October 7, 2025
This was my most recent newsletter that went out to my peeps, but Anh Phuong Ta wanted to share it so here it is for everyone not on my newsletter mailing list (well, now you know how amazing it is in there – why don’t you sign up?!) 😁
Anyway – enjoy!!
Hi Anh,
I had a conversation last week with Cassandra from Kenya who has been struggling to find a foot in the Salesforce ecosystem, and it’s been sitting with me ever since. She’s got her degree, she’s passionate about sales, and she’s been applying for roles for months but keeps hitting rejection after rejection.
And it’s not because she’s not good enough – its because the industry has changed.
What’s changed since 2019
Remember 2017, 2018, 2019? If you had a Salesforce cert and a pulse, you basically got a job.
Gartner was releasing reports about how Salesforce would create 4.2 million jobs by 2024, and everyone was scrambling to get in. I even wrote an article back in 2019 called “Is This the Right Time to Bet on Salesforce?” – and boy, did that age well. 😬
Now though? It’s so much tougher, especially for juniors, and there are multiple things happening at once.
Part of it is how Salesforce has evolved – focusing more on enterprise, acquiring loads of products, basically becoming the big corporate player they once positioned themselves against. Oracle, SAP, Microsoft – those slow-moving behemoths they used to mock. And you can see the shift across the board – SalesforceBen branching out into NowBen (ServiceNow), people diversifying into HubSpot because the landscape is changing.
But the bigger issue is how AI has quietly started eating away at junior positions.
The AI-to-AI conversation nobody asked for
Stanford put out research showing that junior positions just aren’t appearing anymore, and Vernon Keaton wrote this brilliant article called “The Quiet Erosion” about exactly this problem. Companies are using AI to automate the work that Grasshoppers (junior hires) would’ve done, hiring Fox or Owls (mid-level to senior people) who can use AI to do more with less instead. (See here for my 5 Levels of Consulting Mastery – by the way, which animal are you?)
Anyway, this makes sense from a short-term business perspective… I guess. 😐
But where exactly do they think their future senior consultants are going to come from if juniors can’t get their foot in the door? You can’t skip the apprenticeship stage. You can’t go straight from university to running a complex discovery workshop with a grumpy stakeholder who’s convinced Salesforce will ruin their life.
Those human skills only come from doing the work, from making mistakes, from watching someone more experienced and thinking “oh, that’s how you do it.” 💡
And then – this is the bit that boggles the mind – candidates are using AI to generate their applications, and recruiters are using AI to sift through them.
So you end up with AI talking to AI, and actual humans with genuine potential are getting lost in the middle.
Vernon and I have been having conversations about this, and we both agree that if Salesforce and the Partners don’t start focusing on training junior talent properly, the talent pipeline is going to dry up completely. Investment needs to be prioritised now, not in five years when we suddenly realise we have a massive skills gap.
What I told Cassandra
The old way of sending your CV everywhere and hoping someone notices doesn’t work anymore when you’re competing against hundreds who all look the same on paper.
The people getting hired now are building real, genuine human connections. Showing up consistently on LinkedIn, not because they’re trying to “build a personal brand” (I hate that phrase) but because they’re sharing what they’re learning, what they’re curious about, what makes them tick.
Because in a world where AI can generate and screen your application, the only thing that stands out is being undeniably, authentically human. Showing your personality. Commenting thoughtfully on other people’s content because you genuinely found it insightful. Being what I call a “GoodFinder” (ok I stole that from Seth Godin but am appropriating it! 😁) – genuinely praising things that delight you just to brighten someone’s day.
It’s slower. It’s harder. It requires putting yourself out there uncomfortably. But it’s the only weapon you have against the AI revolution – to elevate your actual human voice amongst all the noise.
Where this leaves us
The skills that will set you apart are the ones AI will never replicate properly. Deep listening that builds real trust. Artful questioning that uncovers what clients don’t even know they need. Reading social cues and understanding unspoken power dynamics. Managing difficult conversations with empathy and integrity. ❤️
I left Capgemini specifically to focus on teaching these skills, because I’d seen too many talented juniors thrown into the deep end without support, and I was tired of watching them struggle or burn out. That’s why I wrote Salesforce Discovery 101 and why the Consulting Discovery Masterclass exists – to give people the foundation they need to actually succeed, not just survive whilst having panic attacks in car parks.
If you’re struggling to get your first role, or if you’re already in consulting but feeling like you’re drowning because nobody taught you how to actually do the job beyond configuring objects, you’re not alone. The membership community at #ZenClub – a weekly group coaching and workshops we run in ZenHao Academy are designed for exactly this – practising these skills in a safe space with other people on the same journey.
(Doors for this founding member cohort priced at £129 per month will close on 14 Oct, so lock your price in now – it will stay the same as long as you remain a member!)
And if you’re a Partner who genuinely wants to set up your juniors for success rather than just billing them out and hoping for the best, let’s have a conversation. Because we really can do better than we’re doing right now.
Right, I’ll leave it there. As always, hit ‘Reply’ if you want to chat about any of this – I read every single email. 🙂
Until next time, take care.
Pei x
ps: If you loved this newsletter and know someone who’d benefit from reading it, please forward it on. pps: they might want to subscribe – that would make me really happy! 🥰
