In 2026, 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
I primarily search for 3 kinds of roles: Customer Success Managers, Onboarding/Implementation, and Leadership. Here’s a breakdown of each:
Role | Manages | KPIs | Variable Comp |
|---|---|---|---|
Customer Success Manager (CSM) | relationship of a customer post-sales, varying in strategic, technical and commercial complexity | adoption and/or renewals | often |
Onboarding/Implementation Manager | initial onboarding process for new customers on a project basis, varying in complexity and technicality | Customer & product milestones | rarely |
Leadership | Managing the team and/or the strategy of Customer Success teams | Team-wide metrics | often |
Customer Success Experience Levels
Now, once you identify your target role, you also want to identify your target level. A level is what determines compensation and your day-to-day, and it is top of mind for hiring teams when they are evaluating your resume and experience.
Level | Years of Experience | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Associate/Specialist | 0-3 | CSM, Onboarding/Implementation |
Manager | 0-2+ | CSM, Onboarding/Implementation |
Lead | 3+ | CSM, Onboarding/Implementation, Leadership |
Senior | 5+ | CSM, Onboarding/Implementation, Leadership |
Manager (of) | 5+ | Leadership |
Director | 10+ | Leadership |
Customer Success Customer Segments
When you understand your role and your level, then you need to understand the types of customers you will be working with. This is a huge component of the role, because the higher the segment, the more experience with that segment the hiring teams will require.
Segment | Customer Types | Experience | Book Size |
|---|---|---|---|
SMB | Small to medium businesses, think bootstrapped startups, local or B2C companies | Previous SMB experience or no experience in CS | high volume, low engagement, typically 75-100+ |
Mid-Market | Mid-size businesses, sometimes fast-growing, sometimes small spend large companies | 2+ years in SMB or 1+ year in Mid-Market | a balance of volume and engagement, typically around 30-40 |
Enterprise | Large, complex organizations with high spend and a lot of internal complexity and bureaucracy | 1+ year in Enterprise or 5+ years in Mid-Market | prioritize high engagement, 20 or less |
Strategic | The most valuable customers to an organization, think Fortune 100, contracts worth millions | 1+ years in Strategic or 3+ years in Enterprise | 5 or less, some Strategic CSMs even have only 1 customer |
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 | Customer Types | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Enterprise | Serves very large, global and complex organizations | Cloud, Cybersecurity, Big Data, Compliance |
B2B | Serves businesses across size ranges | Productivity, MarTech, SalesTech, CRMs, HRTech |
HealthTech | Serves healthcare centers, businesses or consumers | Benefits management, Healthcare data, consumer wellness |
FinTech | Serves businesses, financial institutions or consumers | Banking, payment processing, exchanges |
EdTech | Serves districts, schools and teachers | Learning management, classroom management, supplemental educational tools |
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].