Top 5 tips to Ace a Job Interview at Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com is one of the best cloud based CRM in the market.

It is honoured to be ranked on the FORTUNE “100 Best Companies To Work For®” list for the thirteenth year in a row. FORTUNE ranked Salesforce at #2 this year.

90% of employees at Salesforce say it is a great place to work compared to 59%of employees at a typical US-based company.

How does one get a job at Salesforce.com and more importantly how can one ACE their interview process? 

Interview Structure

Typically interviews at Salesforce.com have 3 or sometimes 4 rounds depending on the role.

1. Phone call with Recruiter
2. Interview with a technical person
3. Panel Interview with hiring manager and 1 or 2 technical people.
4. Final interview with Hiring Manager

Recruiter interview

The recruiter interview is the first screen interview. It is usually on the phone. You would received a call from human resource department to do an initial screening and they would then pass you to the next round.

Technical interview

The technical interview is usually with a developer if it is a engineer role or with an experienced sales person if it’s for a sales role. This interview is mainly to test your technical skills and they tend to do a deep dive into your career so far and the projects you have done to understand your skills better.

Panel interview

A Panel interview may contain 2 or 3 people including the hiring manager and engineers. They asses if you would be a cultural and team fit in this interview. The questions may be repeated from the 2nd interview but they would now want to test your problem solving skills. This one is a tough one but if you follow the 5 tips below, you have a good chance of acing it.

Final interview

The final interview is with the hiring manager and is usually to discuss details like joining date, notice period and an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have. This is mostly conducted if they have shortlisted 2 or 3 people for the role and still haven’t been able to decide. Stay confident and show how you would be a good fit for the role and company.

5 Tips to Remember

1. Be Genuine. In any circumstances when you try to portray an image that is not your authentic self, it is very evident. Salesforce.com prides itself for it’s Ohana culture and being your true self. So when in the interview just be real!
2. Know your Skills. The role you have applied for will specify in the job description what the required skills are. Ideally, your skillset should be proficient for the role and you are able to market your abilities when you are in the interview.
3. Let the interviewer guide you. There is a reason they are asking the questions that they ask. Think about the underlying reason for the question. It may be to assess specific knowledge. Or it may be to assess your decision-making process in certain scenarios.
4. Tap into Salesforce’s 4 Core Values. Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality. Exhibit that in your interviews.
5. Be Humble, but Confident. We all have unique characters that we have developed in our career journey’s but one thing to remember is that no one is irreplaceable. Even if you aren’t the right fit for the current role you may be a fit for another one.

Conclusion

Salesforce.com is pretty thorough in picking the right candidate to come work for them. They recommend one candidate to apply for no more than 3 roles in a year. Once you have applied through their portal, your details will be with them in their candidate’s pool. Even if you do not get hired for the role you applied for, if they find you may be good for another role, they will ring you.

Best of luck!