Episode sixteen we speak with Mike Nolan Sr. Manager Military Recruiting Program & Salesforce Global Equity President of Vetforce.
Mike takes us through the program available for veterans, and military spouses. Salesforce Military offers free, online training classes and certification exams at no cost for active-duty military, veterans, and military spouses.
Hear Mike tell the story of how the program was founded and how Salesforce is working with other leading companies through their Salesforce Talent Alliance to connect talented veterans with partner companies to help grow, strengthen, and diversify their workforces.
About Salesforce Military:
Salesforce Military is a Salesforce department for veterans by veterans. We get active military, veterans, and spouses the classes, certifications, and support they need for successful tech careers.
Learn More:
https://veterans.force.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Play the King (00:00):
This podcast is sponsored by OMI.
The company that makes CRM work.
Today's guest is Mike Nolan fromSalesforce.
Mike Nolan (00:10):
My name is Mike Nolan.
My day job is I'm the seniormanager of the military
recruiting program atSalesforce.
And then what I jokingly say is,my volunteer job is I'm the
Global President o f o urVetforce which is our employee
resource group(ERG) morecommonly known as Salesforce a s
our Equality Group.
I also did a s tint in theMassachusetts National Guard.
So I am a veteran, you know andfeel that my job both volunteer
(00:35):
the day job just really keeps meconnected to my community.
Play the King (00:38):
Mike, I wonder, what were the challenges for you
coming out of service, and goinginto the private sector, and
maybe how d id, how d o thoseinform, you know, the work that
you do now?
Mike Nolan (00:48):
Sure.
So when I got out, it was theearly nineties and Skill Bridge,
wasn't even a word.
I didn't really have a toughtransition quite honestly,
because I was only a short timeand I just kind of got out and
it was like, a ll r ight, youknow, figure out your own way.
But in having theresponsibilities tied with
leading our employee resourcegroup for so many years, and
(01:10):
then just in the past year, Iguess, you know, getting
Salesforce to realize thatthere's a real need to create a
military recruiting program, I'mable to use my years as a
recruiter to connect withtransitioning service members,
veterans, s pouses, whatever itmay be, and, and really kind of
give them some of the ideas andthe framework of how can you
(01:31):
successfully identify a companythat it makes sense to work for.
And then what is some, some ofthe things that you can do to
earn an opportunity?
Because the problem that I I'veheard from number of
transitioning s ervice membersis they're given too many
options.
And in the military, you're toldwhat your job is most of the
time.
So now when somebody'stransitioning out, they have to
(01:53):
deal with w hat, which one do Ipick?
That's going to give me asatisfying career, g ive m e the
money that I need to live thelife that I wanna live, support
my family a nd, a nd it can beoverwhelming.
So, having the opportunity to,to really ki nd o f, you know,
work with people and, and justgive them the framework of how
they can, how they can enabletheir own success is really
(02:15):
where I focus on these days.
Play the King (02:16):
Can you give me a sense of a number of veterans
who currently work forSalesforce and, you know, just
how broad is this and, is it onthe up! Is it stable?
How do you think about it?
Mike Nolan (02:27):
You know, we're definitely growing.
Some of the challenges quitehonestly, is that we're a global
company.
There are countries that youcannot track metrics, but we are
2.1% of the US population ofSalesforce, which when you think
about it, we're less than 1% ofthe population in America that
joins up for military service.
So that's a, that's not a badnumber, but we are we're
(02:49):
growing.
Uh, and with the amount ofpositions that Salesforce has
opened 23,000 globally, thisyear, we're going to hire,
there's a ton of in- roads forservice members and spouses to
earn long lasting careers.
Play the King (03:02):
Let's jump into that a little bit, the free, you
know, the Salesforce, militaryfree tech training program, what
does that entail?
What do you need to do toqualify?
And what do people come out sortof knowing, or being able to do
once they've completed it,
Mike Nolan (03:13):
Salesforce completely funds the Salesforce
military training program, whichessentially all 16 of our
certification programs, it'sfree training and free testing.
The first certification thateverybody earns is a Salesforce
certified administrator.
The self-guided learning can beanywhere in the range of four to
$4,500.
(03:34):
And it's$500 every time you test, uh, there are a number of
people that don't in the firsttry.
So they go back for the second,but all that's free if you have
served in the military or ifyou're a spouse.
Play the King (03:47):
And so you come out qualified to, to get an
entry level job with Salesforce?
You know, what are people doingonce they, once they complete
that?
Mike Nolan (03:54):
Absolutely.
So I give the, the program teama ton of credit because what
they were doing is they took thefeedback that, you know, people
with these service members andspouses were going through the
program.
They were earning that for firstcertification, but every job
that they were looking atrequired one to three years
experience, they said, geez, youknow what?
We've got, you've almostcompleted the bridge, but
there's that one step that'smissing.
(04:14):
So the program team went out toour customers and partners with
a totally loaded question.
Do you believe these servicemenand women and spouses who are
going through the program?
Absolutely, of course we do.
Excellent.
So we're asking you to sign apromissory interview agreement.
So it's called the TalentAlliance Program currently in
the US right now, there are over500 customers and partners who
(04:35):
have all signed that TalentAlliance Agreement, essentially
offering a first interview toanybody.
who earns that administrativecertification.
You're not going to find anycolleges that are going to get
500 companies signing up,offering you a first interview,
but this is the beauty of itbecause it puts you in front of
somebody who's in a position tohire you.
There are big name companiesinvolved in this from Deloitte,
Deloitte Digital, USAA andsmaller regional partners like
(04:59):
Slalom and Poll Source.
But the number is growing monthover month.
So I know I've watched thatnumber grow from 25 to a
hundred, and now even over insurpassing 500 employees, excuse
me, customers and partners whohave offered this first i
nterview.
Play the King (05:15):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
And when you say firstinterview, just, are you
referring to, you know, you sortof get precedence, over maybe
other candidates, what do youmean by that?
Exactly.
Mike Nolan (05:24):
Yeah.
So once, so when you're in theSalesforce military training
platform, you earn theadministrative certification,
you pass the test, then it opensup like a whole new area for
you.
And that's where you can searchby these customers and partners
who are part of the TalentAlliance Agreement.
And basically just click throughto say, Hey, I want to, you
know, cash in my token for afirst in, you know, for an
(05:47):
interview with yourorganization.
And then that's where itinitiates it.
And it ultimately leads to thatfirst interview.
Play the King (05:53):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Thank you.
Um, let's talk about some ofthose, you know, career paths
that open up, you know, for, for, for these, for these folks,
what are people doing?
Like what are, what are therange of options?
Mike Nolan (06:02):
You know, there's such a width of positions and I
can speak specifically atSalesforce positions that nobody
would really think from atechnology company exist within
our organization, but you know,the training program anybody
who's interested in a technicalcareer, this is a great
opportunity to get your foot inthe door and utilize the free
(06:23):
training.
I don't have a technical bone inmy body, so that really wouldn't
work for me, but recruiting,there's a group called customer
success sales.
T hen you've got all theoperations positions f rom
marketing, finance, legal, inaddition, Y ou s ee, we've got
multiple Salesforce towers, soyou have physical building
security.
We have executives.
(06:44):
So you've got executive,protection teams in the towers.
We don't take big customers outto local restaurants.
We have beautiful facilitieswith culinary te ams.
So, u m, t here's actually evenculinary positions open within
salesforce, but anything A to Zreally, you know, the one, one
of the beauties an d t he thingsI love about Salesforce is that
(07:04):
they don't look at at s ervicemembers and spouses and say,
Hey, you know, listen, why don'tyou kind of stick with the
public sector business, becausethat's where you can kind of
relate.
They see that we bring a lot tothe table and, there's a c
omplete A to Z of areas andopportunities that we to e arn
an d o w n a t S alesforce.
Play the King (07:20):
You mentioned earlier, the military really
prizes, the ability to followorders, you know, things like
that.
What are some of the skills thatpeople develop there that really
serve them well in the privatesector?
And what are some of the thingswhere, you know, there's a
little bit of like reprogrammingneeded, um, before you can
really thrive in, in, you know,it's such a different
environment.
Mike Nolan (07:36):
That's a great question because I tell people
from the military that I speakwith, you have the skills for
most positions, what you need todo is be able to translate them.
And, and that really gets downto almost a microscopic level
because what translates well atSalesforce may not for Amazon,
may not for LinkedIn, for anyother company i n the industry,
(07:59):
b ut once you figure out foranybody who's served, you know,
if you go to a commandingofficer or someone that you're
reporting to, they w ant t ohear the least amount of words
possible in the quickest summaryo f, of what you need to give t
hem.
W e're the exact opposite a tSalesforce w e're story t
ellers.
We take every situation and usethe STAR methodology situation,
(08:19):
task action result, and t henmake a story o n if you see
Dreamforce in any of our bigevents that we do, everything
talks about, y ou k now, withcustomer stories, everything
talks about it a nd just how wesolve this customer's problems i
n the best, most e legant,eloquent story.
So key things like that can makea c andidate either fit in, and
(08:41):
really kind of understand that,Hey, I know what it's like a t
Salesforce, w here if they cameeven with the same skills, but a
different approach, the militaryapproach w ould like bang, bang,
bang, bang, bang.
Here's the reasons that wouldn'tfly in our world.
That is probably one of thebiggest things that I would say
is the challenge that militarypeople transitioning out face,
day t o d ay.
Play the King (09:01):
That's really interesting.
And maybe we could just talkabout your own experience with
Salesforce, Mike, what led youthere, how did your career
develop and maybe you could takeme through the development of,
you know, the, the militaryprogram as you remember it.
Mike Nolan (09:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
I've been in recruiting.
This is, this is the only jobthat I've had in my career.
I've stuck with it through thethick and thin, got into
technology in say the latenineties.
And it's actually when CRM was afirst acronym, the technology
and, or the software had justbeen created.
And I still remember the threecompanies in CRM were Siebel,
(09:39):
Clarify and Vantive when I gotinto the space.
So anybody who's been around theblock for a little while will
know what I'm talking about, but, uh, stayed in the space
really.
You know, just by luck.
I guess I call luck now, butlooking back, I probably
wouldn't have felt the same way,but I was, I had a business of
my own that I had for six yearsand three months recruiting
business.
And there was an opportunity toget in with, it was the largest
(10:03):
startup in technology historythat, you know, didn't, didn't
quite take off, I guess some ofthe leaders felt it would, let's
just say, but in a short time itwas the fifth layoff.
And I was in the street lookingfor a position and reached out
to a gentleman that I workedwith in the past.
I was speaking to a fewdifferent companies, but I got a
really good feeling about thiscompany.
And I still remember the email Isent to the SVP of global
(10:26):
recruiting, just thanking herfor the time.
because she was the lastinterview.
And, and I remember her reply tome, which was the thing that
kind of put it over the edge,but she said, Hey, Mike, and I'm
sorry, it took a little bit toget back to you, blah, blah,
blah.
I wanted to talk with everybodyjust to get the feedback.
And she ended the email bysaying, I really hope you joined
my team.
And nobody had told me that,that I got the position yet, but
I got a really good feelingabout that.
(10:47):
I joined as a sales recruiter,spent six and a half years in
that role, but, the last two anda half, you know, I just got it
in my head that why don't wehave a military recruiting
program and, in a position thatI was at leading our Employee
Resource Group, it gave me alittle bit more of a voice and
an opportunity to, to vocalizethis.
(11:09):
It took a little while, but itwas an equality statement that
Salesforce put out.
They wanted 50% of our USemployees to be of
underrepresented groups, whichincludes veterans.
And when I pointed out that theyaren't doing anything for
veterans, u h, I give Salesforcet he outmost credits l ike, you
know, something you're right.
We're going to do somethingabout that.
We're going to change that.
And, ultimately I e arned theopportunity to create the
(11:32):
military recruiting program,which April 15th was its one y
ear anniversary.
So it's been, y eah, it's beeninteresting building something a
t Salesforce that's neverexisted before.
I've got some great support.
I'm starting to build up myteam.
There's, there's a saying inSalesforce plays your own trail
and I feel very fortunate thatI've been able to do that in my
(11:52):
career here.
Play the King (11:53):
Totally.
Um, so, you know, listen, thepeople hearing this are, you
know, typically I think on therecruiting side and different
functions, sales, marketing,operations, customer success,
hopefully there are some, somemilitary people also listening
to this.
because I think it's reallyvaluable.
So I wonder if you could speakto both of those audiences a
little bit, what, what do the,the first group need to
understand about recruiting fromthe military?
And, and then maybe we could endon what, what would you like
(12:15):
service members to know abouttaking the next steps to
learning more about this.
Mike Nolan (12:21):
Sure.
And this is something actuallywe're going through internally
and it's really educating thecivilian community about the
great qualities that militarypeople bring to the table.
There are common misconceptionsfrom, you know, military people
are only good when they're toldwhat they, they have to do.
You know, I can go through alist of, of, you know, of ideas
and preconceptions that peoplehave, but military people bring
(12:44):
great qualities to the table,and when you kind of break it
down in the simplest of terms,anybody who's a career military
person, you know, when you'regiven an order, you carry that
order out, you get that done andyou get it done on time.
Now, when you bring that intothe civilian world, what does
that translate down to thattranslates down to whether it's
a customer, whether it's it's aproject, whatever it may be,
(13:05):
that that military personthey're going to, they're going
to go from point a to A point Bto accomplish that mission.
But if something gets in the waythey do, so put their hands up,
they figure out how are we goingto get around this and how are
we going to ultimately achievethat goal in the allotted time
that we have kind goes back to,you know, you probably went back
to your commanding officer onetime and said, I didn't complete
(13:25):
this.
And it either didn't happenagain because you realized how
to get it done or the militarywas not right for you.
But you know, these are some ofthe qualities that, that we
bring.
In addition to that, you havepeople who are loyal to the
team, they're loyal to thecompany.
They just feel that sense ofwanting to be part of a
community and a mission.
So why not harness those skills?
(13:46):
Because those are, those aretraits that a lot of people
quite honestly lack.
Um, but it traits that youabsolutely would want your team
from the military side.
I would tell which is whyactually what I tell everybody
specifically to Salesforce trustyour brothers and sisters
doesn't matter what branch.
And I know we can, you know,make fun of each other and be
the most ruthless people on theplanet from one, you know,
(14:07):
Marines to the Air Force andblah, blah, blah.
But these are peoplespecifically in Salesforce,
that'll stop dead in theirtracks and say, Hey, how can I
help you out?
So if you see somebody that'saligned to a position that
you're interested in, reach outto that person send, them a
LinkedIn invitation, Hey, I'm atransitioning service member.
I'm a veteran I'm interested inSalesforce.
And specifically the job thatyou do this person will most
(14:29):
likely get that call back and beon the phone with somebody, and
then understanding really beyondthat job description, what it's
like to do of the job, how dothey translate that their
military experience to earn thatposition?
And then also finding out aboutthe culture, because all three
of those are the trifecta, whichwill bring a military community
closer together and realizeSalesforce is the destination
(14:50):
place that we want to work.
Play the King (14:51):
That's really helpful.
And, and Mike specifically, isthere a website where can people
go really to, to dig in here?
Mike Nolan (14:57):
Absolutely.
They can go toveterans.force.com or if you
just want take a look on theSalesforce.com Site and just put
in Veteran of SalesforceMilitary, you'll absolutely find
everything you need, but thefirst military careers homepage
is the best.
As far as talking about theprogram Talent Lines program,
(15:18):
the first interviews offered aswell as the Salesforce military
recruiting program, which is theVeterans at Salesforce tab for
anybody who would like to earn aposition at Salesforce.
Play the King (15:29):
Fantastic.
Mike, this has been reallyenlightening.
I appreciate your time.
Thanks for joining me!
Mike Nolan (15:33):
George.
This has been awesome and thankyou as well.
Great to have a conversationwith you.
This podcast is sponsored by OMI.
The company that makes CRM work.
Today's guest is Mike Nolan fromSalesforce.
Mike Nolan (00:10):
My name is Mike Nolan.
My day job is I'm the seniormanager of the military
recruiting program atSalesforce.
And then what I jokingly say is,my volunteer job is I'm the
Global President o f o urVetforce which is our employee
resource group(ERG) morecommonly known as Salesforce a s
our Equality Group.
I also did a s tint in theMassachusetts National Guard.
So I am a veteran, you know andfeel that my job both volunteer
(00:35):
the day job just really keeps meconnected to my community.
Play the King (00:38):
Mike, I wonder, what were the challenges for you
coming out of service, and goinginto the private sector, and
maybe how d id, how d o thoseinform, you know, the work that
you do now?
Mike Nolan (00:48):
Sure.
So when I got out, it was theearly nineties and Skill Bridge,
wasn't even a word.
I didn't really have a toughtransition quite honestly,
because I was only a short timeand I just kind of got out and
it was like, a ll r ight, youknow, figure out your own way.
But in having theresponsibilities tied with
leading our employee resourcegroup for so many years, and
(01:10):
then just in the past year, Iguess, you know, getting
Salesforce to realize thatthere's a real need to create a
military recruiting program, I'mable to use my years as a
recruiter to connect withtransitioning service members,
veterans, s pouses, whatever itmay be, and, and really kind of
give them some of the ideas andthe framework of how can you
(01:31):
successfully identify a companythat it makes sense to work for.
And then what is some, some ofthe things that you can do to
earn an opportunity?
Because the problem that I I'veheard from number of
transitioning s ervice membersis they're given too many
options.
And in the military, you're toldwhat your job is most of the
time.
So now when somebody'stransitioning out, they have to
(01:53):
deal with w hat, which one do Ipick?
That's going to give me asatisfying career, g ive m e the
money that I need to live thelife that I wanna live, support
my family a nd, a nd it can beoverwhelming.
So, having the opportunity to,to really ki nd o f, you know,
work with people and, and justgive them the framework of how
they can, how they can enabletheir own success is really
(02:15):
where I focus on these days.
Play the King (02:16):
Can you give me a sense of a number of veterans
who currently work forSalesforce and, you know, just
how broad is this and, is it onthe up! Is it stable?
How do you think about it?
Mike Nolan (02:27):
You know, we're definitely growing.
Some of the challenges quitehonestly, is that we're a global
company.
There are countries that youcannot track metrics, but we are
2.1% of the US population ofSalesforce, which when you think
about it, we're less than 1% ofthe population in America that
joins up for military service.
So that's a, that's not a badnumber, but we are we're
(02:49):
growing.
Uh, and with the amount ofpositions that Salesforce has
opened 23,000 globally, thisyear, we're going to hire,
there's a ton of in- roads forservice members and spouses to
earn long lasting careers.
Play the King (03:02):
Let's jump into that a little bit, the free, you
know, the Salesforce, militaryfree tech training program, what
does that entail?
What do you need to do toqualify?
And what do people come out sortof knowing, or being able to do
once they've completed it,
Mike Nolan (03:13):
Salesforce completely funds the Salesforce
military training program, whichessentially all 16 of our
certification programs, it'sfree training and free testing.
The first certification thateverybody earns is a Salesforce
certified administrator.
The self-guided learning can beanywhere in the range of four to
$4,500.
(03:34):
And it's$500 every time you test, uh, there are a number of
people that don't in the firsttry.
So they go back for the second,but all that's free if you have
served in the military or ifyou're a spouse.
Play the King (03:47):
And so you come out qualified to, to get an
entry level job with Salesforce?
You know, what are people doingonce they, once they complete
that?
Mike Nolan (03:54):
Absolutely.
So I give the, the program teama ton of credit because what
they were doing is they took thefeedback that, you know, people
with these service members andspouses were going through the
program.
They were earning that for firstcertification, but every job
that they were looking atrequired one to three years
experience, they said, geez, youknow what?
We've got, you've almostcompleted the bridge, but
there's that one step that'smissing.
(04:14):
So the program team went out toour customers and partners with
a totally loaded question.
Do you believe these servicemenand women and spouses who are
going through the program?
Absolutely, of course we do.
Excellent.
So we're asking you to sign apromissory interview agreement.
So it's called the TalentAlliance Program currently in
the US right now, there are over500 customers and partners who
(04:35):
have all signed that TalentAlliance Agreement, essentially
offering a first interview toanybody.
who earns that administrativecertification.
You're not going to find anycolleges that are going to get
500 companies signing up,offering you a first interview,
but this is the beauty of itbecause it puts you in front of
somebody who's in a position tohire you.
There are big name companiesinvolved in this from Deloitte,
Deloitte Digital, USAA andsmaller regional partners like
(04:59):
Slalom and Poll Source.
But the number is growing monthover month.
So I know I've watched thatnumber grow from 25 to a
hundred, and now even over insurpassing 500 employees, excuse
me, customers and partners whohave offered this first i
nterview.
Play the King (05:15):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
And when you say firstinterview, just, are you
referring to, you know, you sortof get precedence, over maybe
other candidates, what do youmean by that?
Exactly.
Mike Nolan (05:24):
Yeah.
So once, so when you're in theSalesforce military training
platform, you earn theadministrative certification,
you pass the test, then it opensup like a whole new area for
you.
And that's where you can searchby these customers and partners
who are part of the TalentAlliance Agreement.
And basically just click throughto say, Hey, I want to, you
know, cash in my token for afirst in, you know, for an
(05:47):
interview with yourorganization.
And then that's where itinitiates it.
And it ultimately leads to thatfirst interview.
Play the King (05:53):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Thank you.
Um, let's talk about some ofthose, you know, career paths
that open up, you know, for, for, for these, for these folks,
what are people doing?
Like what are, what are therange of options?
Mike Nolan (06:02):
You know, there's such a width of positions and I
can speak specifically atSalesforce positions that nobody
would really think from atechnology company exist within
our organization, but you know,the training program anybody
who's interested in a technicalcareer, this is a great
opportunity to get your foot inthe door and utilize the free
(06:23):
training.
I don't have a technical bone inmy body, so that really wouldn't
work for me, but recruiting,there's a group called customer
success sales.
T hen you've got all theoperations positions f rom
marketing, finance, legal, inaddition, Y ou s ee, we've got
multiple Salesforce towers, soyou have physical building
security.
We have executives.
(06:44):
So you've got executive,protection teams in the towers.
We don't take big customers outto local restaurants.
We have beautiful facilitieswith culinary te ams.
So, u m, t here's actually evenculinary positions open within
salesforce, but anything A to Zreally, you know, the one, one
of the beauties an d t he thingsI love about Salesforce is that
(07:04):
they don't look at at s ervicemembers and spouses and say,
Hey, you know, listen, why don'tyou kind of stick with the
public sector business, becausethat's where you can kind of
relate.
They see that we bring a lot tothe table and, there's a c
omplete A to Z of areas andopportunities that we to e arn
an d o w n a t S alesforce.
Play the King (07:20):
You mentioned earlier, the military really
prizes, the ability to followorders, you know, things like
that.
What are some of the skills thatpeople develop there that really
serve them well in the privatesector?
And what are some of the thingswhere, you know, there's a
little bit of like reprogrammingneeded, um, before you can
really thrive in, in, you know,it's such a different
environment.
Mike Nolan (07:36):
That's a great question because I tell people
from the military that I speakwith, you have the skills for
most positions, what you need todo is be able to translate them.
And, and that really gets downto almost a microscopic level
because what translates well atSalesforce may not for Amazon,
may not for LinkedIn, for anyother company i n the industry,
(07:59):
b ut once you figure out foranybody who's served, you know,
if you go to a commandingofficer or someone that you're
reporting to, they w ant t ohear the least amount of words
possible in the quickest summaryo f, of what you need to give t
hem.
W e're the exact opposite a tSalesforce w e're story t
ellers.
We take every situation and usethe STAR methodology situation,
(08:19):
task action result, and t henmake a story o n if you see
Dreamforce in any of our bigevents that we do, everything
talks about, y ou k now, withcustomer stories, everything
talks about it a nd just how wesolve this customer's problems i
n the best, most e legant,eloquent story.
So key things like that can makea c andidate either fit in, and
(08:41):
really kind of understand that,Hey, I know what it's like a t
Salesforce, w here if they cameeven with the same skills, but a
different approach, the militaryapproach w ould like bang, bang,
bang, bang, bang.
Here's the reasons that wouldn'tfly in our world.
That is probably one of thebiggest things that I would say
is the challenge that militarypeople transitioning out face,
day t o d ay.
Play the King (09:01):
That's really interesting.
And maybe we could just talkabout your own experience with
Salesforce, Mike, what led youthere, how did your career
develop and maybe you could takeme through the development of,
you know, the, the militaryprogram as you remember it.
Mike Nolan (09:17):
Yeah, absolutely.
I've been in recruiting.
This is, this is the only jobthat I've had in my career.
I've stuck with it through thethick and thin, got into
technology in say the latenineties.
And it's actually when CRM was afirst acronym, the technology
and, or the software had justbeen created.
And I still remember the threecompanies in CRM were Siebel,
(09:39):
Clarify and Vantive when I gotinto the space.
So anybody who's been around theblock for a little while will
know what I'm talking about, but, uh, stayed in the space
really.
You know, just by luck.
I guess I call luck now, butlooking back, I probably
wouldn't have felt the same way,but I was, I had a business of
my own that I had for six yearsand three months recruiting
business.
And there was an opportunity toget in with, it was the largest
(10:03):
startup in technology historythat, you know, didn't, didn't
quite take off, I guess some ofthe leaders felt it would, let's
just say, but in a short time itwas the fifth layoff.
And I was in the street lookingfor a position and reached out
to a gentleman that I workedwith in the past.
I was speaking to a fewdifferent companies, but I got a
really good feeling about thiscompany.
And I still remember the email Isent to the SVP of global
(10:26):
recruiting, just thanking herfor the time.
because she was the lastinterview.
And, and I remember her reply tome, which was the thing that
kind of put it over the edge,but she said, Hey, Mike, and I'm
sorry, it took a little bit toget back to you, blah, blah,
blah.
I wanted to talk with everybodyjust to get the feedback.
And she ended the email bysaying, I really hope you joined
my team.
And nobody had told me that,that I got the position yet, but
I got a really good feelingabout that.
(10:47):
I joined as a sales recruiter,spent six and a half years in
that role, but, the last two anda half, you know, I just got it
in my head that why don't wehave a military recruiting
program and, in a position thatI was at leading our Employee
Resource Group, it gave me alittle bit more of a voice and
an opportunity to, to vocalizethis.
(11:09):
It took a little while, but itwas an equality statement that
Salesforce put out.
They wanted 50% of our USemployees to be of
underrepresented groups, whichincludes veterans.
And when I pointed out that theyaren't doing anything for
veterans, u h, I give Salesforcet he outmost credits l ike, you
know, something you're right.
We're going to do somethingabout that.
We're going to change that.
And, ultimately I e arned theopportunity to create the
(11:32):
military recruiting program,which April 15th was its one y
ear anniversary.
So it's been, y eah, it's beeninteresting building something a
t Salesforce that's neverexisted before.
I've got some great support.
I'm starting to build up myteam.
There's, there's a saying inSalesforce plays your own trail
and I feel very fortunate thatI've been able to do that in my
(11:52):
career here.
Play the King (11:53):
Totally.
Um, so, you know, listen, thepeople hearing this are, you
know, typically I think on therecruiting side and different
functions, sales, marketing,operations, customer success,
hopefully there are some, somemilitary people also listening
to this.
because I think it's reallyvaluable.
So I wonder if you could speakto both of those audiences a
little bit, what, what do the,the first group need to
understand about recruiting fromthe military?
And, and then maybe we could endon what, what would you like
(12:15):
service members to know abouttaking the next steps to
learning more about this.
Mike Nolan (12:21):
Sure.
And this is something actuallywe're going through internally
and it's really educating thecivilian community about the
great qualities that militarypeople bring to the table.
There are common misconceptionsfrom, you know, military people
are only good when they're toldwhat they, they have to do.
You know, I can go through alist of, of, you know, of ideas
and preconceptions that peoplehave, but military people bring
(12:44):
great qualities to the table,and when you kind of break it
down in the simplest of terms,anybody who's a career military
person, you know, when you'regiven an order, you carry that
order out, you get that done andyou get it done on time.
Now, when you bring that intothe civilian world, what does
that translate down to thattranslates down to whether it's
a customer, whether it's it's aproject, whatever it may be,
(13:05):
that that military personthey're going to, they're going
to go from point a to A point Bto accomplish that mission.
But if something gets in the waythey do, so put their hands up,
they figure out how are we goingto get around this and how are
we going to ultimately achievethat goal in the allotted time
that we have kind goes back to,you know, you probably went back
to your commanding officer onetime and said, I didn't complete
(13:25):
this.
And it either didn't happenagain because you realized how
to get it done or the militarywas not right for you.
But you know, these are some ofthe qualities that, that we
bring.
In addition to that, you havepeople who are loyal to the
team, they're loyal to thecompany.
They just feel that sense ofwanting to be part of a
community and a mission.
So why not harness those skills?
(13:46):
Because those are, those aretraits that a lot of people
quite honestly lack.
Um, but it traits that youabsolutely would want your team
from the military side.
I would tell which is whyactually what I tell everybody
specifically to Salesforce trustyour brothers and sisters
doesn't matter what branch.
And I know we can, you know,make fun of each other and be
the most ruthless people on theplanet from one, you know,
(14:07):
Marines to the Air Force andblah, blah, blah.
But these are peoplespecifically in Salesforce,
that'll stop dead in theirtracks and say, Hey, how can I
help you out?
So if you see somebody that'saligned to a position that
you're interested in, reach outto that person send, them a
LinkedIn invitation, Hey, I'm atransitioning service member.
I'm a veteran I'm interested inSalesforce.
And specifically the job thatyou do this person will most
(14:29):
likely get that call back and beon the phone with somebody, and
then understanding really beyondthat job description, what it's
like to do of the job, how dothey translate that their
military experience to earn thatposition?
And then also finding out aboutthe culture, because all three
of those are the trifecta, whichwill bring a military community
closer together and realizeSalesforce is the destination
(14:50):
place that we want to work.
Play the King (14:51):
That's really helpful.
And, and Mike specifically, isthere a website where can people
go really to, to dig in here?
Mike Nolan (14:57):
Absolutely.
They can go toveterans.force.com or if you
just want take a look on theSalesforce.com Site and just put
in Veteran of SalesforceMilitary, you'll absolutely find
everything you need, but thefirst military careers homepage
is the best.
As far as talking about theprogram Talent Lines program,
(15:18):
the first interviews offered aswell as the Salesforce military
recruiting program, which is theVeterans at Salesforce tab for
anybody who would like to earn aposition at Salesforce.
Play the King (15:29):
Fantastic.
Mike, this has been reallyenlightening.
I appreciate your time.
Thanks for joining me!
Mike Nolan (15:33):
George.
This has been awesome and thankyou as well.
Great to have a conversationwith you.
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