Starting a job during a pandemic comes with a unique set of challenges. Yet, there are more global opportunities to work online than ever before.

It’s definitely an unusual situation. We’ve had to navigate new, online experiences. For instance, virtual interviews and building relationships with colleagues when you’ve never met them.

So we decided to speak with two Salesforce Belgium employees who started their jobs in 2020. We wanted to find out what it was like starting a job during a pandemic.

Hugues Lefebvre, Senior Account Executive, started two weeks before the first lockdown in March 2020. And Babette Claessen, Enterprise Account Executive, started in June 2020.When Hugues started at Salesforce, everyone had heard of COVID-19. Yet, he didn’t expect it to have such a huge impact, both globally and on his own experience as a new hire.

“I started thinking it would be a continuation of what I was used to,” he said, “which is a combination of working in the office and from home, meeting regularly with customers and partners.”

Even though the first national lockdown was announced after Hugues started, his onboarding process with Salesforce wasn’t affected. Babette, however, interviewed for her job in April (virtually, of course). Her onboarding process and start date were also mid-pandemic. COVID-19 had to have had an impact on that, right?

Well, according to Babette, the virtual onboarding process was seamless.

“The onboarding really tells you a lot about Salesforce as a company,” she said. “I can’t imagine starting anywhere else at the beginning of the pandemic that would have been ready to onboard me in the same way.

“Salesforce had everything in place. It was a smooth and easy process.”