Smoke and Mirrors - Account Executive Salesforce Employee Review

1.0
10 Feb 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The Salesforce platform is amazing and so is the training that they provide that is usually onsite in San Francisco.

Cons

The "culture" at Salesforce is extremely toxic. Everything that they do is purely lip service. Their work life balance? There is none. Diversity, do they make diverse hires? Sure, are you welcome into the office? No. How do they keep getting such great reviews? Take a look at the reviews, most of them are from employees that are 6 months or less. Right after you attend training(which is great) you are sent a survey to rate them on Glassdoor. You are on a high from training and have no idea what you have gotten yourself into yet so you give them 5 stars. Fast forward if you are an AE you are given your territory that has generated virtually no revenue from the year before or was oversold by the previous rep(you are then stuck with handling customer service issues due to poor implementation) and a number that is impossible to reach. Multiple times a week you are required to have a 1:1 with your manager to go over this territory where you are trying to make lemons into lemonade. Nepotism and favoritism runs rampant here. They allow other employees who have "put in the work" aka been there the longest to get the best territories and therefore they are hitting their number and eligible for promotions. The irony of this is that they are also tasked with training new employees where they have the attitude of " pull yourself up by your bootstraps". They are little to virtually no help because Salesforce fosters an environment where you personally have to be #1. Anything or anybody that could interfere with that is seen as a threat.  I could go on about how terrible of an experience this was for me and I also recognize that this isn't everybody's experience as well. However I would be lying if I didn't cringe every time I see articles talking about their next initiative.

Explore other reviews about Salesforce

5.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing workplace culture Great benefits Great career growth pathways Favorite job of my entire career Great leadership

Cons

None. You work hard but it’s so worth it.

4.0
9 Jul 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I've spent over 8 years with Salesforce in various management and individual contributor roles, all customer or partner facing. Some of the pros: - vibrant, fast paced culture - smart, fun, aggressive colleagues - management is focused on latest tech trends and staying or becoming a leader for many of them - by and large, customers and partners are very positive about the technology - good benefits and perqs - hip urban culture at HQ - a chart-your-own-course mentality that rewards those who aggressively seek out the job they want and pursue it, or sometimes even create it

Cons

After my long tenure and many Dreamforce conferences, I'm nearly fried. To say the culture is fast paced and the focus is always changing is an understatement. The reason Salesforce always seems on top, and chasing the latest trend, and in the press, is because employees are expected to run harder, carry more, cheer loudly, and pivot constantly. It's the world's biggest startup in behavior. But at the same time, with the recent influx of top career sales leaders from Oracle and what appears to be a board-level mandate for doubling revenue, employees are being asked to do even more with even less, fill higher quotas with smaller territories, less help, and the big company bureaucracy is rearing it's ugly head. Worse still is the politics. When you hire a bunch of smart, aggressive people, and put them in an environment of outsized expectations, throw in a bunch of re-orgs and changing management, and sprinkle with uncertainty and constantly changing priorities, you inevitably get people back stabbing each other and throwing others under the bus to appear smarter and more worthy of promotion. The few at the top will get very, very rich. The rest will lose the sense of personal ownership and start to wonder why they've given up health and family

782
avatar
Salesforce Response
1y
It's not often that you get the opportunity to respond to a review 10 years in but your comprehensive and thoughtful review has managed to hold on as one of our most popular even a decade in :) It’s exciting to see that the things we love most about the Salesforce of today — super smart colleagues, being at the forefront of tech trends and establishing ourselves as leaders in the space, great benefits and perks to name a few — haven’t changed in the past 10 years. We acknowledge the challenges you faced, such as the pace, shifting priorities, and internal politics. Your advice on maintaining our foundational vision while avoiding big-company bureaucracy is helpful as we continue to grow as the #1 AI CRM. Salesforce is committed to balancing growth with employee well-being and staying true to our core values. We appreciate your insights and dedication over the years. Thanks again for your feedback!
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All