There has never been a better time to be a Salesforce developer

We spoke with Sarah Franklin, senior vice president of developer relations and general manager of Trailhead at Salesforce, about a report released on the size of and job opportunities in the Salesforce ecosystem. Sarah also discussed how her work with developers through Trailhead is empowering anyone to take charge of their careers, and gain the skills that lead to jobs.

ADM: Can you explain your role at Salesforce?

Franklin: I’m the SVP of developer relations and GM of Trailhead. Trailhead is the fun way to learn Salesforce and reinvents the resume for today’s digital economy. Trailhead is an interactive, gamified, hands-on learning platform that empowers anyone to learn, including our community of over 3M developers. I oversee the growth of the Trailhead community, work with my product team to deliver innovative new product features and champion our editorial to collaborate across the entire company to create exciting new bite-sized content for our users. It’s my mission to empower anyone, anywhere to learn the skills needed to land their dream jobs. Working with users across a range of disciplines like app development, digital marketing and more, my team is having a meaningful impact on the future of people’s careers and bridging the skills gap.

ADM: What is the “Salesforce Economy”?

Franklin: The Salesforce Economy is the vibrant ecosystem of our customers and partners that are creating great, lucrative jobs for people who know Salesforce skills across multiple industries, geographies and job function. This September, Salesforce announced new research from IDC detailing how Salesforce and its ecosystem of customers and partners will drive more than 1.9 million new jobs and more than $389 billion in new GDP impact worldwide by 2020. These jobs command 6 figure salaries and career growth potential. The data demonstrates the impact of the Salesforce Economy, highlighting the strong momentum from our community of customers, partners and developers worldwide.

ADM: How can developers capitalize on the demand for Salesforce?

Franklin: There has never been a better time to be a Salesforce developer. Not only does IDC report predict Salesforce and its partners will drive 1.9 million new jobs over the next five years, but there is also an amazing amount of innovation with cloud, social, mobile, AI and IoT. Salesforce is the most innovative platform in the industry, and there is opportunity for developers to build these innovative apps.

In fact, according to research from a Salesforce commissioned report by Burning Glass Technologies, there were more than 300,000 job postings over the last 12 months (July 2015-June 2016) asking directly for Salesforce or Salesforce related skills.

And Trailhead is focused on rounding out the skill sets that lead to the jobs that are being created in the Salesforce economy- from a developer perspective or an administrator.

ADM: How can people get involved with the Salesforce ecosystem?

Franklin: While there is a growing demand for Salesforce skills, Salesforce also recognized that there was a growing gap between the skills people have and what they need to know to land the jobs of today and tomorrow. This includes developer skills and practical skills for how to sell, service and market.

In 2014, Salesforce launched Trailhead as a way to empower users and allow anyone to start learning Salesforce for free, from anywhere via a desktop, phone or tablet.

ADM: Salesforce points to Trailhead as an example of empowerment, how is it empowering uses?

Franklin: If we ever want to close the IT tech skills gap, it needs to start with better educational resources. Trailhead offers a path to democratizing the learning process and empowers people to pick up new capabilities or build on existing skills in a way that is focused, flexible and fun. At Salesforce, we believe that everyone should be empowered to learn and grow their careers and themselves, no matter who they are. By going beyond the classroom to reach people wherever and whenever they want, millions of users are empowered pursue their dream job and chart their own course.

ADM: What makes Trailhead different from other MOOCs and online learning platforms?

Franklin: Salesforce is revolutionizing education with Trailhead and teaching the skills that lead to jobs. Trailhead has guided learning paths called trails that help Trailblazers learn the in-demand sales, service, marketing, IT, and business skills that lead to promising jobs. There are learning modules and guided trails for every skill level, where users test their knowledge and build new skills through a series of challenges, earning badges that can be instantly posted to their LinkedIn profile.

A major differentiator of Trailhead is that it has skill-based credentials designed to reinvent the resume with proof of practical, hands-on experience, called Superbadges. Superbadges allow users to focus on solving real-world business challenges, such as scaling the infrastructure of a growing business, automating sales and customer service processes and engaging with customers using mobile apps.

Another thing that sets Trailhead apart is that it is engaging and fun! Gamification makes the experience fun with real-world challenges, bite-sized conversational content and projects that help people learn by doing.

ADM: How many people have used Trailhead so far?

Franklin: We have Trailblazers, the people who innovate, lead and make a difference in the world using Salesforce technology, all over the world. Since launching in 2014, our community of Trailblazers has earned over 1.2 million badges. While we’re excited to hit the million badge milestone, the team is still hard at work expanding the platform, branching out with new trails and badges that allow our users to continue learning and adding new skills throughout their careers.