💃 Salesforce Consulting vs Admin, 2025 edition 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerd! Salesforce consultants was a peak profession 2 years ago.

The in-house Salesforce admin role seemed 2nd tier to their billable-rate, consulting brethren.

And today? This guy from 600 BC said it best-

Have the turns tabled? Is in-house now more desirable than consulting?

LAST WEEK’S POLL RESULTS

Drunk Ideas Poll

The winner of Drunk Salesforce Ideas, part 3 was 🥁🥁🥁

Reports Report 🎉🎉🎉 with well over 68% of the vote.

And why shouldn’t it be - creating reports that stakeholders request and then never use is like sitting in rush hour traffic - awful, perfectly normal, and a wonder why we continue to accept it 🤷🏻.

A LOOK BACK 👀

*record scratch sound

Rewind to 2021 ⏪, being a Salesforce consultant was the jam.

💰 Better pay.

👷 Better projects.

👋 Better exit opportunities.

You were 007 parachuting in to fix what internal teams could not, getting exposure to dozens of orgs, verticals, and tech stacks while in-house folks were stuck cleaning up duplicate fields from 2014.

Consulting was the fast track. And if we’re being honest? It kind of made you feel like the smartest person in the room 🧑‍🏫.

But it’s 2025 now. And while the fundamentals of consulting haven’t changed, the environment around it has shifted.

So let’s talk about what that means for your career 👇.

COMPS

Salesforce Consulting, Then and Now

Starting with the good ol’ days 👵🏼

Then (2021):

💸 Clients were flush with cash and fast to sign SOW’s.

📈 Rates were climbing.

🏡 Remote work was normalizing and talent was flooding the ecosystem.

🧑‍💼 Salesforce professionals were in high demand, and consulting firms paid up to hire and retain them.

Now (2025):

😫 Clients are cautious and slower to commit.

😫 Rates have stagnated

😫 The U.S. government is scrutinizing Big 4 contracts.

😫 And those legacy problems inside consulting firms - leverage model challenges, billable hour pressures, and offshore complexities? Still there.

The shine isn’t gone. But it’s dulled. And consultants are noticing. And tired.

Actual quotes from people who recently left consulting for in-house roles -

"I don’t miss logging hours."

"I like knowing what my next six months look like."

"I make more money for fewer hours."

They miss the fast pace, the variety, the challenge of rolling off and on projects. But they don’t miss the grind ⚙️.

CHANGE

The Change

So what’s changed? Has consulting gotten worse, or have in-house roles gotten better?

Surprise: They got better.

💰 Compensation is up, especially in large enterprises. Some now match or beat consulting rates. Why rent a Ferrari when you can own one for the same price!

👥 Team quality is higher. Talented consultants have migrated in-house and raised the bar. The talent pool has matured and companies have more and better options than paying ridiculous hourly rates.

Roadmaps matter. No more hit-and-run projects, you're part of longer-term strategy. Continuity matters, and compounds.

A few years ago, internal teams were seen as the B-team. Today? They might be the ones building what consultants used to be hired to fix.

Okay... But consulting still has its perks, right?

Of course! The exposure you get as a consultant is still unmatched:

🤲 Different industries, different use cases.

🧠 Rapid learning through repetition.

🧐 A front-row seat to dozens of orgs (and what breaks them).

That’s a professional accelerator 💯.

But the equation has changed. Because the biggest benefits of consulting - money💰💰💰 - is no longer exclusive to consulting.

So the real question becomes what kinda growth do you want? And at what cost? And where are you in your career?

If you’re in year 0-1, you have a ton of competition for opportunities (Linkedin job postings are still getting hundreds of applicants in a few hours) so if you can score a consulting role, you can accelerate your growth compared to your in-house peers.

But if you’re mid or senior-level, then the maturation of the Salesforce ecosystem since 2021 has been kind to your in-house opportunities! There are Team Leads, Senior Admins, Product Owners/Managers, Business Systems Analysts, and more roles, in greater numbers, than ever.

You don’t have to spend all your waking hours beholden to your 3 bosses 🙂.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Takeaway

This isn’t a “consulting is dead” message. It’s a call to rethink old narratives.

If you’re early in your career, don’t assume you need to get a Big4 logo to anchor your resume; although it doesn’t hurt 🙂.

If you’re mid-career, don’t assume consulting is always the more strategic move with better pay and better exits; even if those opportunities do exist.

If you’re trying to grow, optimize for the environment that gives you the most reps, best mentorship, and strongest long-term leverage.

And whatever you do, keep watching the playing field. Because it’s changing beneath all of us.

SOUL FOOD

Today’s Principle

and now....Your Salesforce Memes