Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%Finally, Apex tutorials for point-and-click admins! Written by a self-taught Google engineer.
Salesforce coding lessons for the 99%
Preface: this post is part of The Definitive Salesforce Careers Guide series.
Your Salesforce resume is only living up to 10% of its potential!
Try this: save a copy of your current resume. Then, remake the exact same resume using every tip in this post. It won’t be easy. When you’re done, compare the resumes side by side. Night and day!
I know this will work because I’ve read literally thousands of Salesforce resumes and less than 5% of people really get it right. But don’t be too hard on yourself – my resume sucked too until I was put into a position to hire Salesforce professionals. Once you’re on the other side your eyes are opened!
Rule #1: Have at least three Salesforce certifications
In the current era of Salesforce, there are no excuses for having less than three certifications.
There are over 20 different Salesforce certifications and on average I see at least three certifications per resume these days. Ideally, you’d have at least five.
If you need help getting certified or you’re not sure which ones to get, read my Certifications Guide.
P.S. if you have more than 50 Trailhead badges, put that on your resume too.
Rule #2: Specifically add Lightning as a skill
Even though most orgs are still on Salesforce Classic, almost all are planning to migrate to Lightning.
That means you either already know Lightning, or the company will have to train you. Your Lightning experience now has a huge premium and it’s something you must specifically call out.
Rule #3: Put your best material on the top of your resume
Fact: Hiring managers will judge your resume in less than 10 seconds.
It’s unfair but it’s true. The only part of your resume that’s guaranteed to be read is the first sentence.
Have a ton of certifications? Put the certification section first. Went to a great school? Put that up top. Won some interesting awards or worked for a nice brand name company? Straight to the top!
This applies to each subsection too. The very first bullet point for each job should be its best.
Rule #4: For each org you’ve worked on, include the number of users
There are few objective measures in this industry that’ll give recruiters insight on your Salesforce knowledge. Your user count is one of them.
Generally, having experience in Salesforce orgs with more users is a good thing. You get exposed to more Salesforce features and challenges that smaller orgs never see.
For example, larger orgs are more likely to use features like the Translation Workbench. Admins in larger orgs are also more likely to have experience solving performance issues using indexing.
You can still stand out if you don’t have experience in a small org. For example, you can highlight that you’re a solo admin and thus have experience as the decision maker in an org.
Regardless, different companies are looking for people with different backgrounds. Include your user counts to let them know where you stand.
Rule #5: For each org you’ve worked on, tell one interesting fact about it
Companies want to hire people who have solved interesting problems. It’s boring seeing resume after resume where candidates just say they implemented Process Builders for Sales Cloud.
Tell me a story. Make me believe you were part of something special. Was your org featured at Dreamforce? Does it have an abnormally large amount of integrations? Does the CEO log in every day? Did you max out your storage limits?!
These are the tidbits recruiters love to share with their colleagues as they hype up your interview!
Rule #6: Include specific AppExchange app experience
Every org uses AppExchange apps. And if a company sees you have experience with an app they use, it’s a strong indicator of a fit. Plus, it’s one less thing they’d have to train.
Including the names of apps you’ve worked with is an easy way to get free resume brownie points!
Rule #7: Tweak your resume to match the job description
Your resume should be different for each job you’re applying for.
Find the keywords that are used in the job description and make sure to include the exact same keywords in your resume.
Does the job description mention “reports” often? Splatter the word across your resume!
This gives recruiters confidence that you’re a match, and, it especially helps if they’re using technology to bubble up candidates.
Rule #8: Use a lot of numbers to show impact
At least half of your bullet points should have some number in it.
Many resumes say something like this: Improved efficiency by building XYZ
Improve that same bullet by saying this: Improved efficiency by 25% by building XYZ
If you don’t have any metrics around your contributions… are you sure you really improved things?
Regardless, start tracking metrics in all your projects from now on. If you really don’t have any metrics for a past project, estimate it.
Rule #9: Only use @gmail.com email addresses
I’m not biased, this is just how things are. People will assume you’re not up to date with technology.
Rule #10: Keep your resume under one page long
Fact: people will read more words in your resume if it’s less than a page long.
Brains instantly shut off when they see a lot of text. Heck, I’d be surprised if you’ve even read this far.
If you’re applying for a job in the USA and you don’t manage more than 40 people, you absolutely should have a one page resume. Mine certainly is.
Some tips for keeping your resume under one page:
Whew! That’s a lot to take in!
We’re going to analyze some real Salesforce resumes to make sure this all sinks in.
Hope you enjoyed!
Next post: Salesforce resume analysis #1: Mid Career Professional!
Thanks for all this info though some more examples would be great – also is there a sample resume you can share?
Something I may add that I’ve found to help in the past is to use your LinkedIn profile instead of a standard resume. Format your LinkedIn as you would a resume, and use the “create pdf” function. This way, as long as you have a clean profile, it will come with recommendations, work history, etc. this also shows you are transparent with your social presence and it’s one less place for a potential employer to “look you up” since it’s in front of them.
If you choose to not use LinkedIn, I’m a fan of color resumes with your photo. I work for a staffing company and nearly every resume looks the same. Do something that will make a recruiter stop and look for an extra second or two. The risk with this is folks could be colorblind so keep that in mind when building, but a little color or flare could make the difference
Not sure I understand your comment on Rule #9
Rule #9: Only use @gmail.com email addresses
…People will assume you’re not up to date with technology.
If I use my own domain name as in me@mydomain.com hiring managers won’t think I know about technology?
Don’t worry you’re good! I was mainly referring to @yahoo @comcast etc emails.
the email domain also tells the age group / generation ( aol.com -> yahoo.com ->gmail.com )
My resume is two pages. I always worry if I completely remove old jobs even if they aren’t very relevant that people will think I just started off my career and assume I’m too young. As I get more years of Salesforce experience this is less of a concern but still something that worries me. What are your thoughts?
PS – I have 5 certs and 120 Trailhead badges and I’ve gotten positive feedback on both of those things. So I second those tips!
I commonly see people group up their previous jobs like this:
Various tech related jobs (2002-2010)
This works because it shows you have a lot of experience without forcing a ton of detail on relatively irrelevant / outdated info!
I like that approach. I’ll try it out in the future. Thank you!
I did something similar for my past sales jobs. So at least they saw I had experience in business, process and sales just didn’t need to kill them with irrelevant detail, it went over well
Hey David, thanks for another excelent piece of info. Recently a recruiter contacted me for a position as a senior developer for a consultancy company and they asked me why my CV was so minimalist that fit under 1 page and why did I pour in many numbers, in the end I got the job but I found interesting the contrast between what they expected to receive in the CV and what I presented trying to follow your advice. Could it be that certain types of business are more likely to be old fashioned about CV’s?
Hahaha congrats on getting the job, I guess it worked! =)
Different places have different norms. Generally, 1 page is the way to go but a certain company might want a longer resume. In that case follow rule #7 with a custom resume!
What I usually do is say I like minimalism and keep it short, but if they wanna test my skills we can discuss about any topic to vanish their doubts.
After 1h of phone questions(since they were doubtful about many technologies listed but not specified what kind of projects I was in) they were convinced :D.
Thanks David. Keep rocking and providing so much value content. Really appreciated, thanks to some of your posts on career salesforce + what i’ve told them some friends are considering start learning salesforce.
=)
Hi David, can you please send me your sample resume.Thanks
Maybe I’ll do this in a future post if there’s interest =)
Hi David, Can you please adapt #4, #5 and #6 for those of us who do not have any Salesforce/CRM experience and are just starting on this journey? I have 30+ years of work experience to offer, one certification and a whole lot of desire to learn.
You want to do the same thing, but from a different perspective.
For example, if you’ve used other CRMs (as an end user or admin) you can put similar stats on your resume.
If you really have no relevant experience, list out some of your personal projects that involved Salesforce. For example, you can say you built a private Salesforce org using Lightning to track your day to day expenses.
Hey, the information provided is very helpful and provides ample insight for people like me out there in the market. Very impressed with this information and looking forward for more.
Thanks! Good luck out there!