start your journey to a Salesforce career. Start learning Salesforce from Trailhead and Apex hours.