Senior candidate, 14 years in customer-facing post-sale work, current title Senior CSM, applying to Senior CSM roles at SaaS companies. Three months in, zero interviews despite 80+ applications.
Diagnosis: classic overqualified-IC trap. The market reads 14 years of CS experience and asks "why hasn't this person moved into leadership?" Stalled at Senior IC reads as a flag, not a feature.
Repositioning: Director of Customer Success, with a parallel Strategic CSM Enterprise track as the fallback. Headline rebuilt around scope (NRR owned, accounts managed, expansion playbooks). Comp band reset to the Director range, a meaningful step up from where they'd been quoting.
Outcome: 6 weeks after repositioning, 7 interview cycles active, 2 offers in hand at the Director tier.
Positioning didn't change the candidate. It changed what the market was reading.
— Dr. Hosney Adel