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How to interview for Salesforce talent

March 6, 2020

Not gonna lie, I’ve made a few really questionable hires over the years.

I fell into the trap of mediocre interviewing – yes as the person conducting the interview!

I’d put way too much stock in a person’s certifications and I’d ask a lot of the common, mediocre questions, like, What’s the difference between a lookup and master-detail relationship?

The problem with these type of questions is it’s too easy to prepare for them. You end up testing someone’s memorization rather than their critical thinking skills. Just like certifications.

But even though I was a horrible interviewer, I knew I could really tell the quality of someone’s skill once I actually started working together with them on a project.

So that’s how I recommend interviewing people now: build something, together! Make it like an actual brainstorming meeting you’d have with a colleague for that spicy new feature. Example:

Google Interview – Part #1 – Data Modeling

DON’T Ask This: What’s the difference between a Lookup and a Master-Detail relationship?
Ask This Instead: Let’s build a Salesforce app to manage user reviews on Google Play Apps.

  • What objects should we use (custom, standard)?
  • How should we relate them (lookup, master-detail)?
  • How can we scale to 100M reviews (data skew, indexing, archiving, etc)?

Google Interview – Part #2 – Automation

DON’T Ask This: When would you use a Process Builder versus a Trigger?
Ask This Instead: We need to indicate if an app’s overall reviews are trending up or down.

  • Where should we store this info and how do we calculate it?
  • How can we make it easy to change our algorithm in the future?
  • What tests should we have to make sure our algorithm works?

Google Interview – Part #3 – Integrations

DON’T Ask This: When you would use the Salesforce REST API versus the Bulk API?
Ask This Instead: Let’s work with another team that will sync user reviews to our Salesforce org.

  • What API should we recommend they use (REST, custom REST, Bulk, etc)?
  • How should the app authenticate (web server flow, user-agent, JWT?)?
  • How can we scale to 100M reviews (initial load, parent sort, etc)?

You’ll want to find your own open ended scenario that mimics projects in your org. And if you build it right, no one can study for it – a candidate can only draw on their own experience and ingenuity.

As for the questions above, they may or may not be questions I actually ask in the interview 😜

David

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