Key Takeaways
You’re probably reading this because you’re weighing something. A new role. A new company. Whether this place is the right one. Good. That question deserves a real answer.
Four people. Four completely different careers. Taisuke, Nancy, Josh, and Jake have each clocked 10-plus years at Salesforce. They’ve built alongside agents, shipped AI-native products, taken on roles that didn’t exist when they signed their offer letters, and moved at startup speed inside one of the world’s most trusted enterprises. Their careers look nothing alike. Their pride in their work? Pretty much the same.
They’re all members of our Koa Club. Named for a resilient Hawaiian hardwood that grows stronger with age, it’s Salesforce’s community for employees who’ve reached 10-plus years of tenure, and the metaphor couldn’t be more fitting.
It’s a milestone worth celebrating, and after everything they’ve seen, built, and learned, they have a few things to pass on. These stories aren’t ones about loyalty, but rather ones about growth: the company’s, the technologies, and, most importantly, their own.
1. Build with a company that leads with integrity and innovation
The product Salesforce sells today looks almost nothing like it did last year, let alone 10 years ago (Hey, Agentforce! Hey, Slackbot!). The company has grown from a cloud CRM into a platform where AI, data, and agents work alongside humans to drive impact across industries worldwide.
And the roles have evolved just as fast, from Forward Deployed Engineers embedding directly with enterprise customers to deploy Agentforce, to AI researchers building what comes next. But when you ask any long-tenured employee what’s kept them here, the answer is never just about what has changed. It’s about what hasn’t changed at all.
“Salesforce’s core value of ‘Trust’ remains unwavering,” said Taisuke S., a lead solutions engineer based in Japan. “That cultural foundation is the true source of my motivation for success.”
Newsweek Named Salesforce a Most Trustworthy Company: 5 Ways We Live Our #1 Value
Jake R., who leads data center operations across APAC, said Trust, Customer Success, and Innovation made immediate sense for a tech company. “Equality and Sustainability took me longer to fully appreciate, but now I get it,” he said. “The people around me, in my neighborhood, strangers I meet, all know Salesforce as more than software, but as a company that stands for something bigger.“
Jake and his team volunteering together. [Image Credit: Salesforce]
Get to know the values that have guided Salesforce from the start.
2. When you’re surrounded by smart people, your best gets better
AI gets plenty of the credit. And honestly, it’s earned. Builders are vibe coding their way through prototypes, and agents are already handling work that used to fill an entire sprint. But talk to anyone who has been at Salesforce for a decade, and a different story emerges. The technology is remarkable. The humans building with it? Even more so.
“My bar is consistently raised by the people I work with,” said Nancy K., Senior Director, Trailblazer Marketing. “Being part of these high-caliber teams has always encouraged me to think big and then think bigger again.” Over 20 years, she’s built a career that spans sales, product, and marketing, each chapter shaped by the cross-functional teams that kept raising her bar right along with her.
For Josh G., Senior Manager, AI Research Operations, it was the leaders around him who changed everything. “Salesforce has redefined my understanding of what leadership looks like. They didn’t see me as another resource; they invested in my potential, taking calculated risks on me and granting me the essential ‘permission to fail’ that is required for real growth.” Now, 11 years later, he’s the leader in the room. And he hasn’t forgotten what it felt like to have someone believe in him first.
3. You don’t have to choose between startup energy and enterprise impact
At some point, most people expect the excitement to level off. And somehow, the longer you’re here, you realize the thrill isn’t about any single moment in tech. It’s about being a part of a company that keeps giving you something worth being excited about.
“Marc Benioff and Parker Harris are truly energized by this wave of technology and it’s contagious,” said Nancy. As the leading Agentic Enterprise, our teams have been at the forefront of AI technology, including using Agentforce and Slackbot in their daily work. “Seriously, what did I do before Slackbot?” she laughed.
Nancy’s daughters share in their mom’s excitement and awe from the ‘Ohana floor of the San Francisco Tower. [Image credit: Salesforce]
Josh shares a similar perspective. “The most remarkable thing about being here is actually what hasn’t changed: the relentless pace of growth and opportunity,” he said. “In an industry where ‘stable’ often means ‘stagnant,’ Salesforce has sustained the same drive. The technology is incredibly more sophisticated today, but that passion for innovation is still the primary engine of the company.”
4. The boomerang effect is real, and it says everything about who we are
There’s a version of career advice that says never look back. Taisuke respectfully disagrees.
The boomerang effect is exactly what it sounds like: You leave, you grow, you gain perspective, and then you return by choice. It’s one of the most honest signals a company can receive.
Taisuke didn’t leave because something was wrong. He left because he was curious. What he discovered was that not every company operates with the same commitment to the people it serves.
For Taisuke, leaving wasn’t the end of his Salesforce story. It was the chapter that made the rest of it make sense. Turns out the most deliberate step forward was the one that brought him home.
Taisuke and this manager celebrating together at a Salesforce event. [Image credit: Salesforce]
Want another perspective on what brings people back? Read how Agentforce inspired three FDEs to return.
5. Say yes…and then say yes again
The opportunity won’t always announce itself. Sometimes it looks like a stretch assignment nobody else volunteered for or a project that’s slightly outside your comfort zone.
“Salesforce will give you more opportunities than you can anticipate,” said Jake, who has built his entire trajectory on exactly that principle. “Say yes more than you think you should, and don’t be afraid to raise your hand for things that challenge you.”
And right now, there’s never been more to reach for. AI is expanding what work looks like entirely, creating categories that didn’t exist before and roles that didn’t have names last year. A role you couldn’t have imagined three years ago might be the one you’re hired into tomorrow. The builders who thrive here aren’t the ones who waited for the perfect opportunity. They’re the ones who said yes and grew along the way.
6. Keep the important things important
A great career and a full life are never meant to compete. The things that make you who you are — serving your community, caring for the people and causes that shaped you — those don’t fit neatly outside the hours of 9–5. And at Salesforce, they were never expected to.
At the core of that commitment is the 1-1-1 model — Salesforce’s pledge to dedicate 1% of its equity, 1% of its product, and 1% of employee time to giving back to communities around the world.
“The 1-1-1 model has been the heartbeat of my experience at Salesforce,” Josh said. “It gave me the flexibility to be a present father, and join my now college-aged kids on school field trips over the years. It empowered me to serve my community, too. Knowing my company values my heart as much as my head makes it possible to bring my full self to work.”
Josh’s kids took part in virtual VTO during Covid, raising money for six hospital systems across Central Indiana, all while sporting their own (mini) Salesforce shirts.
Nancy feels that same pull. “The 1-1-1 model has always encouraged me to give back and reminded me of the heart and soul that has been with Salesforce since the beginning.“
It’s a spirit that shows up across the company, including among Salesforce’s veteran employees, who bring that same dedication to service with them every day. See how veterans are finding their mission at Salesforce.
7. Prioritize the soft skills as much as the technical ones
Technical excellence and cultural impact aren’t in competition at Salesforce; they’re inseparable. The people who go from good to great are equally invested in their craft and in the people around them.
“I’ve realized that the most high-performing teams I’ve ever been on weren’t only the smartest,” Josh said. “They were the ones rooted in kindness and gratitude.” His former leader, Kristyn Levine, used to open every team meeting with a round of gratitude, a practice Josh adopted immediately and carried to every team since. “I start meetings by acknowledging the good in the room. Leading with a grateful heart isn’t just a ‘nice to have’; it is the foundation of a team that actually trusts each other and wins together.”
Jake built a decade-plus career in infrastructure and operations on a similar foundation. “The most durable work is built on trust and genuine investment in people, not just transactions. And in a role where so much depends on cross-organizational trust, that mindset has made all the difference.”
8. Make learning the foundation of your career
The people who thrive at Salesforce longest aren’t necessarily the ones who arrived knowing the most. They’re the ones who never stopped wanting to know more. For Jake, that curiosity has both shaped his career and driven it. “What’s ahead for me is leading with an open mind,” he said, “whether that’s in AI-driven infrastructure or whatever comes next.”
Today, “whatever comes next” is arriving faster than anyone predicted. AI fluency isn’t a specialty anymore; it’s a baseline. Vibe coding, agentic workflows, and prompt engineering have become part of the everyday builder’s toolkit.
Salesforce has invested in making sure no one gets left behind. With Trailhead, our free online learning platform, employees have access to thousands of skill-building modules, certifications, and guided learning paths covering everything from Agentforce and AI fluency to leadership and sustainability.
The expectation isn’t that you arrive AI-native. It’s that you stay curious enough to become it. Every certification earned, every agent deployed, every experiment run on Trailhead is a building block, not just for your career, but for the agentic enterprise we’re all building together.
AI isn’t just changing tech jobs. It’s changing every job. Learn more about what our recruiters look for when hiring talent (hint: it’s not coding!).
9. The long game is the best game
Same badge. Completely different company. That’s how Nancy describes her career at Salesforce and why she stayed.
“I feel like I am at a different company every year so I never need to leave,” she said. It’s not a throwaway line. It’s a precise description of what it means to grow inside an organization that keeps reinventing itself.
Josh has felt that same momentum in his own work, especially as Salesforce pushes further into AI. “What keeps me here is the rare combination of a familiar community and a new challenge every single morning. I’ve been here 11 years, yet I feel like I’m still just scratching the surface of what’s possible.”
Taisuke has watched that transformation happen architecturally. “Salesforce has evolved from being an ‘app company’ to leading the Agentic Enterprise. Our CRM and SFA provide the essential structured data and business context. When combined with the middleware layer — like Data Cloud and Informatica — and Slack as the primary UI for AI, it fundamentally redefines our business model.”
When the company never stops evolving, neither do you. Nancy, Josh, and Taisuke all have different paths but share one truth: staying at Salesforce has never meant staying still.
10. Choose a company where you don’t just grow, you belong
10 years at a company means 10 years of life, not just work. At Salesforce, the people who’ve been here the longest didn’t just grow careers alongside each other. They built friendships that outlasted every deadline and milestone.
“My fellow Koa colleagues, especially those who I started with, are some of my best, lifelong friends, and have helped keep me grounded during the inevitable ups and downs of life,” Nancy described. For her, what’s ahead is about giving those who come next that same sense of belonging. “At this stage, it’s about giving back. My role in Trailblazer Marketing lets me do exactly that — lifting up and celebrating our Trailblazers.”
Josh measures legacy the same way: not by what he built, but by who he helped build. “I want to be for the next generation what my leaders Kristyn, Rich, and John were for me — championing the tools that make us better, like Slack, while fiercely protecting the culture of kindness that makes this place special. I want to ensure that when the next group of Koa Club members hits their 10-year mark, they can look back and say they were genuinely recognized, valued, and invested in.”
In the end, the most meaningful measure of a career isn’t a title or a tenure. It’s the people who pushed you, believed in you, and were there for you along the way.
Did you know Salesforce has 16 Employee Equality Groups? These groups are employee-led, open to all, and focus on supporting our business through engagement, innovation, retention, and cultivating leadership skills.
Great technology. Smart people. Meaningful work. Your next chapter starts here.
A decade from now, someone will write a piece a lot like this one. They’ll talk about the colleagues who raised their bar, the opportunities they almost didn’t take, and the company that kept giving them something worth being excited about.
That person could be you. Your first day is closer than you think.
Ready to find your next opportunity? Explore open roles at Salesforce.
Let’s stay connected! Join our Talent Community.
AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.
