Customer onboarding can make or break the first 30, 60, 90 days of your customer’s journey.

That’s why finding the right Customer Onboarding Specialist isn’t just about checking for SaaS experience or technical skills. It’s about spotting people with the right background, instincts, and track record—even if they’ve never held the exact title before.

‍

🎓 Not All CO Specialists Start in Onboarding

Some of the best-performing Customer Onboarding hires didn’t come from onboarding roles. But they’ve done the work, just under a different title.

Here are the most common roles we found before someone became a Customer Onboarding Specialist:

• Implementation Specialist / Manager
  
• Customer Success Manager
  
• Customer Support or Service Rep
  
• Administrative Assistant
  
• Sales Associate or Account Executive
  
• Consultant
  
• Teachers or Teaching Assistants
  
  

These roles share a few things in common:

‍
✅ They require strong communication
✅ They demand empathy and problem-solving
✅ And they involve walking customers through a process, often under pressure

‍

If someone’s done well in any of these roles, they’ve already built many of the skills needed for a Customer Onboarding role.

‍

🏢 What Industries Are Great to Hire From?

While most Customer Onboarding Specialists today work in SaaS, many didn’t start there.

Based on our dataset, here are some strong industries to target when sourcing onboarding talent:

• SaaS – obvious, but still #1
  
• Financial Services – high complexity, high-touch customers
  
• Education – great training and communication skills
  
• Healthcare & HealthTech – compliance-heavy environments
  
• HR & Staffing – process-driven, people-oriented work
  
• Logistics / Transportation – systems thinkers used to managing rollouts
  
  

These industries tend to involve structured onboarding and a high bar for customer experience. Even if candidates aren’t from tech, they understand what it takes to onboard and retain customers.

Education was one of the top industries that onboarding specialists transitioned from. Teachers, coordinators, and trainers often bring the structure, patience, and clarity that great onboarding requires.

‍

🔁 Look for Career Patterns, Not Just Titles

Many of the best candidates showed upward momentum, moving from generalist support roles into onboarding, and eventually into leadership or strategic customer experience roles.

‍

We frequently saw titles like:

‍

• Associate → Specialist → Senior → Principal Customer Onboarding Specialist
  
• Customer Onboarding Specialist → Customer Success or Implementation Manager
  
• Customer Onboarding Specialist → Account Manager or Team Lead
  
  

It’s a good signal when someone has shown growth within customer experience teams. This can be a strong indicator that they know how to learn fast, build trust, and keep processes moving.

‍

✅ What to Look For in Your Next Customer Onboarding Hire

When you’re hiring, don’t just search by job title. Expand your search to include people who’ve:

• Worked in high-touch customer roles
• ‍Come from structured, process-heavy industries
  
• Held roles in support, implementation, education, or consulting
  
• Shown a track record of career growth and adaptability
  
  

These are the people who can hit the ground running—and grow with your team long after onboarding ends.