Parker Harris, Co-Founder of Salesforce | Your First Job

Parker Harris, CTO and co-founder of Salesforce, joins YFJ to share his journey from a liberal arts background to co-founding one of the world's largest CRM platforms. He highlights Salesforce's evolution, emphasizing the importance of AI and the need for retraining to adapt to technological changes. Harris also addressed the shift to hybrid work post-COVID, noting the challenges of remote work on collaboration and early-career development.ABOUT PARKERParker Harris is the CTO of Slack and the Co-Founder of Salesforce. He oversees Slack’s world-class engineering team and sets the technical vision for the company. Parker is passionate about the power of cloud computing and its ability to help organizations digitally transform and become more customer- centric. Since co-founding Salesforce in 1999, Parker has had an indelible impact on the company — driving its technology strategy, championing customer success and innovation, and fostering an ecosystem of partners and advocates across the globe. Parker has spearheaded many technology initiatives at Salesforce that deliver productivity, reliability, and exceptional user experiences to companies at scale — notably, Hyperforce, the Salesforce Platform, and Lightning Experience. Before Salesforce, Parker co-founded cloud computing company Left Coast Software and worked at Metropolis Software, a pioneer in field sales force automation.ABOUT THE SHOWYour First Job is a podcast hosted by Leilani M. Brown, CEO of Giant Steps, LLC, exploring the early career experiences of successful individuals across various industries.Each episode features in-depth interviews with established professionals, executives, and thought leaders who share the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned in their first jobs.By debunking myths about overnight success and showcasing diverse career paths, the podcast aims to inform and inspire the next generation of talent, encouraging them to embrace and learn from their own initial work roles and every step—and stepping stone—along the way.