7 reasons to work as a Salesforce developer

I’ve been working with Salesforce technology for two years. I write – but not codes, texts. I’m a copywriter, not a developer ? I write about Salesforce, and I’m not going to stop; Salesforce sucked me for good. Does it also tempt you, although not from the development side? Do you still hesitate whether it’s a good choice? While writing this article, I used some first-hand help from a developer, even two of them. These are our Craftware developers, and together, they have 12 years of experience in this technology. So I think I can trust them. Ready? Go!

Many development paths

It’s the first significant reason. Salesforce offers many development paths (and not only for developers but also for admins, testers, and consultants). But if you’re passionate about writing codes, you can work as a Salesforce developer, or you can go further – grow as an architect. You can choose from: solution architecture (that is, combining elements of the platform or out of the platform into the best business solution) or the platform architecture (focusing on platform’s and the operation of its components; your responsibility is ensuring that the solution provided to a customer is not only fulfilling its business role but is also efficient and functional).

What drives this division into paths? The platform’s specificity – it’s that extensive and advanced, it needs specializations.

Development without secrets

How could your career in Salesforce look like? On one side, it’s impossible to foresee it from A to Z and for one hundred percent. And on the other – to a certain extent, you can do that. And that’s because, in  Salesforce, development paths (not only for a developer) are clearly defined.

What does it mean? You don’t have to guess what your duties are in the position of a Salesforce developer. Salesforce describes it (and regulates) in its materials, of which you can find out the developer’s and solution architect’s responsibilities. Based on that, you can evaluate whether it’s a job for you; do you really want to go in this direction.

At first developer, and then…a developer?

Not necessarily. When you work in Salesforce, it’s easy to change the role. Starting as a Salesforce developer doesn’t mean this role is assigned to you forever. You can try moving to the architect level after you gain some experience. And maybe you’ll consider a consultant seems like an interesting opportunity and that’s the role you want to fulfill?

The good news is that companies willingly support their employees in such changes because they need Salesforce specialists focused not only on coding.

Does that kind of a sudden change mean that so far, studies and work are wasted? On the contrary!

Your knowledge has no expiration date. Regardless of your role, it’s built around the same basis – the platform. Getting to know the Salesforce manual, learning how the platform operates, how particular functionalities work – helps you broaden your perspective and might be an additional value in another role.

Knowledge within your reach

Where do you get it? No problem, the official and main source of knowledge is Trailhead, a Salesforce platform to learn about the Salesforce platform ? Knowledge is grouped here by development paths (a Salesforce developer, architect, and so on) and difficulty level. If you dream of any Salesforce certification, Trailhead comes to help. It points out which information you should absorb, which skills acquire for a particular certification.

And if a certificate is not your goal, you can use Trailhead to learn and plan your career: subsequently passed knowledge modules might be a hint which direction you should follow.

Friendly technology for friendly people

Among users (both implementing and representing a business), Salesforce has a friendly technology reputation. Maybe that’s why it gathered around itself such an open-minded community? The official one is Trailblazer Community – which brings together specialists around the world. Salesforce people willingly support each other, share experiences, and advise beginners where to start from.

You may look for some assistance and wisdom on Stack Overflow (there’s a group of Salesforce enthusiasts) or on Reddit and its thematic forum. Besides, meet-ups called SForce are regularly organized, stationary and online. I’ve been there and confirm that you may get to know many people whose positive vibe is contagious and don’t skimp Salesforce knowledge. And there’s pizza. ?

Technology with perspectives

Will you have to worry about stable employment? I don’t think so. Demand for developers and other Salesforce specialists is so high it’s not you who will be looking for a job; a job will look for you. Salesforce employs 50.000 people worldwide, and companies in Poland (not only Craftware) that handle platform implementation grow really fast. More and more organizations want to implement systems based on the platform.

Salesforce is a mature technology – for over 20 years on the market, constantly growing, adding new features, extending its portfolio. Slack, Heroku, MuleSoft, and many more joined Salesforce.

On friendly terms with business

There are technologies and projects in which a technical part of the team doesn’t cooperate with business. In Salesforce, having contact is constant and stable – you will quickly see it for yourself as a developer when you send a solution offer to a customer. Why quickly? Because in Salesforce, you can swiftly build Proof of Concept (even within hours) and present it to a customer to confirm the direction is correct. Salesforce developers often build not only a little section or module but an entire solution. Then, they enter it into a greater whole, meaning the customer’s system. Thanks to that, Salesforce developers can keep an eye on how a customer uses the platform.

Maybe you don’t feel convinced to Salesforce, and you still ask yourself, “What am I going to gain if I choose this technology as a programmer?”. If you want to know more about technical benefits for developers, wait for our next article.