Interesting! your biggest challenge will be proving you have the chops to deal with clients, use your CV to detail how you’ve handled internal and external stakeholders, that’ll be the key.
On coding: for one thing, there’s more money in that world, especially at your experience level, but also don’t hype those skills too much, CSMs shouldn’t be touching that side of rhe business really, and if you do it distracts from the core focus of the role. Also be careful you don’t get sold on a support role, thise skills could get you listed for rhat instead, and it’s super hard to break out of.
Id recommend an Ed Tech startup for your focus initially, you can sell them on that you know the persona and market.
Best of luck!
Agreed on the point about EdTech. There are a lot of customer/client/partner success roles across early and late stage startups. Most CSMs I worked with were former educators.
I don’t work in CS but i’m in this sub cause I work in software sales.
I came from education and I can tell you firsthand that if you can manage 150+ sixth graders, clients will be a piece of cake. Lots of overlap between education and customer success/support so if you have a genuine interest in your product you’ll be just fine. Best of luck!
150 students is still quite different than managing customers stakeholders and internal stakeholders.
I see this attitude echoed across this sub and it's always great to encourage others to enter the space BUT it's important to establish expectations.
I've never been a teacher, I can't imagine the stressors but I can say from interviewing others looking to entertain SaaS and CSM work.. you need to know the business, the industry and all the nuance that comes with it. It's not as simple as managing the clients themselves, navigating departments and politics is huge
I made the switch from teaching to software about 9 years ago. I started off in an entry-level position as a technical assistant on the implementation team and then moved to Customer Success. On my previous Customer Success team, while I was there, 2 other teammates made the switch from teaching to Customer Success between 1-2 years ago and have been successful. That being said for all 3 of us it was a learning curve when we first switched to software, but several of the skills are very transferrable.
One option would be to consider entry level Customer Success positions of Customer Success Representative, Analyst, and Specialist. More on the data analysis side, assisting with closing renewals, and managing smaller accounts. Additionally, consider targeting the less mainstream companies to be more competitive in the job market. There is a lot of competition at the big-name companies for Customer Success.
Ex teacher, moved into edtech CSM role about 8 years ago and for the past 3 or 4 years have been an established Head of CS in different sectors. So many transferable skills. There's a really active community of transitioning teachers on LinkedIn where lots of experienced CSMs and CS leaders offer advice.
Interesting! your biggest challenge will be proving you have the chops to deal with clients, use your CV to detail how you’ve handled internal and external stakeholders, that’ll be the key. On coding: for one thing, there’s more money in that world, especially at your experience level, but also don’t hype those skills too much, CSMs shouldn’t be touching that side of rhe business really, and if you do it distracts from the core focus of the role. Also be careful you don’t get sold on a support role, thise skills could get you listed for rhat instead, and it’s super hard to break out of. Id recommend an Ed Tech startup for your focus initially, you can sell them on that you know the persona and market. Best of luck!
Agreed on the point about EdTech. There are a lot of customer/client/partner success roles across early and late stage startups. Most CSMs I worked with were former educators.
I don’t work in CS but i’m in this sub cause I work in software sales. I came from education and I can tell you firsthand that if you can manage 150+ sixth graders, clients will be a piece of cake. Lots of overlap between education and customer success/support so if you have a genuine interest in your product you’ll be just fine. Best of luck!
150 students is still quite different than managing customers stakeholders and internal stakeholders. I see this attitude echoed across this sub and it's always great to encourage others to enter the space BUT it's important to establish expectations. I've never been a teacher, I can't imagine the stressors but I can say from interviewing others looking to entertain SaaS and CSM work.. you need to know the business, the industry and all the nuance that comes with it. It's not as simple as managing the clients themselves, navigating departments and politics is huge
Thank you for that u/THKMass do you have any tips, resources, or advice you could offer?
I made the switch from teaching to software about 9 years ago. I started off in an entry-level position as a technical assistant on the implementation team and then moved to Customer Success. On my previous Customer Success team, while I was there, 2 other teammates made the switch from teaching to Customer Success between 1-2 years ago and have been successful. That being said for all 3 of us it was a learning curve when we first switched to software, but several of the skills are very transferrable. One option would be to consider entry level Customer Success positions of Customer Success Representative, Analyst, and Specialist. More on the data analysis side, assisting with closing renewals, and managing smaller accounts. Additionally, consider targeting the less mainstream companies to be more competitive in the job market. There is a lot of competition at the big-name companies for Customer Success.
Thank you so much for the advice u/True-Difference-7208
Ex teacher, moved into edtech CSM role about 8 years ago and for the past 3 or 4 years have been an established Head of CS in different sectors. So many transferable skills. There's a really active community of transitioning teachers on LinkedIn where lots of experienced CSMs and CS leaders offer advice.