Why 50% of Salesforce Roles Were Hired Internally in Q1 and What This Means

For professionals looking to enter the Salesforce ecosystem or advance their careers, the job market has been anything but favorable over the last three years. With challenges like heavy saturation, the erosion of entry-level positions, and companies scaling back or restructuring, for many, finding a Salesforce job across all roles has been tremendously difficult.

Suppose you have ever wanted to work for the CRM giant itself. In that case, your chances may now be even slimmer, as Salesforce has revealed that 50% of jobs within the company during Q1 were hired internally – signalling a shift in hiring strategies. 

The Salesforce Hiring Landscape in 2025

After a pandemic boom, a post-pandemic crash, and now a slow, determined revival effort, the Salesforce hiring landscape remains shaky at best. 10K, a leading Salesforce consulting firm, revealed last year that although the disparity between supply and demand of Salesforce professionals was still significant (19% and 37% respectively), the gap between the two figures was shrinking. One of the first quantifiable signs of reaching a job market equilibrium had started to emerge. 

However, this did not mean that professionals were finding it any easier to secure an elusive Salesforce job. In fact, according to our first salary survey, 87% of respondents admitted that they’ve felt that the market has been more challenging recently than before. 

Over the past few months, it has become increasingly difficult to understand the state of the Salesforce job market, especially as some experts have reported on the first signs of a resurgence, while others have maintained that this is simply not the case. 

For example, experiences across the UK and the US differ substantially, as well as in India, where certain regions have recently benefited from the rising trend of offshoring. 

Among all this, it’s also important to consider how the rise of AI and the subsequent shift of priorities in AI’s direction have also affected the market. Salesforce itself has marched full steam ahead with its AI efforts and AI hiring, with positions such as Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Research Scientist, and Technical AI Architect currently available. However, these are positions directly from the CRM giant itself and represent only a tiny fraction of the market. 

One thing is definitely for certain: the market has changed, and both professionals and Salesforce are obliged to acknowledge this. Dorian Sabitov, a Salesforce Consultant and Editor-in-Chief of SFApps.info, says that “every announcement of changes from Salesforce often signals new job opportunities,” but that this is often not the case.

“From my perspective, the introduction of new technologies necessitates either new professionals or the upskilling of existing ones,” he said. “Consequently, as the market for solutions expands, the job market should also grow. However, the reality of finding Salesforce-related jobs isn’t as promising as we once thought.”

Salesforce Is Hiring Internally: What You Need to Know

Last month, Nathalie Scardino, Chief People Officer at Salesforce, announced that in Q1 this year, half of the available roles filled by Salesforce were through internal applications. A notable component in this process was Career Connect – Salesforce’s internal talent marketplace. 

Career Connect, according to Nathalie, allows existing Salesforce employees to “reskill” in other areas in order to find new roles. The aim of the platform is to “help employees gain new experiences and skills, encourage internal mobility, and retain top talent,” according to Salesforce. Of course, it is AI-powered.

“We receive about two million applications a year to join Salesforce and haven’t had the human bandwidth to be able to assess all of those applications and resumes,” said Nathalie. “We’re now leveraging agents at the very top of the funnel to help us do that.”

In addition to Career Connect, Salesforce has also introduced its Workforce Innovation team, who are poised to understand which jobs will be redesigned, how people can reskill, and how Salesforce can redeploy its talent.

It is evident that as Salesforce restructures to meet the growing AI innovations and demands, it has placed a lot of focus on internal progression and hiring, likely due to retaining talent, cost effectiveness, as well as speed and agility. All major facets to consider when you’re well into rolling out an initiative like Agentforce. 

What About AI Displacement? 

A lot of focus around Salesforce’s internal hiring centers around “redeploying” and “reassigning” jobs. We have heard about this before in April, when Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff revealed that half of Salesforce’s 9,000 customer support agents could be redeployed. 

However, as AI continues to develop and more experts in the field begin to both weigh in and take action with AI in regards to replacing human jobs, it might reasonably be predicted that the use of AI in Salesforce could replace jobs. Although Salesforce’s marketing leans heavily on the notion of humans and AI working together, we must also consider the real possibility of more and more jobs being lost to AI.

How much of the internal reassignment is linked to this remains unclear. 

Why Is This Important?

Salesforce’s reasons for hiring internally perfectly align with its current company motivations, so it’s no surprise that they’re trying to utilize as much of that talent as they can. For one, it’s much cheaper to hire internally as it cuts out a lot of recruiting costs (in both time and money), which is a huge consideration when a lot of money is being funnelled into other areas.

Furthermore, working with reskilled internal candidates almost guarantees that they get up to speed with processes and projects faster, helping Salesforce to stay competitive. Not to mention the fact that internal applicants are also more likely to understand Salesforce’s values and understand its strategic direction – critical during transformative initiatives.

Perhaps most interestingly, it leans into the notion that Salesforce is indeed maturing – it is considering cost effectiveness and likely has a robust internal talent pipeline. Instead of relying on external talent to fill the gaps and spending wherever possible to obtain this (especially as role demands increase), they are turning inwards. 

I Don’t Work For Salesforce… Can I Still Get Hired?

With all of these different aspects in mind, it must be said that although Salesforce has made internal hiring a priority, it does not mean that hiring externally has stalled. In Q1, 50% of roles were hired internally – but 50% were hired externally too. 

However, this can be seen as an additional barrier to securing employment with Salesforce itself, meaning that applicants will need to be even more aware of the need to stand out. External candidates may need to demonstrate unique expertise, experiences, or a deeper understanding of the company’s products, culture, and values in order to do this.

This comes at an unfortunate time, especially as professionals have been citing job demands as “too much”, with one person saying: “I wonder how a person is expected to do and know so much – it’s so exhausting.” 

Finding a way in now is likely to involve an interesting blend of networking and standing out with the relevant, in-demand skills (the what you know). As Khero Witey, the Associate Vice President of Third Republic, says, networking is the “only hope.”

“You’re more likely to get a chance if someone knows you and/or has met you.”

Networking, upskilling, and developing your personal brand have never been more important than it is right now, especially if you’re hoping to land a job at Salesforce. However, it’s crucial to remember that there will always be opportunities in Salesforce’s partner ecosystem, with some promising results that have emerged over the last year. 

For example, 10K reported that in 2024, the number of Salesforce consulting partners rose by 20% year-on-year, totalling nearly 3,000 partners. 

Salesforce also predicts that its partner ecosystem will create 9.3M new jobs by 2026, so options are and will be very much out there despite the tumultuous nature of the market.

Final Thoughts

Salesforce’s internal hiring efforts represent two key things: the company is focused on mature goals that factor in cost-effectiveness, implementation speed, and product cohesion, and nurturing internal employee mobility is a decisive focus.

This is not to suggest that landing a job at Salesforce is suddenly impossible for external candidates – at present, it appears that the split in hiring may be 50/50. However, it does mean that professionals will need to be deliberate and creative in their approaches if this is on the radar, emphasizing networking with existing professionals and developing relevant skills.

If you have read any of my previous content on the job market, then much of this advice will not be new to you. Marketing yourself as an asset is key to landing any Salesforce job, but especially with the CRM giant itself.