How did you know or discover that you wanted to build a career in Support?
Navigating Your Career in Customer Support is Support Driven’s advice column about crafting a career for yourself. Whether you've just landed your first customer support job or you're a seasoned pro, navigating your career can feel challenging. In this column, you'll hear from hiring managers, recruiters, and people who've made big career leaps. They'll share strategies, tools, and their experiences, all to help you craft your dream career. From your first job to that big promotion, Navigating your Career in Customer Support will give you all the support you need to build a career you'll love.
Join the #career-development Slack channel and dive into the conversation.
How did you know or discover that you wanted to build a career in Support?
What sparked your interest to work in Customer Support? Was there anyone or any event in your career that led you towards that path?
— Aspiring Support Advocate
Cheryl Spriggs, Team Lead of Onboarding Support at Zapier: I’ve always been in some sort of customer service/customer facing role since honestly high school. I started my professional career in implementation roles back in 2015 and transitioned more into a hybrid onboarding and customer service role in 2017. My small team found a CX conference that we were able to get budget to go to (ElevateCX) in October of 2017 and it was at the conference I realized, Wow! you can make a complete career out of Support and just really opened my eyes to the world of possibilities. Meeting folks from that conference led me to Support Driven and I’ve consistently been building my career in CX! 😄
Cyn Armistead, Support Engineer at Travel Syndication Technology: I started my career in tech with a support job and moved on to tech writing, then QA. I decided that I enjoy support more than QA and came back to it.
Stacy Justino, Director of Customer Happiness at Wistia: After spending two years teaching English in Seoul, South Korea after I graduated college, I returned to Seattle to look for a job. My original career aspiration was to work in user research or market research at a video game company.
I was excited to land a position as a customer support rep at Big Fish Games in Seattle in 2008. I ended up moving into a team lead role after about a year. I quickly realized that it combined the most rewarding aspects of teaching with the opportunity to regularly tackle new interesting problems. One of the things that made me realize I didn’t necessarily want to be a teacher for my whole career was teaching the same subjects over and over again in just two years, I was like, ”I don’t know if I’m cut out for that.” As a customer support team lead, I got to do the most rewarding parts of being a teacher in a more fast-paced environment.
Cynthia Avila-Fedash, Sr. Manager at The Loyalist: When I was younger I wanted to work in the nonprofit sector because I really wanted to help people. I fell into a customer service job back in 2005 and realized that my desire to help others was fulfilled through providing customer service. I stayed working for that company for 10 years until I moved on to providing customer support for a different company.
Stephanie Gonzaga, Support Specialist at Doist: I started a blog to share tips for people interested in becoming freelancers. At that time (2008-2010), full-time remote work wasn’t a thing, so you had to start your own “business” and sell your services to clients. Hearing back from my readers and learning how my blog has helped them get their start in freelancing made me realize that helping people learn a skill or use a product was something I’m drawn to and would love to get even better at.
Kat O'Farrell, Customer Support Manager at Wizards of the Coast: Having the opportunity to work at a gaming company, helping people resolve technical issues, all without having to talk on the phone was an opportunity too good to pass up. As I moved up into different roles, and had the opportunity to start helping to build support for products from the ground up, I found a real passion for Voice of the Customer projects and ways to shape the user experience.
For me it is important to consider my team as customers as well as our consumers, and I encourage my direct reports to think similarly when working on projects and processes.
How can someone take initiative while being a support rep?
Oftentimes people are told that they need to show they’re ready for a promotion.
Question for People Managers: What are examples of taking initiative that show you someone is ready for a higher level role?
Question for people who have been promoted either to a manager role or senior individual contributor role: What are some ways you’ve taken initiative and gone above and beyond when you were in a front-line agent/support rep role?
— Prepping for a Promotion
Andrea Bishop, Director of Support WPVIP.com: I typically think of someone’s leadership journey as increasing circles, or increasing circles of trust.
Everyone’s on the team. They show themselves to have good habits, coach others without being asked, lead by example, and speak up when needed. They are growing past that first circle. Can they be trusted with more?
As a lead, you have a short term project you need completed. You lay out the problem and the outcomes and deadline. They knock it out of the stratosphere and return it all wrapped up with a bow on it. Can they be trusted with more?
You have something bigger - a high-impact / strict deadline / long-term project. They showed themselves capable, can they do it again?
They’ve shown they are a good example, they can coach, lead team or project calls, rally a group together, and project manage. They’re ready for a team position. Maybe if you work in high-stakes, give them something with the least risk. If you’re still unsure, can they help out with hiring and provide critical feedback to work on that muscle before becoming a team lead?
Alessandra Pallete, Manager, Customer Experience: I can speak to both!
[For People Managers]
What Andrea outlined above is a lot of what I look for in my team when thinking about titles and compensation changes. My team is small, so it is easy to shine as a leader amongst peers. I look for agents who are always helping answer other agent's questions. Agents who might always offer to help out when a project comes up. Agents who support the training of new hires best. Agents who don't get flustered in an escalated ticket, know how to respond, and are actively trying to de-escalate. Agents who understand how to effectively communicate trends/issues to folks in other departments.
The items listed above help me discover who is pushing themselves to improve and learn/grow in their role. Of course, just showing interest isn't always enough, so in addition to the above, I also make sure the work they are doing is accurate at a very high rate. I can rely on them when I am busy or OOO to support others with correct info, etc.
[For people who have been promoted to manager or senior individual contributor]
Honestly, I did a lot of the above and worked hard to show my superiors that I am worthy of investing in. I started documenting a lot more of work, showcasing the value I brought to the team etc. Not in a bragging way, but if I was tasked with helping train a new hire, I would outline my training plan so my manager could see my thought process and effort that went into my work.
I also started getting more involved in cross functional meetings so I became more familiar with the brand, which was key. I was able to look at situations through the company lens, not my personal lens, and be more strategic in the ideas that I brought forward for improvements to the product when reviewing member feedback.
Ian Misner, Director of Product Support Operations at GoDaddy: Solve problems permanently. Fix it and tell me you fixed it (if it's small enough to do alongside your primary responsibilities), or come to me with a proposal on how to fix a major problem and ask permission to do so.
Every company has an unlimited number of Broken Things to address and the people I promote are the people who make that number smaller.
This is advice that works at all levels, in my experience.
Cynthia "Arty" Ng, Staff Support Engineer at GitLab: We tend to have the stance that when the Support person is essentially doing the job at the next level that they should be promoted to match what they're doing. When someone is part way, we recommend checking to see what they might not be doing yet that is expected of someone at the next level. It's clearly defined with job descriptions, list of responsibilities, list of competencies, promotion doc template, and performance review worksheets. We’ve also recorded AMAs where we had team members talk about becoming/being Senior Support for example.
If you’re interested, I can link to everything except the performance review worksheet.
Maximillian Bauer, Head of Player Experience at Space Ape Games: I like that question, thanks for asking! Too often the best people are being overlooked because they don’t shout it out at every occasion - and those who do shout get promoted although they are not as competent.
From people managers perspective, it can be hard to get beyond the level of “tell me what great things you did”. The closer you are to the team, the easier, but still everyone has a different upbringing and culture and what some consider bragging is being very humble for others. So a few things I tend to do:
I ask in 1:1s who helped them the most within the team. If several people point to the same person, strong indicator there’s someone good there.
If I have a suspicion someone is capable for the next step, I ask them about their team mates. How do they do, what do they struggle with etc. - the more insightful their answers, the more likely they are leadership material. Thinking of your colleagues as your responsibility instead of team mates is very difficult and if someone shows they are already starting that re-thinking process while in the team, very good indicator.
All their work is being done. Very baseline but sometimes overlooked. It shouldn’t even be a question that they get their workload done, and well. On the flipside, if someone struggles to hit their targets but wants a promotion… no way.
Genuinely enjoy what they do. Hard one in support, most people don’t enjoy it but there are some. Are they sometimes dodging difficult calls, or are they the ones who take them over from others without batting an eye to help them out? How can I expect someone to motivate and coach others if they hate it themselves? Just breeds a terrible culture. It’s the job of the leader to distinguish talent and enjoyment from career ambition and from people who see a promotion as an escape out of first level support
Morgan Jassen, Support Analyst: Ian this is so realistic, nice. Factoring in that an employee already has primary responsibilities that typically seem to somehow take 110% of their time. And so they still have to squeeze in the extra project for the role they're aiming for in addition. And then also the bit about telling the boss when you fixed something permanently. Amazing. Seems so small and yet indeed I'd agree that it's common for some people to fix stuff and not tell anyone. What a shame in hindsight if someone doesn't get credit for something they did, and the difference would have been simply telling the boss. And then further the part about fixing stuff without the boss' permission; amazing, because that's fairly common too, the employee thinks they're adding value by doing a project without asking first whereas the boss sees the opposite; the boss sees it as a break in trust if the employee doesn't ask permission first... there's a lot here, thanks for this. Thanks again everyone for this thread.
Jason Yun, Co-Founder at Relay: Initiative is great, but it needs to be guided and thoughtful, because good intentions doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be executed well.
I always welcome feedback from frontline team members and emphasize that I encourage and nurture problem solvers. I usually have a small chunk of project time built for more senior agents so they can utilize this time to work on ideas/suggestions they have under a project manager to help with roadblocks/idea generation.
The most important part of the journey is tone/communication. Like Ian shared earlier, everything is broken everywhere, it's really about making sure you're able to pick the right battles. What I look for in really junior members is being okay with that and not taking it personally if someone says something isn't a priority -- I want to see the creativity on what they do with known roadblocks and how to maneuver around them OR be able to move forward to another issue/challenge that they're curious about.
Those who are able to have that process improvement mindset and able to be responsible with cross-functional communication are the all-stars who I typically elevate.
Phil Verghis, CEO and co-founder at KleverInsight.com: I've posted this free resource (no registration required) before, and it seemed to be helpful. Based on input from 28 senior service leaders from around the world.
How do you pivot into Support from an unrelated background?
What was your journey like to navigate to a support role in tech? Did you start at entry level? Did you take any courses or certifications? I'd love to hear about your journey.
Lauren Eimers, Senior Customer Support/Success Lead at Big Cartel: I did! I made the leap from clinical genetics and never had any sort of tech/remote experience beforehand. I did highlight my ability to help others understand esoteric concepts and my mentoring, teaching, and leadership experience when applying. I did start at the entry level and did not take any sort of courses/certs. I was honest about my skill set when applying, how that could help in a support role, and remained curious and gave myself grace for the learning curve. I hope that helps a bit!
Community Member A: I was an ER Tech and Medical Assistant for 15 years before jumping to support….did that for about three years before moving into our Sales org, and then most recently been working as a Product Support Specialist. I don’t want to be a manager.
Jay Padzensky, Manager of Customer Support at Cointracker: This is something that I really love about Support—you don’t “study” it in college so the paths people take to get here are so varied and interesting!
Myself, I was in education and social service non-profits for the first ~8 years after undergrad (counselor, [unlicensed] teacher, peace corps, teacher in Japan, program manager). I was always so frustrated feeling as if I had pigeonholed myself into these jobs with psych/soc BS and ed leadership + public mangement MS. However, all of the writing skills and EQ development are utilized just as much now as a support manager.
I moved to b2c SaaS support in 2014 and grew to senior in 2017, manager in 2019. Now, I’m incredibly grateful for all my empathy, strengths-based framework, interpersonal skills trainings during my ed/npo years.
Melissa Pytlak, Senior Operations Manager at PartnerHero: I had kind of a wavy path. I was doing on-site tech support while in undergrad for the university computer center. Finished that degree in Biology and pursued biological research, going to grad school and getting a Master's. Learned to love teaching there. Landed at a private company doing tech support for science education/edtech. Started out as a Tier 2 there, promoted to Lead after 2 years. Lab research really hones your problem solving, troubleshooting, and data analysis skills I use all of those daily as a CX Manager/Program Manager now.
Jack Allan, Customer Support Specialist at Ethena: I came from the world of hospitality (making coffee for nearly 8 years in London).
So long as someone is relatively computer literate I feel that folks who have worked in hospitality have a whole bunch of skills required for support roles.
Jason: Great question! I spent a few years in benchside/clinical research. Pivoted away from healthcare to Support on a complete whim/change of scenery. Started as an contractor agent and then quickly built up from there.
I've never gone through any courses/certifications but a lot of having to figure out tooling (Zendesk/IVRs/etc), data analysis (SQL/various BI tools), and the biggest part was just navigating through cross-functional politics vertically and horizontally.
Overall, the journey was honestly pretty hectic in the beginning. A lot of imposter syndrome and I think when you're in hypergrowth, it's easy to burn out since everything is go go go.
Fast forwarding a decade+. I love what I do. I'm proud of what I've done. Now just focusing more on making sure I can pass on what I learned from my trials to avoid folks making the same mistakes.
Amber Parkin, Head of CX at Pirate.com: I entered support in a slightly weird way—I joined Pirate as a UX Copywriter having been in content/advertising/design for the past 10 years. I side stepped to Customer Experience Manager, Snr CX Manager and then Head of in 2 years. Understanding the structure of the customer journey really really helped me - but catching up on the bits and bobs, Zendesk, shift scheduling etc was the big learning curve.
Janina Davies, Customer Support Hero at Agorapulse: It's interesting that you mentioned having worked in the airline industry. Me too; I worked in the airline industry in various roles, but mainly I would say in customer care/claims handling for over 10 years before getting started in Support a little over a year ago now.
I have a law degree and I was mainly working as a paralegal before I made the switch into Support. I loved the law (and I still do; it's still at the back of my mind sometimes to have some sort of a legal role), but when I discovered the world of Support, the troubleshooting aspects of it, the human-centric contact with customers and the opportunity to directly impact the customer experience and the product development process, I was sold and I haven't looked back.
I’ve been so grateful to have received so much help on this forum—this is also where I found my first two Support roles, folks here are truly so supportive. I also went through Rucheli Berry's Remotely Possible programme, which is geared to women looking for remote roles within the tech industry using the skills they already have.
At the moment, I'm learning coding on the side and I'm almost done with a basic html, css & JavaScript course, which I've loved and plan to continue (I’ve been doing one by SheCodes, which is a paid course, but there are many free ones like the Odin Project, for example, if you're interested). I’d also highly recommend the Support Nightschool podcast, which I listened to to get started in Support. Best of luck on your journey!
About the Editors
Stacy Justino is a career coach as well as the Director of Customer Happiness at Wistia, a leading video hosting platform that enables marketers to get bigger results from their videos and podcasts. You can find her on LinkedIn or at Double Jump Career Coaching.
Stephanie Gonzaga works as a Support Specialist at Doist, the makers behind productivity apps Todoist and Twist. She’s worked remotely for almost a decade. You can find her on LinkedIn and her website.