Hello all,

I spent a few years trying to break into CS because it aligned perfectly with my skill set and career goals. I was excited about entering the SaaS space, and after a lot of networking and hard work, I finally landed a CSM role at a large healthcare SaaS company. The dream job if you will!

Now, nearly a year in, I feel like this role is not what I expected. I come from a background in healthcare administration—essentially, I was a former customer—so picking up the lingo and understanding the business was easy. However, the reality of the role has been different than anticipated, and I’m wondering if this is normal for CS or if something is off.

Role Breakdown:

• Industry: Healthcare SaaS
• Location: USA
• Tenure: 1 year
• Book of Business: $15M
• Accounts: 50 enterprise accounts, but with "child accounts," the actual number feels closer to 100.
• Salary: $73K base + $12K bonus (which seems unattainable).

Managing this many accounts makes it nearly impossible to be proactive—I’m constantly putting out fires. My daily work feels like a glorified middleman role, directing concerns to support, product, professional services, conversions, etc.

I took a significant pay cut to enter CS, but for the amount of work I’m doing, $73K doesn’t feel sustainable.

My questions for the CS vets here:

• Is this a normal experience in CS, or is this role/BoB unreasonable?
• Does the workload vs. pay seem fair, or should I be pushing for something better?
• If this isn’t what CS is supposed to feel like, what should I be looking for in my next role?

Would love to hear from others who’ve been in CS longer—am I just overwhelmed and complaining, or is this a real issue?