We’ve all seen them or been contacted by recruiters regarding them. The requirements call for 30 years of Salesforce experience, ability to code in MUMPS, Java, and VisualForce, willingness to travel 102% of the time, multi-lingual in English/Cebuano/Liturgical Latin, and with a minimum of a PhD. Position is a 1099 contract paying $40 per hour, with no benefits, requires relocation to East Nowhere (at candidates expense), and will last six months.
Take a look at some of these actual requirements for a low level, moderately compensated, job in Manhattan, NY for a global corporation with 19,000 employees.
* Possesses both strong and some tactical Salesforce.com skills to understand how changes may impact entire universe
* Work with sales training management team to develop and update training materials and communications to the user group
* Become the “voice” of the user community to represent to management commonly requested and needed changes to the application
* Conduct training of SalesForce.com to users
* Work with SalesForce developers on system extensions, customizations and integrations
* Respond to support requests and solve issues for Sales Reps and Managers
* Integrate with vendor partners and design optimal solutions for integration
* Provide on-going support and system administration to quickly fix production issues
* Act as the primary point of contact for Salesforce users
* Conduct training of SalesForce.com to users
There are 32 more requirements plus they demand a minimum of a BA in Finance and preferably a minor in Computer Science. Oh, and at least five years experience.
Seriously??
Listen to me carefully, businesses. Stop copy and pasting generic requirements from the internet. Stop looking up twenty SFDC administrator postings, culling the unique requirements from each, and making one, hideous amalgamation. You will never find the purple squirrel, waste much time looking for her, and turn off qualified hires.
How should a company compose their hiring requirements? First, talk to your Salesforce sales rep and/or customer success manager. They know what has worked for other, similar companies and will be happy to guide you. If you are using a consultant, ask her. She has done this dozens of times and will gladly share her knowledge of what to look for. If neither of those appeal to you, here are a few pointers to get you started.
1. Certification is not vital, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s a good place to start. Just be willing to be flexible if you come across a SFDC god with no papers.
2. Go to a conference (DreamForce or CloudForce) and talk to attendees and vendors. Make contacts. Pump them for information. Hire them!
3. Email me and I’ll do my best to help you flesh out your requirements. If it’s just a quick phone call, I’ll do it pro-bono, and if more, we can discuss cost.
By the way, why the “purple squirrel”? It’s a recruiter term for the unobtainable position or candidate. Just say no to purple squirrels!
I was about to post that "I am the purple squirrel" but then I read your last line and disqualified myself.
ReplyDeleteWell if you're looking for someone with more than 10 years of SFDC experience you won't find them unless you hire Benioff!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Paul, I've seen a fair share of these on Linkedin and they are interesting. Kind of like trying to sell a house for way more than it's worth, you might get a sucker to buy it but more likely you'll have to keep lowering your expectations until finally they are inline with what the market can bear... or "sanity", heh.
Garry
I'm only half exaggerating about the 30 years of SFDC experience, but I did see one recently that wanted 20+ years of Java experience.
ReplyDeleteMostly, I get frustrated seeing entry level admin jobs that require credentials that Marc and Tom Wong would be hard pressed to supply. Posting nonsense like that helps no one and slows the growth of our industry.
Paul
I would like to see a way that people can apprentice into Salesforce - you can learn technology and process and if you have people skills you will succeed.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea, Geraldine. I'm quite surprised that more enterprising third parties such as LearningTree haven't started offering training or internships for Salesforce.
ReplyDeleteWell said Paul. I am looking at these everyday and what is ironic is that no one is placing emphasis on years of consulting experience. It is not just about Salesforce experience. What most businesses fail to understand is that it is not years of Salesforce experience that makes an implementation successful, but the experience working with management and users in guiding them on how to be successful.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points, dpatel. I appreciate the feedback.
ReplyDeletePaul
Fields that lack standardization and fall under the 'operations' umbrella have carte blanche to write-up any list of arbitrary requirements. This is what distinguishes a job from a profession. Law, teacher, Medicine = professions; IT = job.
ReplyDelete