The person who hires Customer Success at Boston Dynamics started her customer-facing career at a Pilates studio.

Front desk. Then spin instructor for almost five years.

Today, Willa Howe runs the CS team she built from the ground up at one of tech's most recognizable companies. And she's hiring right now.

She's my guest on this week's episode of Holding the Door, and she opened up the hiring manager's desk for you.

Here's one thing she said that I need you to hear.

The CS title is a lagging indicator. People were doing this work under other names long before the title existed. Willa did it herself, in partnerships and program management. She has never screened out a candidate for missing the title. What she needs is for you to tell your story so the work is unmistakable.

The rest of the conversation is just as direct:

What she scans for in a resume in under 10 seconds
The interview question where candidates fall apart, and how to prep your answer
The LinkedIn outreach that made her stop scrolling, word for word
When she'd pick a career changer over a laid-off CSM
Why she just hired a former teacher

If you're applying into CS right now, this is 25 minutes with the person on the other side of the desk.

Listen to the podcast on Spotify!

If you know someone who keeps getting told she lacks CS experience, forward this to her. This episode is for exactly that person.

Watch it on YouTube!

Nail your interviews and get that job offer! 🚀

If you have an interview coming up and need mock interview practice, book a session with me, and we'll run your answers until they're smooth.

😱 Hurry up! 🚨

From September through the end of November, the hiring season tends to pick up the pace after the summer.

Get on it! 🚀

👉 Book a session!

New episode every Thursday.

Gozde

P.S. Hit reply and tell me who you want to hear from on the show. I am booking the next round of guests now, and I read every reply.

2 Townsend Street, San Francisco, California
Unsubscribe · Preferences

CSM vs Account Executive: Which Role Actually Suits You? 🚀

Recruiters put CSM and AE jobs in the same "customer-facing" bucket. The two roles share a CRM and almost nothing else. TL;DR A CSM (Customer Success Manager) keeps and grows existing customers; an account executive (AE) closes new ones. In the csm vs account executive comp question, AEs carry bigger variable upside and bigger swings; CSMs earn a more stable base. Closers and hunters thrive in AE seats. Teachers, support pros, and service backgrounds usually map to CS. Why this matters Career...

13 days ago • 1 min read

Head of CS at Cloudflare, hired more than 40 CSMs. Most had no CS title 👀

He went from a single hire to more than 40 people. He did not fill those seats with people who already had CS titles. Most of them did not have one. That is Rigo Rodriguez. Today he runs Customer Success and Customer Success Engineering at Cloudflare, for the company's most strategic customers. He built Pure Storage's first global Customer Success organization, from a single hire to more than 40 people. His conversation is live now on Holding the Door, and the hiring section is the part I...

18 days ago • 1 min read

Customer success behavioral interview questions: the 6 asked most, what interviewers screen for, and CAR answers for career changers.

6 CS Behavioral Interview Questions (and How to Answer) 🚀

Behavioral questions are the career changer's best chance to win a CSM interview, because they're scored on judgment and evidence, not on years in a CS seat! TL;DR Customer success behavioral interview questions ("tell me about a time...") screen for patterns of judgment, not CS trivia, so a well-translated story from teaching, retail, or support competes head-to-head with a CSM's story. Structure every answer with the CAR method (Context, Action, Result) and end on a measurable outcome. Six...

27 days ago • 1 min read