In 2025, there are less jobs, more competition, and more noise. Hiring teams are all about minimizing risk; they want someone who can prove they can do the job.
The people who are succeeding are the ones who are leveraging what they already know to step in a role with confidence.
That means your best shot isn’t reinventing yourself, but doubling down on what you’ve already got.
Your Target Role
What types of companies have you worked for? What niche skillset do you possess? What have you done before?
Most importantly: what can you prove?
Your Target role should be a combination of:
a role you have already done or can prove you can do, with metrics, and customer stories, and projects to share and discuss;
a category you have already worked in or have high expertise in.
Focus is Key
The key to establishing your Target Role is to pick one role that you can focus your job search on. While you can target multiple roles in your job search, you should not be targeting all roles equally. Prioritize – this will be important later.
Customer Success Roles
Role | Manages | KPIs | Variable Comp |
|---|---|---|---|
Customer Success Manager (CSM) | relationship of a customer post-sales | adoption and renewals | often |
Onboarding Manager | initial onboarding process for new customers on a project basis | Customer & product milestones | rarely |
Implementation Manager | initial onboarding process for new customers on a project basis, though usually more complex and technical in nature | Customer & product milestones | rarely |
Account Manager | commercial relationship of a customer. Typically a revenue-producing role with a quota | Renewal and expansion | often |
Renewals Manager | Renewals across a team of CSMs, rather than a book of specific customers | renewal | often |
Leadership | team & strategy of any CS roles | Team-wide metrics | often |
You should also identify your level, or any other qualifier, because the more specific the better:
SMB - best for previous SMB experience or 1-2 years in Customer Success
Mid-Market - best for 2-4 years in Customer Success serving SMB or Mid-Market
Senior - 5+ years in the specific role
Enterprise - experience serving Enterprise segment customers (definition varies by company, but typically high spend, Fortune 500, etc)
Principal/Named/Strategic - 7+ years in a specific role, experience working with small portfolios of very large, very important customers
This list is not exhaustive – there’s always edge cases we can’t account for – but it is intended to give you an idea of the scope of Customer Success, and make you aware of roles you might not have known about.
Customer Success Industries
As I’ve been putting together the Job Drops, I’ve identified a few industries that are the most relevant to the Customer Success Jobs I see every day. This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but a jumping off point for you to think about your expertise.
Industry | Enterprise SaaS | B2B SaaS | HealthTech | FinTech |
Serves | very large, global and complex organizations | businesses across size ranges | healthcare centers, businesses or consumers | businesses, financial institutions or consumers |
Examples | Cloud, Cybersecurity, Big Data, Compliance | Productivity, MarTech, SalesTech, CRMs, HRTech | Benefits management, Healthcare data, consumer wellness | Banking, payment processing, exchanges |
Real Life Examples
You’ve got Tech Experience
Example: You’re a CSM at a MarTech company.
Same Role, New Company: Target CSM roles at other MarTech companies, leveraging your expertise in the market and customer.
Adjacent Categories: Target companies in SalesTech or Analytics, where there is some overlap in the product, customer, and solutions, but also some key differences.
Adjacent Roles: Target Implementation or Account Management roles at other MarTech companies, leveraging your expertise in the market and customer but in a different function.
You’re Pivoting to Tech
Even if you don’t have tech experience, you can and should leverage your experience when searching for a tech role.
Example: You’re a Hospitality Manager at a 4 star hotel.
Tools you used in your job: Target companies you used in the day to day at your hotel. You’re already an expert.
Bring the Customer Perspective: Target CSM or Onboarding roles at companies that serve hotels like Hospitality Tech or Travel Tech, where you are an expert in their needs.
Exercise: Finding your Target Role
If you already have your target role in mind, fantastic! You can skip to the next section.
If you are juggling multiple roles or categories, let’s do an exercise to establish the right target for you.
First, List out all the job titles you are interested in.
Use these questions to prioritize the roles:
Can you demonstrate on your resume that you’ve done this job before?
Can you demonstrate on your resume that you’ve done a job that is very similar in core responsibilities, even if it was in a different industry?
Will it be a new role for you, but you are counting on leveraging your category expertise and/or existing network?
Next, list all the industries you are interested in.
Use these questions to prioritize the industries:
Can you demonstrate expertise and experience in this industry?
How large is this industry? Are there multiple companies you can target?
Is this industry growing or shrinking?
Then, list out types of customers you’ve worked with.
Were they SMB? Enterprise? Somewhere in between? Even better if you can group them by ARR, as many companies may define customer segments differently.
Prioritize by the customers you have the most experience with, and enjoyed working with the most.
Next, list out sizes of companies you’ve worked for.
Did you work a startup? Global conglommerate? All the many steps in between? The best way to group them is by employee size.
Prioritize by the companies you have most experience with, and enjoyed the environments the most.
Then, compare the lists.
Take the highest value from each list. You should now have a Target Role that looks something like:
[Customers] + [Job Title] + [Industry] + [Company Size]
or
Mid-Market ($100k ARR) Customer Success Manager in Martech for Startups (<500 employees)
Last, vet the list.
This is the most important part of the exercise.
Find 3-5 companies in your priority industry – I like to use Builtin.com as a resource – and go to their ‘Careers’ page. Do they have any openings for your priority role?
Do these jobs meet your other requirements for location, salary, benefits?
Look them up on Linkedin, go to the ‘People’ tab, and search for your ideal role. Do they have people currently working in that role?
This proves that your target role exists in this industry. And as a bonus, make note of how these folks are talking about their work, what keywords they are using on the Linkedin profile. This will come in handy later!
For those who can’t choose
If you do all that and are still saying: “but Nicole…” it’s ok, I forgive you!
If you must be open to multiple roles, then you can break them down into Primary and Secondary target roles.
Pick your highest priority option as your Primary Target Role – the one you are best positioned to get.
Then, you can establish Secondary Target Roles – ones that you can get and are less interested in, or if your Primary Target is very niche, to get you more chances at the apple.
Just know that the more roles you add to your search, the more work you are making for yourself.
Still Stuck?
One of the most challenging parts of this exercise is pushing past any imposter syndrome and recognizing your value. If this exercise makes you want to shrink, then I challenge you to rise up instead. Pretend you’re not doing this for yourself, but for your talented friend who is having trouble seeing their qualities.
And you are always welcome to email me with questions at [email protected].