Whilst these will obviously vary between Salesforce job type, we want to share some of our favourite questions to ask in an interview to dig a little deeper:
Which Salesforce related Clouds/Products do you use in the organisation?
Are you looking to gain more exposure to different Clouds? Perhaps you like to focus on only a handful of what you’re experienced in. You can get a very good idea of the org in an organisation by asking this question. Plus your chance to gain exposure to Salesforce-related Clouds/Products which you may not have the opportunity to in your current role.
Does the business have plans to invest in further Salesforce related Cloud/Products?
Likewise, you can gauge the business’s appetite for change by understanding how much they know about other Salesforce-related Clouds/Products, which they see being a good fit for the business in the future, and how likely it is that they’ll incorporate more.
Are there others in the Salesforce team or will I be solo?
If you are seeking to learn from others around you, and the role is going to be a solo Admin, this is something to consider. Or you might prefer to be the go-to person. As an alternative to workplace peers to learn from if you in a solo role, you could always build yourself a network via User Groups or become more involved in the online Salesforce community. It doesn’t have to be a showstopper, but good to know upfront.
How many users does your org support?
This can vary so widely, and we feel that it gives you a really good understanding of what the organisation currently uses Salesforce for and gives a glimpse into how your days will likely be spent. A role is going to look very different with 5 users, versus 500.
How old is the implementation?
You might find a greenfield implementation either a challenge, or a refreshing opportunity to put your own stamp on it, without all of the sometimes difficult unpicking of a legacy system where the original team are no longer at the organisation to explain why things were built a certain way. Before you set your eyes on an org, asking some key questions will give you a bit of an idea as to how beautiful or how messy it currently is.
Has the implementation been developed over the course of the new releases regularly?
Are all of the new features which could be of benefit being utilised? Again, the answer here could excite you or make you feel that it’s not the right place for you, either because there’s no buy-in from the senior stakeholders, or because it’s all up to date, and you find it rewarding to transform orgs. Maybe it’s all optimised, and that makes you excited to be starting with a clean slate.
Do you use a Salesforce Partner to support your delivery of Salesforce projects?
This will impact your role because you’ll either be tasked with working on or leading Salesforce projects with an internal team or managing a project that a Partner has been brought in to help with. You could see this as a big plus being able to tap into knowledge that you don’t have yourself, or it could mean that you wouldn’t get to do the things that you love the most in a role.
Would there be a career path for me here to develop my skills towards another Salesforce role in the future?
Does the business have a big enough team for you to move into another Salesforce role as you develop your skills or would you need to move company when you get to that point? Are they open to creating a role for you as you progress in your experience and knowledge? If there have been others in the role before you, understanding how they have progressed could shed some light on this for you.
Will I be expected to code in my role?
And is coding something that you’re interested in or want to learn? Or you do already code and would be disappointed if you didn’t get the opportunity to code in this role. If you’ve invested time in learning, it might be something that you want to continue doing.
Do you work with offshore resources?
This question will give you an idea of many things, like are you working with different time zones, do you work effectively when the people you’re working alongside aren’t in the same room as you, how much does the organisation actually work with offshore resources? It might be on a project basis, or it could be ongoing.
How high is user adoption in the organisation, would you say?
It’s good to know what you’re walking into with this question so that you have an idea of how the platform fits in with the business. If it’s high, you might feel reassured that your work will be appreciated and that the rest of the business is on-board and understands what you’ll be achieving together. If it’s low, maybe you have tricks up your sleeve to transform user adoption, and it doesn’t put you off if people have a journey ahead of them with a little training.
Do the senior stakeholders actively support the Salesforce org in the organisation?
This sets the scene for a number of situations in the role, and it ties in with user adoption. If the answer is no, then you might find it a challenging thought if you’re used to making business cases for upgrades and the org you’re used to being very progressive. Likewise, it may not be important to you, or you might feel that you have experience in inspiring a leadership team.
Who currently has System Admin permissions in the organisation?
Believe it or not, some organisations allow users to make changes even if they’re not experienced configuring Salesforce, others only enable the Salesforce team itself to make changes. It’s useful to understand this one, to assess where the org might be and how the users interact with the team currently.
I’m interested in pursuing further development and certifications. Do you have a mentor programme in place and do you support certifications?
This may not matter to you at all, or it could be the most important question for you, depending on your personal goals. It could also open up a discussion around mentors in general, support for learning and whether the business pays for certifications. Often businesses won’t have a programme in place, but many just may not have thought of it or felt the need before. This can be an important attractor for certain people.
So, quite a comprehensive list, and not all will be relevant to you, but we hope it’s useful in your own job-seeking journey. We’d love to hear the questions that you find to be the most useful, and so feel free to share them in the comments section below.
We often share tips for job seekers on our Salesforce podcast channel, Talk Hub Talk. Make sure you give it a listen and don’t forget to subscribe to be alerted when a new episode has dropped!