7 Things Support Pros Should Know When Looking for Their Next Role
If you’re a support pro on the job hunt right now, chances are you’re feeling a little uneasy.
AI can now handle more customer questions than it could even two years ago. Some support jobs are disappearing, others are expanding, and the way support teams are structured is evolving. Nothing is quite like it used to be, and navigating these changes while looking for a new role can feel overwhelming.
We get that, and to help, we’ve pulled together some of our favorite advice on the topic. Read on for seven things you should know before looking for your next customer-focused role.
This article includes tips from Kristi Ernst Thompson, Mat Patterson, Chrissy Chavez, and Nouran Smogluk. Look for links to their original pieces throughout the post.
1. Customers (and businesses) still need your help
First things first: Approach your job search knowing that even with proficient, well-implemented AI in place, people — and you specifically — are an asset to the customer support field.
AI is a champ when it comes to answering common questions, basic research, summarizing information, drafting and improving replies to your customers, and routing and categorizing incoming requests. However, more goes into your job than just those things.
Humans are better at dealing with a frustrated customer, an unusual problem, and situations where following the rules isn’t the best way to resolve the issue. Plus, even for the situations that AI can handle, support organizations need people on staff who understand how to implement and leverage the tech.
What we’re getting at here is that while some roles like tier one support may get phased out or reduced at some companies, they’re being replaced by new roles focused on discernment, product education, and technical skills. These roles are still about providing the best customer experience possible, and you may find them even more interesting than the service jobs you’ve seen before.
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2. Customer service skills are transferable
Throughout your service career, you’ve built a variety of skills, and though the work may look a little different now, the new job responsibilities lean on those same competencies. We mentioned a few of them in the previous section, but let’s talk about some of the big ones more deeply.
A troubleshooting mindset
A while back, one of our technical support specialists, Chrissy Chavez, shared some of the skills that she thought were the most important to cultivate as a support professional. One of those was the idea of a “troubleshooting mindset.”
Basically, when you work in customer service, you have to do a lot of research to figure out the root cause of a problem. It can involve a lot of tedious minutes (or hours…) digging through logs and conversations to solve a problem, and being successful requires a high tolerance for setbacks.
This skill is even more important now that AI is being introduced to the field. Automation is taking the low-hanging fruit out of the queue, which means that the conversations left will require more time, effort, and subject-matter expertise.
Proactive thinking and communication skills
Chrissy’s post also talks about the art of “proactive thinking.” This is the ability to read between the lines of a customer’s question to understand what their ultimate goal is, and solve for that outcome proactively.
For instance, say you run a SaaS business that offers both a desktop and mobile app, but the mobile app isn’t quite as advanced. If a customer asks how to do something on their iPhone that is only available on desktop, it would be accurate to say that it isn’t possible. But a skilled service rep would consider if there was a workaround that might not be the feature the customer asked for, but could still achieve the same outcome.
Having empathy, good reading (and listening) comprehension, and the ability to solve for outcomes (and clearly explain them to others) are traits that would be valuable in almost any job.
Data analysis and operational thinking
Of course, the only thing better than solving a problem for a customer is figuring out how to prevent a similar problem from happening to someone else in the future.
Maybe your company’s help docs weren’t clear or a workflow created unnecessary friction. Maybe there’s something that either the customer or your team is doing manually that could be automated or you’ve spotted something automated that is better left for a person to handle.
Taking a step back from an individual conversation to determine a cause, implement a fix, and improve the system is operational thinking. Spotting trends in reports, improving workflows, maintaining documentation, and deciding when and how to automate work are tasks that show up in many jobs in (and outside of) support.
The ability to storycraft
You’ve spent a lot of time talking to customers in your career, and chances are that you’re pretty good at seeing things that other people in your company may miss:
You spot the same hiccup in five separate tickets over three weeks.
You notice multiple customers creating workarounds to achieve something that should already be possible with existing features.
You see the friction caused by a UI adjustment that was too small to even make it to the release notes.
Picking up on these patterns is a skill in itself, but your knack for turning these observations into a story that moves others to action is even more valuable. Chrissy points out that being a good storyteller is both how you help customers gain value from your product and how you get those in your product, marketing, and leadership teams to listen when you have something to say.
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3. Job titles rarely paint the full picture
Customer support often gets the short end of the stick when it comes to career prestige, especially now with AI becoming so prevalent. You may even find yourself telling people who ask about your job search that at your last job you “just answered tickets” or you were “just a customer service rep.”
The fact is that job titles often undersell what you know how to do. We mentioned some pretty valuable competencies in the last section that most support folks possess. You’ve probably also:
Calmed down frustrated people, turning a bad situation into a positive one
Learned complex products or systems
Broken down complicated information clearly and effectively
Worked cross-functionally to achieve a common goal
Prevented customer churn and/or increased company revenue
None of these are support-specific tasks, and that last one certainly wouldn’t be viewed as something that just anyone could do. Kristi Ernst Thompson is a customer success manager at Help Scout, but her background isn’t “traditional.” She’s been a technical support specialist, an elementary school teacher, and grew up working at her family’s bakery. Each of those jobs gave her skills that she used to grow her career in new directions.
In a piece she wrote on how to change careers using transferable skills, she reminds the reader that changing careers doesn’t mean starting over. A lot of what you’ve learned in one role can carry into the next, even when the job title, industry, or day-to-day responsibilities look different.
So instead of asking yourself “What support jobs am I qualified for?” we encourage you to ask, “What jobs need someone like me?”
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4. Not all customer-focused roles are in the support department
Once you stop treating your job title like a boundary, your potential pool of opportunities gets much bigger. If you’re looking to stay in a customer-facing role, you’ll find more specialized positions within the field. And if you’re looking to move to another part of the company, there are plenty of roles where your customer service skills will make you a natural.
Troubleshooting and technical problem-solving
Support pros who love digging into details in search of root causes would make great technical support specialists or support engineers. These roles focus on the escalations that tier one agents or AI can’t handle. They comb through logs, reproduce bugs, investigate issues at the code or data level, and ship small fixes.
Another path for those who want to stay within the support org is to become a product specialist. These are the people who are subject-matter experts on a specific product. They handle the toughest questions surrounding their specialty and often work with product teams on testing new features or training fellow teammates heading into a new launch.
Ready to try something new? Use your existing troubleshooting skills and look into roles like implementation specialist, technical account manager, solutions or sales engineer, or quality assurance (QA) engineer.
Relationships and customer outcomes
For many in customer service, the human connection is the part of the job that they like the most. If this sounds like you, then you might consider a focus on VIP support. These jobs center on customers who need extra care and attention and are best suited to people who are good under pressure.
Becoming a support team lead is another sweet spot for people who care about relationships. As the first step toward support management, a support lead aims to foster a positive work environment for their team through coaching, queue management, and helping with tougher escalation cases.
Looking beyond the queue? Consider roles like customer success manager, account manager, onboarding specialist, and renewals specialist. These roles will let you work with customers during other parts of the customer journey, helping them set up (and find value in) your product as well as keeping them happy and engaged.
Explaining complex topics and teaching them to others
One of the most important roles in a support department is the knowledge (support content) specialist. They’re in charge of creating and maintaining both the internal and external knowledge bases for a service department. Given that most AI systems use knowledge bases as a core source of information, this role is becoming even more important.
If you prefer working face to face over writing, becoming a support trainer or a quality assurance (QA) and coaching specialist could be a good fit. These folks go through past conversations and look for opportunities to improve team performance through learning and skill-building sessions.
Want to teach a broader audience? Customer education and community management roles are a natural fit for those coming out of customer service teams. You can scale up that one-to-one help into broader programs like courses and webinars, or by leading discussions in public forums.
If you like to write, but are more technically inclined, technical writing positions are an option. These writers also produce documentation, but work with engineering and product teams.
Operational thinking and data analysis
If data and developing systems are what you’re more interested in, consider operational roles that focus on help desk management, workflows, automations, and reporting. There is a lot of crossover when it comes to titles in this sector, so search for things like support operations, CX operations, support analyst, and help desk administrator.
More interested in data than service? Similar roles exist throughout an organization — look into product, business, or revenue operations roles.
Spotting patterns and telling the story
If you’re good at customer advocacy and working with product and engineering teams, then look into roles like voice of the customer (VoC) specialist, support-product liaison, bug triage or product feedback specialist. These are the folks who learn how to relay what the support team is seeing to the rest of the company so that it can be used to shape business decisions.
Prefer the product side of things? While the roles above focus on escalating customer sentiment and feedback, product managers, product marketers, and user experience (UX) researchers take customer research and use it to plan, explain, and design a company’s product experience.
AI and automation
If all of the new AI features rolling out into support are what you’re most interested in, look for a position that focuses on that work. Support teams need AI support specialists / trainers to review AI conversations and make changes to improve accuracy and customer experience.
And both customer service and product teams hire AI implementation and conversation designers.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure what you’re interested in or where your strengths are, consider answering the questions in this career crafting survey that Mat Patterson put together. Sometimes just spending dedicated time thinking about this stuff can help you get a clearer picture of where you want to go.
Consider asking friends or former bosses and colleagues too. Oftentimes other people see things in us that we may have missed!
5. It’s often better to search for the work, not just the title
In the previous section, we translated some key support skills into job titles for roles that require those abilities. However, job titles and descriptions vary a lot from company to company. This means that if you only search for “customer support specialist” or “customer support representative,” you may miss out on positions you’re qualified for.
Try searching for language that represents the work you want to do:
Writes, edits, and publishes knowledge base articles
Builds training and onboarding programs
Chooses, sets up, and connects help desk and related systems
Troubleshoots product and technical issues
Plans staffing and forecasts capacity
Sometimes these searches will surface a job that’s unfamiliar, and when they do, read past the title. Focus on what work you’d be handling and which problems it’s designed to solve, as well as the skills you’ll need to succeed.
You just may recognize your own skill set and experience in a role you never would’ve thought to search for.
6. You don’t need to meet every job requirement to apply
Of course, just because you’ve found a role that uses your transferable skills and has a list of daily responsibilities that make you feel excited, it doesn’t mean you’ll check every box. And the good news is that you don’t need to.
Instead, you want to show how you’ll be able to bridge any gaps that may exist. Kristi’s transferable skills guide can walk you step by step through this process, but here is a quick recap of what she recommends.
Make a list of your transferable skills
For this step, you’ll want to gather a few job descriptions that have piqued your interest. You’ll make a table with two columns and list what the job needs and how you meet that requirement:
| Job requirement | How I meet the requirement |
|---|---|
Strong communication skills | I regularly work with frustrated customers on sensitive issues. I adjust my wording and approach in the moment to meet each customer’s individual needs to get difficult conversations back on track. |
Analytical thinking | I recently noticed that our CSAT had dropped and resolution times had risen. After investigation, I determined that the change was tied to the lack of product knowledge around a new feature. To help, I set up a “lunch and learn” with a member of the product team to get everyone up to speed. While it’s still early, our numbers have started to improve. |
Technical troubleshooting | We recently had a tough issue come in where the cause wasn’t obvious. I dug into the logs, reproduced the issue, tested some fixes, and worked with engineering to get a resolution shipped. |
Relationship management | Throughout the last year I worked one-on-one with a VIP customer to help better understand what they needed, manage expectations, and rebuild trust after a difficult experience with our company. |
What’s most important is that you get specific. Don’t just say you’re good at communication or great at problem solving. Think of a concrete moment and write that down.
Make a list of what you’re missing
When you’re done filling in all of the ways you meet the requirements, look at what’s still blank. Maybe the jobs you’re interested in consistently ask for:
Experience working with AI
SQL or reporting
Familiarity with APIs and specific programming languages
Project management skills
CRM or help desk exposure
Technical writing experience
Industry-specific certifications (e.g., KCS practices for knowledge management roles)
Seeing all of these items in one place is a lot more useful than just that vague “I can’t do this” feeling that washes over you when reading a job description. If the roles are ones you really want, these specifics are things you can change.
Make a plan
If your gap is working with AI, then maybe you spend some time getting hands-on with the tech. That could be using Claude or ChatGPT for research, or even exploring some of the AI features available in your help desk tool. Or alternatively, maybe you sign up for a class or read some articles about AI in customer service to learn more and gain familiarity.
Whatever it is you need to learn, make a plan and start working toward gaining those skills. It will make it much easier to convince both hiring managers and yourself that you’re the right person for the job.
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7. When you find the right role, you’ll need to tell the right story
Obviously, there is more to landing a job than finding an open one to apply for. Hiring managers may not be able to connect the dots between your transferable skills and the role they’re looking to fill when the job titles don’t match. So when you’re moving into something new, you need to show them how the work you’ve done relates to the work they need.
When answering questions on a job application or in an interview, aim to be specific. Rather than saying you “answered tickets and escalated technical issues,” look back at that table of transferable skills you made earlier, the gaps you identified (and are working to fill), and craft the story.
For a technical support specialist interested in moving into support engineering, the story below shows how your existing role relates to the new one and the work you’ve done to close any gaps that the hiring manager might expect you to have.
As a technical support specialist, I’m typically managing complex cases where the cause isn’t obvious. I dig into logs, try to reproduce the issue, test fixes, and work with engineering to get a resolution shipped for customers as quickly as possible.
I’ve always been interested in the technical side of things, so to build on my everyday work, I recently attended a bootcamp to improve my JavaScript, PHP, and SQL skills and get comfortable working with APIs so that I can also build simple fixes and tools on my own.
Pro tip: Prep your story by using Help Scout’s Interview Builder to turn job descriptions into practice questions. For each question, come up with an answer based on examples from your own experience.
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Choose your own adventure
There’s no way to know what customer service work will look like five years from now, but you don’t have to wait until the dust settles to find a role. You’ve spent years learning how to solve problems, communicate effectively, and advocate for customers, and those skills are built to travel.
To move forward, put aside some time to think about what you’re good at, what you enjoy, and, let’s be real, what would actually pay the bills! Next, consider if you need to build new skills to find a role that focuses on those things. After that, make a plan and don’t be surprised if the support foundation you’ve built takes you somewhere new or even unexpected.
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Saphiya Hindeyeh
Saphiya is a Senior Lifecycle Marketer at Help Scout, where we make excellent customer service achievable for companies of all sizes. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
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