New Zealand vs. London – working in the Salesforce market

This will give you a couple of different views. One will be my thoughts as a recruiter and the other views will be from Salesforce Consultants who were in New Zealand who are now working in London.

The big differences / observations for me have been:

How agencies hire youngsters (18, 19, 20) and get them into the recruitment world. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just different!
How clients will receive 15 CV’s a week from a Salesforce focused agency and the client doesn’t even have a need for a resource!
Permanent fees range from 15% – 25% on the permanent side. Back home we would normally be getting between 12.5% – 15% so an upside for us who are used to working for lower fees!
Recruitment firms are 100% focused on all things Salesforce / Marketing Automation and will have a team of 5 through to 10 people working in this space. Back home most agencies are IT generalists with a few going down the Digital / Development path as a specialisation.
Other recruiters marketing in their Salesforce candidates into me, knowing I am a recruiter. My comments to them are “why aren’t you marketing them into your own clients”.
The amount of “CV Databases” that are available and marketed to you is significant.

From an actual Salesforce Consultant’s perspective here are some differences that have been highlighted to me:

Salesforce Partners / Consultancies in the UK may actually have specialisations. For example, Empaua provide Salesforce solutions for start-ups and Methods Digital provide Salesforce solutions for the Public Sector. Back at home typically the Salesforce Partners / ISV’s operate quite broadly
There is some resistance back in New Zealand from the public sector to embrace cloud based solutions such as Salesforce where in the UK there is a huge focus within the public sector to move applications and services to the Cloud
The flexibility provided by Salesforce Consultancies in the UK is huge. They don’t expect you to be in the office or with a client all of the time. If it is going to be beneficial for you to be at home knocking out some work, generally this is 100% OK.

Here you can be put ‘into a box’ versus back home you might be more of a generalist. This is possibly due to the size of the projects, where there is the need to know certain Salesforce technologies inside and out. So if you want to specialise, you will love it. What I will say is that in some smaller Salesforce Consultancies you will probably need to wear more than one hat.
The amount of Salesforce Partners / Salesforce Consultancies is certainly different to New Zealand. Back home there was probably four to five descent sized Salesforce Partners. Here you probably have 10 x that number.
You will get constantly headhunted / approached via LinkedIn by recruiters which is always flattering.

Here is some advice from Antony Simpson and Jasmine Ashley who work in the London Salesforce market after making the move from New Zealand, on what to do if you’re coming to London:

Always plan to be at least 15-mins early
Download city mapper
Don’t give up! After the initially lonely / scary / exciting parts wear off, you will find your niche and love it.
Prepare for some sweaty / close encounters on the Tube

Have some excess funds as it can be expensive getting into a flat (paying bond / paying 1-mths rent in advance etc)
Prepare for four seasons in one day and central heating.
Don’t let the perception of big city life deter you from looking at options over this way. The city is only as big as you make it feel and my workplace has been supportive and welcoming, preparing me for projects and central city life.
Living costs are not as high as you think. Food is affordable, expenses can be included in rent and phone providers have a lot of competition, some have unlimited internet plans!
Try everything. There are websites with local gig updates, free tickets to TV show filming, art showings and Salesforce events.
Getting to know London life, there are great networks here for Aussies and Kiwis to get in touch, find flats or relax and be social while you are still getting on your feet.
If you have contacts or links to people in London; get introduced, send out a message or request and start talking to them. Decisions on the places to live, eat, drink and play are best from the people who are here.
There are roles here for everyone and Salesforce expertise is in high demand.