Developing on Force.com – an obvious career path

This post aims to shed light on what it means to be a Salesforce Developer (a functional consultant's investigation). The ambition is to give you as complete a picture as possible, without being super detailed. Note, that while the points might be globally applicable, they are drawn from a Danish context. 

The structure of this post is as follows:

1. What is the Salesforce?2. What technology do you work with?3. Why is it awesome?4. What should you also know?5. Which companies you can work with/for?6. How can your career evolve?7. What can you expect from the workplace?8. Summary 

What is the Salesforce?
Salesforce is a 100% cloud-based company that provides a platform for respectively; CRM, Customer Service, Marketing, Analytics and IoT. They are the world's leading enterprise cloud provider with more than 100,000 customers and is valued at more than 50 billion dollars. Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff, and has since then built the world's largest B2B AppExchange. 

What technology do you work with?
Salesforce has its own platform (force.com). Architecture, as seen below, is a Multitenant cloud architecture, based on a relational database (SQL-like). Business logic can be configured declaratively or created using Salesforces own development language, APEX (similar to Java and C #). The UI can be configured via the standard elements, or custom built in Visual force (traditional MVC web UI) or Lightning (component-based Javascript Single Page Application UI). Everything by default has REST & SOAP APIs. The entire platform is available on your mobile with the Salesforce1 app.

Why is it awesome?

• You work with a platform that is rapidly evolving (3 automatic upgrades annually, always backwards-compatible)
• The actual area, Cloud, is one of those wherein we see the most advancements
• It is a homogeneous environment, making it easy to create something that works
• You are working with multiple layers in the stack: database, frontend UI, integrations, business logic, etc.
• Due to the broad spectrum, you have the opportunity to work with it you find exciting
• You often also get to work with system integrations, standards, distributed systems, etc.
• You get far, fast – and have a feeling of getting something done
• It is your analysis and your design that determines whether or not something is successful
• Documentation and help-articles are very comprehensive, so you can always find answers and get feedback
• 
  If you choose the consultant road, it means you will experience different environments, get experience quickly and establish a broad network

What you must also know?

• If you are used to Eclipse or Visual Studio, you will experience development tools that do not have the same level of intellisense and debugging features
• You don’t developer a completely new system, but rather more concrete tasks that demonstrates value quicker
• 
  Working close to the business – i.e. you come to understand the business better

Which companies you can work with/for?
In Denmark there are companies like MT H?jgaard, Lundbeck, Falck, CHR. Hansen, SimCorp, Telia, Berlingske Media, GN Resound and others, who are all using Salesforce in one or more of their departments. Looking to the international scene, we find companies like Activision, Barclays, Belkin, Canon, Coca Cola, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Delta Air Lines, Electronic Arts, Financial Times, Pernod Ricard, Philips, Spotify and many, many, many more of all forms and sizes.

How can your career evolve?
Salesforce has become so large that it makes sense to talk about both a vertical and a horizontal career path. The vertical one is easily identifiable if you use the certifications as milestones. You start as a "Developer" and after some time you will advance to "Senior Developer" (Advanced Developer). Then on top of that you can build "Architect" competences (Technical Architect). The horizontal path, however, gives the opportunity to specialize in backend (triggers, classes, etc.), Frontend UI (Visualforce) or even Mobile (Salesforce1, Lightning, App Builder). 

Of course, there is also the opportunity to do a little bit of it all. In relation to the entire Salesforce portfolio,  it appears that it will be possible to specialize in the development on the marketing Cloud (i.e. HTML, AmpScript, Mobile-First Emails, Landing Pages, etc.) and analytics (BI Tool, Data structure, Dashboards etc.) – However, it is too early to say anything concrete about what the last two implies. But it is clear that there are many opportunities when it comes to Salesforce Development.

What can you expect from the workplace?
This is of course influenced by the environment in Capgemini Sogeti Denmark, but our developers say there is virtually always a good mood and there is great collaboration between business analysts and developers. Everybody is very helpful – but of course it can sometimes be challenging to find time for face-to-face sparring, since there are not so many Salesforce developers in Denmark today (hint: there is virtually a job guarantee).

Summary
Being a Salesforce Developer allows you to work with different layers of the stack (database, business logic, UI, integrations, etc.), with a technology and platform that is rapidly evolving – and with great success. You can get out and work for consulting firms and large companies – both in Denmark and internationally. There is a clear career path for those who want this, and you can almost be 100% certain to land a the job.