I learnt about Salesforce at a hiring event in Germany. I applied at Salesforce right after this event by sending my CV to the HR rep from the event, he forwarded it to Dublin.
1) HR Guy 1 - Phone Interview No 1
It was mostly about why I wanted to work at Salesforce and a description of the role I applied for - basic HR stuff. In Dublin, foreigners can only work in Solution Engineering or Customer Success during the Graduate Program (GP).
2) HR Guy 2 - Phone Interview No 2
This interview was like the first interview. He tried to make sure I would know what the different roles are that I can apply for and would then ask me what role I’d like to apply for. He would then arrange an interview with a manager from the solution engineering department for me. He told me I would have an interview with a manager within the next week. We agreed on a day but he wanted to ask the manager for a specific time on that day – to make sure she would be available. Well, he didn’t send me an email for two months for no reason. I sent him several emails asking for a day for the next interview – no reply. I then contacted the guy from the hiring event (who happens to be the EU HR boss for the GP). After reaching out to him, I immediately got a call from HR Guy 2. He wasn’t sorry, just forwarded me to his colleague who finally arranged an appointment with a manager. All of the sudden everything had to happen very fast, ignoring that I wouldn’t really have time at the moment because of exams.
3) Manager interview – Phone Interview No 3
Great interview. She asked me a few questions about my CV, my prior experience and a lot of situational questions. Make sure to know what Salesforce does and what products they offer!
4) Onsite-interviews
We were roughly 20 people for the onsite interview.
4.1 Case
We had to solve a case in groups of five. We received the case a few days prior to the interview. Everyone got the same case and we had to consolidate our results during the on-site interview. It was easy to see who applied just for fun and who really wanted the job because some people simply show up with almost nothing. The case was easy and fun to solve. I created a demo account on Salesforce’s website and made an app and a web demo tailored to the case. Super easy to make and super fun to present as a live demo. It was highly appreciated because no one else did it. By doing that, you really get a feeling for what a Solution Engineer would do.
4.2 Interview
Both interviews were great. I had the honor to get interviewed by someone who was one of the first 20 employees at Salesforce (he has been at salesforce for ~18 years). We had a very interesting chat about the future of Salesforce, tech companies, future markets and IT technologies in general.
4.3 interview
My interviewer was a lot younger compared to my first interviewer and wanted to know something about my business acumen.
At the end of the on-site interviews, HR Guy 2 told us that we would get feedback after two weeks because all information would have to be approved by HR in California. It took longer than 2 weeks, not a big problem but they should have told us that it takes longer.
I then got an offer and was surprised by how bad it was. 36000 + 5% bonus – for a GP (only Master students)! Considering that we would live in Dublin, taxes wouldn’t be that high but living expenses are extremely high.
Additionally, the GP that Salesforce offers is changing quite often so you don’t really know what you get and don’t really know how long it takes to get promoted (everything was really vague and fuzzy). However, I still wanted to work at Salesforce because of the great ppl I met in Dublin. Additionally, I had the feeling that the GP wouldn’t last for too long (it is not officially stated anywhere I think?), so I wanted to give it a shot.
I was about to sign the contract but there was one thing left to discuss: health insurance. Turns out health insurance is very different in different European countries. This is where HR Guy 2 messed up in my opinion. I asked for the phone number of the health insurance company to discuss the coverage. HR Guy 2 said he would ask people at Salesforce regarding my treatment and wouldn’t give me the phone number of the insurance company. Nothing happened for roughly 2 months. I asked what is going on and if he would need any further information. He said he would reach out to me within the next week - nothing happened for another month. He finally came back to me saying I should call the health insurance on my own and solve the problem on my own he gave me the number provided on the website of the health insurance & he wanted to know if I take the offer within the next week because they would have to consider other candidates otherwise. Impossible because the health insurance would need some time evaluate my info.
I then applied at Google, got an offer and they solved the health insurance issue within 3 days!