How To Put Salesforce Skills On Resume

Top 10 Salesforce resume rules

July 15, 2018

Preface: this post is part of The Definitive Salesforce Careers Guide series.

Your Salesforce resume is only living up to 10% of its potential!

Try this: save a copy of your current resume. Then, remake the exact same resume using every tip in this post. It won't be easy. When you're done, compare the resumes side by side. Night and day!

I know this will work because I've read literally thousands of Salesforce resumes and less than 5% of people really get it right. But don't be too hard on yourself – my resume sucked too until I was put into a position to hire Salesforce professionals. Once you're on the other side your eyes are opened!

Rule #1: Have at least three Salesforce certifications

In the current era of Salesforce, there are no excuses for having less than three certifications.

There are over 20 different Salesforce certifications and on average I see at least three certifications per resume these days. Ideally, you'd have at least five.

If you need help getting certified or you're not sure which ones to get, read my Certifications Guide.

P.S. if you have more than 50 Trailhead badges, put that on your resume too.

Rule #2: Specifically add Lightning as a skill

Even though most orgs are still on Salesforce Classic, almost all are planning to migrate to Lightning.

That means you either already know Lightning, or the company will have to train you. Your Lightning experience now has a huge premium and it's something you must specifically call out.

Rule #3: Put your best material on the top of your resume

Fact: Hiring managers will judge your resume in less than 10 seconds.

It's unfair but it's true. The only part of your resume that's guaranteed to be read is the first sentence.

Have a ton of certifications? Put the certification section first. Went to a great school? Put that up top. Won some interesting awards or worked for a nice brand name company? Straight to the top!

This applies to each subsection too. The very first bullet point for each job should be its best.

Rule #4: For each org you've worked on, include the number of users

There are few objective measures in this industry that'll give recruiters insight on your Salesforce knowledge. Your user count is one of them.

Generally, having experience in Salesforce orgs with more users is a good thing. You get exposed to more Salesforce features and challenges that smaller orgs never see.

For example, larger orgs are more likely to use features like the Translation Workbench. Admins in larger orgs are also more likely to have experience solving performance issues using indexing.

You can still stand out if you don't have experience in a small org. For example, you can highlight that you're a solo admin and thus have experience as the decision maker in an org.

Regardless, different companies are looking for people with different backgrounds. Include your user counts to let them know where you stand.

Rule #5: For each org you've worked on, tell one interesting fact about it

Companies want to hire people who have solved interesting problems. It's boring seeing resume after resume where candidates just say they implemented Process Builders for Sales Cloud.

Tell me a story. Make me believe you were part of something special. Was your org featured at Dreamforce? Does it have an abnormally large amount of integrations? Does the CEO log in every day? Did you max out your storage limits?!

These are the tidbits recruiters love to share with their colleagues as they hype up your interview!

Rule #6: Include specific AppExchange app experience

Every org uses AppExchange apps. And if a company sees you have experience with an app they use, it's a strong indicator of a fit. Plus, it's one less thing they'd have to train.

Including the names of apps you've worked with is an easy way to get free resume brownie points!

Rule #7: Tweak your resume to match the job description

Your resume should be different for each job you're applying for.

Find the keywords that are used in the job description and make sure to include the exact same keywords in your resume.

Does the job description mention "reports" often? Splatter the word across your resume!

This gives recruiters confidence that you're a match, and, it especially helps if they're using technology to bubble up candidates.

Rule #8: Use a lot of numbers to show impact

At least half of your bullet points should have some number in it.

Many resumes say something like this: Improved efficiency by building XYZ
Improve that same bullet by saying this: Improved efficiency by 25% by building XYZ

If you don't have any metrics around your contributions… are you sure you really improved things?

Regardless, start tracking metrics in all your projects from now on. If you really don't have any metrics for a past project, estimate it.

Rule #9: Only use @gmail.com email addresses

I'm not biased, this is just how things are. People will assume you're not up to date with technology.

Rule #10: Keep your resume under one page long

Fact: people will read more words in your resume if it's less than a page long.

Brains instantly shut off when they see a lot of text. Heck, I'd be surprised if you've even read this far.

If you're applying for a job in the USA and you don't manage more than 40 people, you absolutely should have a one page resume. Mine certainly is.

Some tips for keeping your resume under one page:

Aggressively decrease any white space
Combine/remove older job positions
Keep bullets to one line and use up the entire width
Remove bullet points that do not have numbers
Remove bullet points not directly related to the job position
Have fewer bullet points in older job positions

Whew! That's a lot to take in!

We're going to analyze some real Salesforce resumes to make sure this all sinks in.

Hope you enjoyed!

Next post: Salesforce resume analysis #1: Mid Career Professional!