Salesforce.com Reviews

Pros

- Stable company with high growth
- Good business model in an innovative area
- Decisions are business, not engineering driven

Cons

- Compensation could be better: Stock incentives are surprisingly hard to come by; the word from management is that the company doesn't have much stock to distribute at this point despite the CEO supposedly owning 10% of the company. Maybe he could sell some back and share the wealth?

- Top management communications often hypocritical: close to half the year employees are blacked out from trading shares, yet Sr. management seems to be immune to the rule. In 2010, senior management continued to trade literally millions of shares throughout the year ignoring any "blackouts" imposed on the rest of the staff -- ever heard of "practice what you preach"? Also, HQ growth/relocation survey was merely a meaningless gesture--it was clear from followup activities that the new campus decision had already been made (despite the majority of employees preferring other options)

- Sense of entitlement among more seasoned staff, greater effort of newer staff is not rewarded according to contribution

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees fairly and with respect, you could be surprised at the results!

Pros

Great product, great company culture

Cons

people management is rather tiring

Pros

Growing company with lots of opportunity for employee growth. I got to work with smart, motivated people in a cutting edge industry. The foundation is great, and the importance of CSR is really felt throughout the company.

Cons

not a whole lot here.

Advice to Senior Management

make sure you recognize how hard people work. this is a great place to work, but you will earn your paycheck for sure.

Pros

Great leadership, great experience, great learning environment.

Cons

Growing time to promotion/desired career path.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep on doing what you're doing.

Pros

+ great benefits package
+ excellent middle management
+ great salary
+ world class sales training and lots of it
+ best products, very innovative and high quality

Cons

- constant pressure to overachieve
- many people going after limited openings
- intense scrutiny of work / performance
- high risk of getting stuck in a role that you have outgrown
- people are held back unnecessarily
- stress / possible burnout

Advice to Senior Management

Give your employees the opportunities and options they deserve. Or find ways to make interim roles more exciting / satisfying.

Pros

This is the best software companies that I've worked for during my career as a software QA. I like the fact that everyone is very open to suggestions and ideas, management is willing to listen to you and help you advance your careers, and promotions do happen often as well as bonuses. They have great benefits and they are willing to offer you commute benefits to cut down your commute costs. I think this company treats their employees really well. QA are especially very well respected within the R&D unlike other software companies where QA doesn't have much of a say in big decisions. QA gets to be involved with the design early on, gets to automate and improve your technical skills. Also they allow you the flexibility to switch teams if you'd like to work on different teams.

Cons

Their R&D is mainly in San Francisco so the commute can be a pain if you commute from the South Bay.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work. I like the fact that managers can grow their employees to become managers as well as technical leads.

Pros

Leader in Saas market - created market
Great PR machine
Products customers use and endorse
Fast-paced environment, lots of change

Cons

This is the most political workplace I've ever worked at, and I've been at a bunch of companies. Always have to watch your back - people are so ambitious they will step over anyone on their way up.
People managers are not expected in any way to coach or grow their teams - it's all about their own career, and it shows.
Promotions have no merit - it's who has the political connections
Constant reshuffling of priorities by senior management
All this explains the high turnover at the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Make it a requirement of your managers to actually manage people as opposed to just use them to grow them own careers. This is no way for a company to continue growing if it doesn't invest in its own people.

Pros

In the right industry at the right time
Some great products
Excellent at self promotion

Cons

This is more like a cult than a corporation. You are either a carbon copy of the ideal employee or you are out. Much bullying and intimidation by middle management.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees with respect. Encourage honest feedback even if it is not what you want to hear. Value your employees.

Pros

Great office, lots of amenities. Perks like gym memberships and the ability to work from home.

Cons

Insane workloads and expectations by management. Overtime is essentially required in order to meet quotas. Management makes a lot of lip service about work/life balance but it doesn't exist. Middle-management are all yes men who drink the company Kool-Aid and never listen to employee feedback. Management is usually head down into reports rather than actually working with their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your employees feedback more consideration.

Pros

Constant innovation and thoughtful approach to corporate culture. Salesforce.com has built their company with the best and brightest employees in the industry.

Cons

Growth creates a culture and organization filled with constant change.There is general environment where you aren't allowed flexibility to work from home leading to feelings that their is a lack of trust between the employee and manager to act professionally.