There are an abundance of opportunities in the market for experienced Salesforce professionals, but that doesn’t mean that you should underestimate the importance of being well prepared for each and every interview that you attend.
Often you only get one opportunity to impress a potential employer so here are our tips to ensure that you give yourself the best possible chance of success in each interview.
Understand what the hiring manager is actually looking for
It is important that you go into any meeting with a good understanding of what the hiring manager is actually seeking, not just the job title of the role.
You should either have a job description to review or a Recruitment Consultant that you can ask. If for any reason the Recruitment Consultant doesn’t have the information you need, draft some questions for them so that they can go and find out before you meet their client.
Note down some examples of the work you have done, that is going to be useful to the hiring manager
It sounds obvious but it’s surprising how many times we speak to a Salesforce professional after an interview and they remember a past achievement that would have been worth highlighting in the interview, yet they had forgotten due to interview nerves etc.
If you know that the hiring manager is looking to integrate to a specific payment gateway, use an Appexchange product or tool that you have used before, or build a product for an industry that you have past experience with – make sure you write down your knowledge and achievements and take them along on a notepad.
Research the company
We are pretty sure that everyone checks a companies website before they go for an interview but that isn’t enough these days.
We advise that you check company social channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook etc) to get a feel for the culture of the business. You should also check LinkedIn company pages, hashtags, Google news… basically, anywhere that information is stored online about a business.
Take a look at Glassdoor but as with any review based platform, be prepared to make your own opinion rather than being potentially misled by aggrieved past employees who could have worked in a completely different area of the business.
Research the hiring manager
Maybe not as thoroughly as you stalked the business (or at least don’t tell the hiring manager) but you should go into the interview with a good understanding of:
- The hiring managers role, how long they have been with the business and who is in their team
- Where they have worked before and if they have worked with anyone you know
- Professional groups that they are in or where they may post work-related content
- Potentially any interests that you share
Be confident and be honest
If all of the information in your resume is correct (Side note – IT SHOULD BE), then you should go into the interview with confidence. There was enough information on the resume for the hiring manager to believe that you are potentially a fit for their role so be confident, build rapport and be honest if they ask a question that you cannot answer.
Honesty is always the best policy and you won’t believe how many people ruin their chances of securing a role by panicking and attempting to answer a question they know nothing about. Simply saying “I haven’t worked with X,Y,Z but I would love to get some experience in that space and I am very willing to learn” will always go down better than claiming to know something that you don’t.
Are you wondering how many interviews you can expect to have for your next Salesforce role? We asked the hiring managers for you! You can find out the data and more, from the insights in our most recent survey.
What’s more, we’re giving away a trip to Dreamforce in San Francisco again this year, and so make sure you find out how you could WIN and read all about our 2018 winner, Santhosh, in our Winner announcement post.