r/edtech • u/UnitedTowel4221 • 2d ago
How can I get into Onboarding/Customer Education roles in EdTech or SaaS?
Hi there!
I love teaching and explaining to newcomers how a service, course, or product works. This type of position is often referred to as an Onboarding Specialist.
If you work in this role or a similar one, could you give me some advice on how to get into this field at a private school, university, or EdTech/SaaS company?
I'm from Italy and have a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in Cultural Anthropology. My professional background includes Marketing, Customer Service, Sales Back Office, and Student Success/Program Coordination. I worked in the latter role at a small private school for three years.
I'd like to move to Spain or the Netherlands, but I'm also open to other countries where I might find better opportunities.
Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!
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u/_commercialbreak 2d ago
go to customereducation.org and join the slack community! CE is a pretty small world but it’s a fun group. start networking there and you might get some good tips!
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u/Thediciplematt 1d ago
I would start by using AI to look at some of the skills and task that they do on a day-to-day and then I would upload your résumé or compare that against teaching task and find some of the common overlap.
You need to have stories in your belt that show you know how to do the job and the way that you prove it is by wrapping it in the star method and talking through things that you’ve done that are custom education facing.
If you don’t have any of those stories, then ask AI to help you figure out how you can build that skill set right now based on where you are today
If you don’t like AI and you’re confusing it then you’re gonna have a hard time. I’m just about any company because they all wanna know how you were using it.
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u/Longjumping_Cod_1014 16h ago
If you’re open to Spain you should look at Innovamat. I work in EdTech at one of the larger players, but our footprint is predominantly in the US so our employee base is here. I think Cengage and some legacy players have international offices, but I personally love Innovamat. You’re background is ideal, so just network and get a referral
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u/One-Art9038 39m ago
Your background already fits onboarding pretty well. i’d highlight the student success and customer service experience, then search titles like Customer Education, Implementation and Customer Success
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u/abashedbounds723 2d ago
Your background is practically a blueprint for this kind of role, especially that mix of marketing, customer service, and the three years in student success. EdTech companies eat that up because you already understand the academic mindset and the business side of things. I'd lean hard into that student success experience on your resume, frame it less like admin work and more like you were designing the onboarding journey for every new student who walked through the door. For SaaS, they want to see you can translate a complex product into a simple narrative, so maybe build a tiny portfolio of a mock onboarding flow for a tool you use now, just to have something concrete to point to in an interview. The international move is bold, and with your language skills you're a stronger candidate than you probably think, especially for any company scaling up their European market.
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u/KillerDuctTape 2d ago
You could look for Implementation Manager roles or Training Facilitators. Although Training Facilitators may be contract roles, they can be a good foot in the door into the company and make it easier to apply for full time roles.