I only used salesforce once (was “forced” to use it haha) and it was mind boggling how anyone would ever want to use it or even become an expert in using it.

I’d rather track everything in a giant excel tyvm

> it was mind boggling how anyone would ever want to use it or even become an expert in using it.

As in a lot of cases, the answer is money. If you have expertise in Salesforce, you can get paid a lot, especially if the company you contract/freelance for is in an "emergency" which, because they use Salesforce, they'll eventually be. As long as you get the foot in the door, you'll have a steady stream of easy money. It fucking sucks though, the entire ecosystem, not for the weak of heart.

nobody who actually uses salesforce for daily work chose it. it's sold directly to CIO/CTOs as a one-stop shop for CRM, ticketing, reports and biz dev, who may occasionally use it for reporting (but more often get their staff to provide the reports directly to them). everybody stuck having to use it to actually track work just has to suffer with it.

Or in my case, it was sold directly to the CMO, and as the CTO I was stuck with it!

you won't get off that easily in the eyes of your subordinates :) but to be fair, i should have said CxOs. CEOs fall for this dogshit too.

Isn't this the SAP businesscase as well?

You become an expert in using SalesForce, or SAP, for the same reason you get a medical license in the US.

There’s a limited number of you who are willing to traverse that gauntlet of abuse, so you know you’ll always have work.

For doctors in the US I think the limit is more artificial than that: a cap on how many med school seats are allowed.

The captive audience after some (mostly) arbitrary grinding,

(not being drawn to serve the niche by any particular talent or interest besides $),

is the comparison being drawn.