Alex is a Principal Associate at Oliver Parks who specialises in Salesforce within the North American market. Working across subsections such as, Sales, Service, Experience Clouds and so on. Including the more niche markets that can incorporate CPQ, Health Cloud, Financial Services and more.

We caught up with Alex to discuss the recent trends within his market, including what candidates are looking for in their next role, what job titles are most in demand and best interview practices.

What have you found your candidates are looking for most in their next role?

I think what's becoming an increasing trend is people wanting to have autonomy and work-life balance. Being able to do their work without having to adhere to strict working hours is a massive benefit. Our candidates are usually more niche and senior, so have typically already worked the long, unsociable hours to get to where they are today.

People typically also want to have the freedom to be creative, establish best practices, and ultimately build something out rather than being told, "This is how we do it." and therefore people are looking for opportunities within a fast growing environment, one of which is not fully established. Perhaps an end-user client, where they can have an impact, rather than somewhere where they will be micromanaged. 

I often will help clients who have never used Salesforce before and are implementing it, to find Salesforce professionals, and I always advise that if you want to be competitive, you have to bite the bullet by allowing people to work remotely. Especially with these candidates who have often worked remotely before and are set up to do so.

Why are people leaving their current roles?

Predominantly, it's people and companies not delivering on promises. It's a very competitive market at the moment and we see companies trying to get the best people in by saying, for example, that they have a collaborative culture or that it is very much an open environment for suggestions. But unfortunately, when push comes to shove, it's actually not true. So we're seeing people with like 10 years and six to nine months of experience who are leaving companies due to this. Which ties back to people wanting to make an impact in their role.

Typically, if people actually have issues, it's to do with not being given freedom, being micromanaged, and wanting to have some sort of impact.

What job titles are most in demand?

I’d say architects are in high demand at the moment - both solution and technical architects. They can be hard to come by but bring massive value to a company. That being said, it definitely varies depending on the size of the business.

We also look into a market called ServiceNow, which is a much smaller platform. But in that space, architects are less common and developers are in really high demand.

Has the standard interview process changed in the past year?

Not in the last year, but in the last two and a half years yeah. I'd say that typically, more companies are making interviews a two-stage process now, and that's kind of the industry standard so you can get somebody in quickly and beat off the competition. 

But we still do find that some companies have really elongated processes that they really don't need. Such as making candidates do very long technical tests, and speak to around 8 different people on 5 different interviews.

So my advice is to stick to a 2 stage interview in order to be competitive in the market; 1 technical interview and 1 cultural interview. Even if it's two conversations where you involve numerous people at once. For example, if you need to understand what they're like culturally, maybe have a conversation with a CEO and instead of a technical test, do something more interactive with the team they will be working with such as, what would you do in this scenario.

When we see companies arrange long 4-5 hour technical tests for example, it can cause frustration between the candidate and client if they don't get the role.

What’s exciting about your market at the moment? 

What's exciting about Salesforce is that there are lots of new product offerings. All the time, there are new aspects of Salesforce that we are understanding and hearing about.

There's a significant amount of extra information about the manufacturing cloud now as there are a lot of manufacturing organisations using Salesforce and we do a lot of work with the Marketing Cloud as well (including the cybersecurity side of things). 

Salesforce is also emerging, branches of its technology this year, and something called CDP is one of them, which is highly connected to Marketing Cloud.

What is the best way for people to contact you for advice, Alex?

Whether you are a candidate looking for a new role or a client looking to fill a role, pop me an email or give me a call to discuss your requirements.

Email: alex.bilton@oliverparks.com