The End of the Salesforce Careers... (As we Know it)

[00:00:00]In 2024, I wrote an article called The End of an Era for easy Salesforce jobs.

[00:00:04]This was one of our most popular post ever on Salesforce band and it clearly struck a chord with the community. The article focused on Salesforce candidate saturation, layoffs, and a weak outlook for Salesforce professionals. [music] But in 2026, the world economies and the tech job market are in unprecedented territory [music] and AI is still very much at the heart of it. Is this shift going to save Salesforce professionals or are we going to see the end of Salesforce careers as we know it?

[00:00:31]There's no sugar coating it. Salesforce careers have declined in various forms since the peak of a post-COVID remote world in 2021. This year, technology layoffs reported by layoffs.fyi are going to surpass 1 million. 2024 wasn't exactly a blip. It was a sign of things to come.

[00:00:49]Do more with less, an AI revolution, and a renewed focus on profit over revenue growth [music] after the super pumped grow or cost era of Uber, Amazon, and Meta. According to our own internal surveys, 89% of Salesforce professionals say the market is more challenging, up 2% from the prior year, and 42% of professionals who have changed jobs [music] saw their salary decrease up to 7% from the previous year. But the most alarming statistics have been reported for years and this is what I'm most worried about for Salesforce professionals. According to 10K's annual Salesforce ecosystem career report, demand for Salesforce professionals dropped 37% in 2024, but the supply of professionals grew by 19%. Last year, we see a slight rebound, an 8% increase in demand, but a 27% supply of increase of professionals. As per 10K's report, at the end of last year, the saturation of Salesforce professionals stands at 330%.

[00:01:46]>> [music] >> So, the supply of Salesforce professionals is 3.3 times the number of jobs available. Although we don't have any real-time statistics on [music] this, based on the world economy and layoffs continuing, I would imagine this number is much higher. Although Salesforce career bootcamps continue to sell the lie that anyone without experience can get a career in Salesforce, there is absolutely no data to support this. [music] The Salesforce ecosystem went through a period where specialists were not required. I was hired as part of a graduate cohort in a Salesforce consultancy back in 2012. We learned Salesforce in a few weeks and we were put on projects.

[00:02:20]>> [music] >> My first demo to a client a few weeks into the job was one where I set up a few fields, basic information, and voila, the customer was, I think, very [music] happy. The harsh reality that some Salesforce professionals do not want to hear is that it was very easy [music] to get a job as a Salesforce professional for a period of time.

[00:02:36]Although Salesforce was a relatively simple platform to administer, it was a niche platform that required a few weeks of training to learn the basics. There is another word for this, arbitrage, the practice of capitalizing on a temporary market shift to turn a profit. [music] The thing about arbitrage is that the gap is always filled. The market is efficient, and all temporary moments of capitalization are eventually filled.

[00:02:58]>> [music] >> In this case, it was the saturation of Salesforce professionals in a rapidly changing Salesforce market that demanded very different skills. [music] If you feel like the world is crumbling at the moment, you are not alone. As my colleague Henry covered in the midlife crisis of a [music] Salesforce professional article, it's not just professionals that are feeling the pinch. Businesses across the world are grappling with war, inflation, cost of living, and a rapidly changing market. But whatever salary and career progression you may have been promised by your employer, Salesforce, or a career bootcamp is not one that can be kept in 2026. If you put the world economy to the side for the moment, there are a few interesting takeaways to be reminded of. Demand for Salesforce admins increased 14% last year, >> [music] >> offset with a 47% increase in supply.

[00:03:43]Technical architect demand rose 27% with supply only increasing by 4%, >> [music] >> and solution architect demand increased by 21% but developers declined by 12% with a supply increase of 20. Although these give us some high-level ideas of what the market looks like, the key thing to remember is that Salesforce roles are vast and varied. You may look at stats for a Salesforce admin and think, "Fantastic, my job's safe." But remember, Salesforce admins come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. A junior Salesforce admin supporting a large team is not the same as a platform owner, CRM manager, or VP of business systems that this also may fall under. The architect story is none surprising one. Salesforce and interconnecting systems have got exponentially more complicated in recent years and the [music] statistics show that they are more in demand than ever.

[00:04:33]Salaries are also still very attractive for architects, averaging around $165,000 for an SA [music] and $192,000 for a TA as per our latest Salesforce Bend Salary Survey.

[00:04:45]But developers saw a shocking 12% decline in demand with a supply increase of 20%. Developers were once the golden child of the Salesforce ecosystem.

[00:04:54]Whilst admin roles were relatively easy to secure, developers mostly required a university degree or a lot of hands-on experience. And the debate of whether AI is going to replace developers and democratize writing code in the form of vibe coding will continue until there is a point of critical inflection. But with OpenAI and Anthropic pumping billions of dollars to create cheap developer agents and the world of vibe coding already starting to make an effect on the market, I can only see one viable option. The cost of development and coding will be driven down. Whilst a team of developers may have been required to run a large enterprise org, a single developer generating and reviewing code from other roles in the team may suffice. It's very hard not to be cynical in 2026. We are rapidly heading towards a cyberpunk world with AI algorithms and a bleak physical environment. My article in early 2024 was mainly a response to the narrative that was being pushed by Salesforce bootcamps at the time. [music] I saw the grift that was taking place and thought it was time for someone to put the record straight.

[00:05:55]>> [music] >> But the huge bonus for everyone viewing this video is that AI has been a big part of our lives for coming up to 4 years. We've gone through the prompt engineering era. We've seen the benefits of switching from ChatGPT to Claude, and some of us will have implemented Agent Force, gone through pilots, delivered ROI, or possibly not. We are all in this together, and we are at the forefront of this new technological revolution. So, what is the secret to navigating your Salesforce career in 2026 and beyond?

[00:06:25]In my opinion, data. [music] The statistics and links in this video will give you a head start in understanding the Salesforce job market, but that is a tiny slice of what you actually need to understand. Businesses only have a limited IT budget to invest, >> [music] >> and a huge chunk of that budget, if not all of it, was dedicated towards cloud computing and digital transformation over the past 10-plus years. These are the budgets that Salesforce built their business on, and you have grown your career on up until [music] this point.

[00:06:52]But this is changing. CIOs are looking to replace existing systems with AI.

[00:06:57]>> [music] >> AI budgets are being carved directly out of traditional enterprise SaaS spend. A January 2026 CIO survey found that around 40% of AI budgets are coming straight out of existing software line items rather than new money. Salesforce will, probably, always be a huge part of the enterprise technology world. It's not going to get Vibe caught in the way, and it remains a core part of most people's businesses. But when budgets are now being routed to AI and agent infrastructure, as well as to the people that can connect AI capabilities to business outcomes, the Salesforce professionals who are best positioned for 2026 are the ones who attach themselves to the AI budget. Our team has always tried our best to guide Salesforce professionals through their career, and whilst our advice is usually centered around developing new skills on the Salesforce platform, my specific advice on that topic is now changing. If we thought the last 5 years have been a roller coaster, the next 5 years could see an unprecedented change in the way that software is used, the roles required to implement and maintain those systems, and how the developments in AI will affect our world way beyond the Salesforce ecosystem.

[00:08:04]>> [music]