3 Ways Trailblazing Companies Partner With Pathfinder To Meet Their Talent Needs
Companies that take a creative, flexible, and innovative approach to their recruitment strategies are transforming not only their businesses through talent but also the lives of Trailblazers who join their teams.
Two things are true in the Salesforce ecosystem right now:
- There are more career opportunities than ever — we’ve all heard the stat that the Salesforce economy will create 9.3 million jobs by 2026.
- We need to nurture a more diverse ecosystem of talent that reflects the communities in which we live and work.
Hiring as quickly as our partners and customers need must not come at the expense of hiring diverse talent across our ecosystem. Both of those things must become true at the exact same time now.
The Pathfinder program, a workforce development initiative
Salesforce has launched multiple programs in recent years to help create robust and varied pipelines of talent for our ecosystem, including the Talent Alliance, the Workforce Partner Program, and Trailblazer Scholarships.
The first of these workforce development initiatives was the Pathfinder program. Co-founded with Deloitte, this program was designed to train individuals with the technical and business skills needed to pursue a career in the Salesforce ecosystem.
We’ve aligned on a shared mission with our customers and partners to meet talent demand while simultaneously building a more diverse workforce and bringing new Trailblazers into the ecosystem. In 2021, 85% of Pathfinder graduates came from underrepresented backgrounds in technology.
Rewrite the traditional hiring script
Here are three ways our Pathfinder employer partners are rewriting the traditional talent script and creatively hiring from our program to grow their Salesforce teams.
1. Internships are the gatekeepers to experience
Internships are often the way individuals gain experience in a new career path, with most internships reserved for college students specifically. But many Pathfinders and Trailblazers join the Salesforce ecosystem at different stages of their careers. Creating out-of-the-box internship programs has helped onboard new-to-ecosystem talent who don’t have the flexibility or qualify for a traditional 3-month summer internship.
Companies like Liberty Mutual Insurance and SpringML recognized this. They created their Pathfinder internship programs to provide paid experience and offer support, mentorship, and an on-ramp to full-time employment. To date, 80% of Pathfinder interns at Liberty Mutual convert to full-time employees.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel, leverage existing programs
For companies with existing training programs, Pathfinder can serve as a pipeline to place candidates into established onboarding programs.
Pathfinder Employer Partners Lev and Ad Victoriam Solutions have leveraged their partnership with Pathfinder to identify candidates for their internal training programs. This means that Pathfinders with training from our program are fast-tracked through the company’s existing program and can quickly start working on client projects.
Pathfinder graduate Chris Burley landed an Associate Solution Architect role as part of Lev’s NextLev program. Chris said, “I’m excited to be a part of the Trailblazer Community and to be given the opportunity to work at a great company like Lev!”
“Transitioning into my current role since Pathfinder has been a challenging yet extremely rewarding experience so far. I’m growing and learning more than I ever imagined since making the leap into this new career path.”
— Chris Burley, Associate Solution Architect at Lev
3. Keep it simple with direct-to-hire from training programs
Many of our Pathfinder Employer Partners work with our program to identify best-fit candidates for full-time, part-time, and contract roles, from consultants to customer success associates to developers to admins.
Partners such as Cervello, Deloitte, Port & Starboard, Pracedo, and QuantumRhino have worked with our team to quickly fill both technical and functional roles on their teams.
“At QuantumRhino we are always looking for the right people in the right positions,” says Corree Sinkwitz, Co-Founder & VP of Corporate Development at QuantumRhino, a Veteran-owned, U.S.-based, business-first technology solutions and software integrations consulting company. “We believe that the Salesforce Pathfinder program offers an incredible footprint to enable anyone from any background to learn and master Salesforce.”
Hear from Pathfinder Trailblazers who have landed roles
Whether they transitioned from a restaurant manager, bank teller, ride-share driver, or stay-at-home parent, these Pathfinders now make an incredible impact at their companies as business analysts, consultants, developers, and more.
Meet the placed Pathfinders and hear more about what their first role in the ecosystem means to them.
“Ad Vic’s Elevate program has offered me a great first role in the ecosystem. My time is split between project work, learning, and acquiring new certifications. Having a safe space to learn Salesforce but also getting to practice on real-world projects has been a great balance.”
— Solidad Nwakibu, Salesforce Analyst at Ad Victoriam Solutions
“Working at Cervello has been a very enlightening experience as my first job in the Salesforce ecosystem. It’s been great having the opportunity to develop my skills in real time in such an encouraging environment.”
— Leila Stambuli, Analyst at Cervello, a Kearney company
“Working at Deloitte has exceeded my expectations. The people are fascinating, with a combination of talent, experience, and kindness. The projects are interesting, I get a chance to learn something new every day, and I feel that my contributions will make an impact.”
— Sandra Patricia Saavedra, Business Analyst at Deloitte
“Pathfinder was a turning point, and my career has grown exponentially. I’ve always cared about customer success, and now I’m in a role where they nurture my development and encourage me to explore the capabilities of Salesforce.”
— Solomon Habib, Associate Solution Consultant at SpringML
“My experience at Liberty Mutual has been great. I landed on a supportive team that uses concepts we learned in Pathfinder to support a large group of Salesforce users. I’m growing as a developer and admin every day, and this is only the start of where I can go in this organization.”
— Ginger Alford, Salesforce Software Engineering Intern at Liberty Mutual
“Working at Port & Starboard has given me the chance to have the most fulfilling career in my life so far. I learn from the incredibly smart people I work with, but also get the space to learn by doing, to experiment, to make mistakes, and to feel ownership over the amazing things I get to build.”
— Gabe Soliman, Salesforce Consultant at Port & Starboard
“I believe you become who you associate with, and I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to learn and develop my skills working with my peers, managers, and the leadership here at QuantumRhino. They inspire me to become better daily.”
— Liz Nelson, Business Relationship Manager at QuantumRhino
“At Pracedo all the staff are as eager to teach as I am to learn. Within a month of joining I have been put on projects where I am encouraged to contribute whilst collaborating and learning at the same time.”
— Zahra Malik, Associate Consultant at Pracedo
The ecosystem, working together
Ultimately, it takes the entire ecosystem working together—training programs, eager learners, mentors, and employers—to make these opportunities happen. With companies willing to be flexible and think differently about their recruitment strategies, we’re optimistic about a future with plenty of diverse Salesforce talent across the ecosystem.
![[Customer service career path]: A picture of Shonnah Hughes smiling in her maroon Serviceblazer hoodie](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/Serviceblazer-Shonnah-Hughes.jpg?w=128&h=96&crop=1&quality=75)
