Explore Career Options

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe the different job roles within the Salesforce ecosystem.
  
• Research potential career options that align to your interests.
  
• Identify skills and requirements for your target career goal.
  

Researching Career Pathways

Now that you’ve looked inward to assess your current skills, interests, and values, it’s time to expand your view outward and explore different pathways that interest you.

Perhaps you already have some ideas about roles that interest you. Perhaps you’ve thought about consulting, but aren’t sure what a day in the life is like for that role. Or perhaps there’s a specific industry that interests you, like healthcare or finance, but you’re not sure what the different roles are within that industry. Whatever your starting point, this is an opportunity to cast a wide net to see what options interest you.

Here are a few ways to research different career pathways.

• Search job descriptions with keywords related to your interest.
  
• Talk to others who are already in roles you’re interested in.
  
• Attend industry events and meetups.
  
• Take people in your network out for coffee or lunch to learn more about other functions, teams, and roles.
  
• Shadow someone doing what you’d like to do in the future.
  
• Look for opportunities to be part of a special project to learn new skills.
  

Labor Market Trends

One thing to consider as you research career options is the labor market demand for specific skills and roles. What are the jobs and industries experiencing the highest growth, and where are there more opportunities?

Salesforce roles span multiple functional areas, including sales, IT, marketing, business management, and operations. As businesses embrace the future of mobile, big data, IoT, and AI, Salesforce skills are becoming some of the hottest skills to have on your resume, and that demand is growing.

Knowing where the demand for a specific skill set, such as Salesforce skills, is strong can give you a starting point for researching different career options that draw upon those skills.

Here are some places to look for labor market information.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook
  
• Glassdoor’s 50 Best Jobs List
  

A Day in the Life

Another factor to consider during your research is the day-to-day activities of different roles. Does the role require more time working with others or working alone? Is the workday structured with lots of meetings or more self-directed? What types of problems does the role solve?

Once you’ve identified specific roles that interest you, search online to find more information about a typical day for that role. Use LinkedIn or X to find people in your network with that role and ask to interview them.

For Salesforce career pathways, you can read stories from Trailblazers who have built their careers on Salesforce. Or explore a typical day in the life of different career paths on the Salesforce Career Paths site.

Conducting Your Research

We’ve provided some information on different career pathways within the Salesforce ecosystem as a starting point for researching career options that interest you. Read through the career profiles, the skills required, what a day in the life of each of these jobs is like, and some of the additional resources provided. You can also expand your exploration outside this list and do your own research on job roles that interest you.

Once you’ve identified one or two roles that look interesting, complete the career exploration worksheet in the Career Exploration Resources packet you downloaded to do a deeper dive on those career options.

Salesforce Developer Overview

You believe that any repetitive task is best automated with code. You dig into juicy problems and work through the night until you have an elegant solution. Coding Apex and custom applications for Salesforce or building with Lightning Web Components are some of the tasks you enjoy tackling.

Salesforce Developers build applications with no-code and code, without compromise. As Salesforce technology App Management integration and code experts, they deliver innovative customer experiences and success for their users, teams, and organizations.

Average experience required: 2 to 5 years

Here are some more Salesforce developer resources:

• A Day in the Life of a Salesforce Developer
  
• Salesforce Developer Skills Lead to Dream Job
  

Salesforce Administrator Overview

You love to help your team be efficient and on top of things. You’re the one that your team depends on to have all their ducks in a row and you help them monitor their successes and customer relationships. You provide value to the business by automating complex business processes, creating reports and dashboards, and training users on using Salesforce.

Salesforce admins solve business problems by customizing the Salesforce Platform. They build, configure, and automate technology solutions to deliver business value. Core tasks include supporting users, managing data, managing security, and driving actionable analytics.

Average experience required: 2 to 5 years

Here are some more Salesforce administrator resources:

• A Day in the Life of a Salesforce Administrator
  
• QUIZ: What Type of Salesforce Admin Are You?
  
• The Best Thing I Built on Salesforce: My Career
  
• What Is a Salesforce Administrator?
  

Business Analyst Overview

You love data and providing key business insights based on analyzing multiple data sources. You take initiative to identify what the business should be tracking and evaluating. You’re able to think through problems and make actionable recommendations.

Business analysts focus on business improvements and project successes. They identify needs and value for the customer environment while communicating between IT and business stakeholders to ensure everyone involved works together to achieve the best results.

Average experience required: 2 to 5 years

Here are some more business analyst resources:

• A Day in the Life of a Business Analyst
  

Technical Architect Overview

You are both a big picture thinker and an in-depth problem solver; your knowledge and skills are broad and deep. You take pride in designing systems that stand up to high volumes and won’t fail at critical points. The solutions you design are built for the long-term and can take a company from one customer to one million customers seamlessly. You have proven experience integrating systems via APIs and a strong development background.

Salesforce architects design, build, and deliver the solutions that businesses need to thrive in a demanding economy. They don't need an engineering background, but have deep technical knowledge and are the lead technical resource for delivery teams and project stakeholders.

Average experience required: 6 to 8 years

Here are some more technical architect resources:

• Going from Developer to Architect
  
• My Journey to Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
  

Salesforce Marketing Manager Overview

You are a modern marketer. You understand the art and science behind creating targeted marketing campaigns that connect with your customers. You bring big ideas to the table that drive impressive results. You rely on customer data and marketing automation tools to seamlessly engage with audiences across all channels.

Marketers are pros at building brand awareness, analyzing market trends, knowing buyers, generating leads, and making the most of innovations to stay ahead of the competition. They can specialize in anything from content to products to data analytics.

Average experience required: 5 to 8 years

Here are some more marketing manager resources:

• A Day in the Life of a Salesforce Marketing Manager
  

Sales Manager Overview

You are an excellent communicator and relationship builder, and you enjoy helping your customers succeed. You’re good at juggling multiple priorities and managing your time to work on multiple deals simultaneously. You enjoy the thrill of winning an important account and have the persistence and attention to detail to overcome obstacles in reaching your goals.

Sales professionals generate revenue by delivering high-value product and service solutions that address customer problems. They use research, product knowledge, customer engagement skills, and team selling to drive success for both their team and buyers.

Average experience required: 2 to 5 years

Here are some more sales manager resources:

• Sales Complexity: Why Sales Jobs Are More Complex Than Ever
  
• The DNA of Top Salespeople
  

Next Steps

After researching different career options that interest you, start to narrow down your list to the one or two target roles that seem most aligned to your skills, interests, and values.

In the next unit, you'll work on creating a specific action plan for your target role.

Resources

• Salesforce: Career Exploration Resources pack
  
• External site: Indeed.com’s Top Jobs of 2022
  
• External site: The Salesforce economy is booming—Get the skills that thrill with Trailhead!
  
• Trailhead: Salesforce Commerce Cloud Architect Roles: Quick Look