I asked my CS peers on LinkedIn to share their stories about how they got into Customer Success and guess what?
Everyone's story was different.
There is no Customer Success major in university (well... there is that one university but it's not widely known like "Marketing"). It seems a lot of us got into Success almost accidentally.
Some CS professionals got in by way of Marketing. Others mentioned that an internship helped them get their foot in the door and have stayed ever since. It's incredibly inspiring to learn how others landed in CS.
Here is my story:
And there are nearly 30+ stories you can read about in this LinkedIn post.
Why am I telling you this?
For several reasons...
Someone in the comments mentioned that they appreciated reading about the stories others were sharing. They are currently going through a difficult time breaking into CS –– this story isn't rare. It's hard making a jump regardless of what role you're aiming for next. Someone was kind enough to share that they love hiring people that don't have a traditional CS background and they even went as far as to share the interview questions they ask candidates.
But wait, there's more 👀
Catalyst.io dropped an ebook covering all of the highly debated topics in Customer Success and one of them stood like a sore thumb:
Yes, being a subject matter expert is great, but you can land a job in Customer Success based on your core CS skills. This finding coupled with the persons comment about hiring people who don't have a traditional CS background is the reason why we are all in CS to begin with (and this could include you if you're searching).
Last reason: among the 30+ stories of how people got into CS, there's probably one similar to your journey. If there is, it's a perfect opportunity to connect with someone and learn what steps you can take to help you make a move.
In the end
I hope these stories inspire you! A lot of Customer Success professionals today went through a rough patch of making the switch between their former career and CS.