We at SmartRecruiters recently joined the SAP family, a huge milestone that promises exciting growth and new opportunities. Yet, for some of our employees, this isn't their first experience with our company's journey of expansion. We're proud to have a history of talented individuals joining SmartRecruiters through prior acquisitions—people who have not only stayed but have continued to build their careers and contributions along the way. Chris Raw, a Strategic Customer Success Executive who joined us through the SmartPal (Jobpal) acquisition in February 2019, is a prime example of this success. His experience in navigating change and driving customer value is a blueprint for thriving in a fast-paced environment.
In this edition of our Day in the Life series, Chris shares his journey from joining the team through acquisition and now working as a Strategic Customer Success Executive, a fast-paced role that allows his strengths to shine. You'll hear how he focuses on strategic outcomes, leverages purposeful collaboration, and the crucial role that continuous learning and skill development plays in driving real impact for our customers.
Daily work
Could you walk us through how you joined SmartRecruiters, what those first months were like, and how your role and career path have evolved since?
Chris: I joined SmartRecruiters via the SmartPal acquisition (formerly Jobpal). I was in Customer Success there, part of a small team supporting enterprise customers using chatbots to improve candidate experience. The first few months were interesting. There wasn’t a ready made team for me to slot into, so I picked up special projects for the VP of Customer Success. That included chatbot enablement for the CS team and kicking off what became our customer community. After that, I moved into the CS team full time and took on my own book of SmartRecruiters customers.
What I really appreciated was that, even while working on special projects, I was invited into key meetings and got to learn the business first-hand. I’m carrying that same approach into the SAP acquisition by staying close to the teams, learning quickly, and making the most of being near their Berlin office
What does your week feel like in practice: pace, collaboration, and the parts of the work you look forward to most?
Chris: Every week as a Strategic Customer Success Executive is a mix of fast-paced problem solving and meaningful collaboration. There’s a real energy to the role. No two days are the same, and I’m constantly switching gears between client meetings, internal syncs, and digging into data to spot trends or opportunities. The pace can be intense, but it’s never overwhelming. It keeps me engaged and on my toes.
Collaboration is at the heart of what I do. I’m always working closely with clients to understand their goals and challenges, but just as often, I’m teaming up with colleagues across Product, Support, and Sales. We share insights, brainstorm solutions, and celebrate wins together. That sense of shared purpose and open communication is something I genuinely value.
What I look forward to most are those moments when I can make a real impact, whether it’s helping a client overcome a tricky hurdle, rolling out a new feature that solves a pain point, or seeing the results of a project we’ve worked on as a team. Those wins, big or small, are what make the pace and collaboration so rewarding.
How do you manage the pace of your work - staying fast while keeping quality high and your energy sustainable?
Chris: I’m outcomes-led. The north star is what will move the needle for the customer in six to twelve months, not what’s loud today. So I put my time into adoption, measurable value, and executive confidence, and I timebox the reactive work so it doesn’t run the week.
In practice, I set clear agendas, outcomes, and milestones; block focused time for deep work; and keep collaboration purposeful. I automate the repeatable (including 1‑to‑many), keep comms tight, and use data to decide what gets attention versus what waits. I write things down. Quality comes from clarity, knowing what matters for strategic success, which lets me be intentional in how I help customers deliver results without burning out on reactivity. And I lean on the team and wider org, our roles fit together so we manage customers efficiently and effectively.
Growth & skills
Since joining, what’s the skill you’ve grown the most, and what helped you get there (eg. any habits, support, courses, other activities)?
Chris: Strategic prioritisation, being outcomes‑led and calm under noise. I’ve got sharper at separating loud from important, and lining up my week to what moves value and renewal confidence six to twelve months out. The shift came from a few habits: writing things down, keeping risk and renewal signals updated, using data to decide what gets attention, and time‑boxing reactive work. The team environment helped too, regular 1:1s and shared best practices amongst the BTE (Best team ever - yes its a thing) gave me a clear rhythm to operate in and improve on
What’s the next skill you’re investing in, and why now?
Chris: Influencing at product altitude, turning customer pain and adoption opportunities into clear, actionable product decisions with the right evidence. I’m already doing more here (framing risks and edge cases, proposing guardrails, and routing asks through the right channels), and I want to make it more systematic: tighter problem statements for instance. Ensuring customers are really starting with the problem in mind, the impact that causes to them as a business and its users before getting into solutionising.
This also helps my product team really understand the issue at the heart of the matter for the customer raising it. I’m planning workshops around this as we speak.
Learning & Development
What does effective learning look like for you now, and how are you putting it into practice?
Chris: Effective learning for me is outcomes led and applied fast. I try to practice what I preach to customers when it comes to setting goals for myself. I focus on skills that move customer outcomes and renewals. Lately that means LinkedIn Learning certificates and new facilitation methods, then using them with customers the same week. I work in short sprints, build reusable assets (agendas, canvases), and track impact via adoption, time to value, and the quality of decisions coming out of sessions. I share back with the team via quick Vidyards or notes to recap what we learned and achieved.
Outside of that, I also set myself some fun goals e.g. Networking is important to me as an ex- Sourcer/Recruiter and my latest one is to meet 20 SAP colleagues by the end of January for a coffee/lunch and learn. I am already at 9 :)
Values & Culture
Which parts of SmartRecruiters culture are the most important for you and how they impact your work?
Chris: Together, We Will Win is my fave. It's how I like to work. I pull people from various teams in early, share context clearly, and make it easy for product, services, sales, and other CSMs to help. A problem shared is a problem solved. I think this also helps customers feel one joined up team, not hand‑offs to other people. It speeds decisions, reduces rework, and means the best ideas that increase value get a chance to breathe.
Impact
Tell us about a project you’re proud of since joining - what was the outcome, and what did it unlock for your growth?
Chris: I’m proud of a project where we built a clear success plan with an executive sponsor to grow internal mobility and then delivered a significant uplift in internal hires. We aligned on outcomes, set up simple governance, and made it easy for managers and employees to move quickly on internal opportunities. I loved it because the impact on retention was real and immediate, and it unlocked new projects on the back of that momentum. Success breeds success, and this was a great example of how a focused plan, exec backing, and tight execution turn into measurable results
Tell us about a customer moment where you connected dots across teams to create impact? What changed in your approach?
Chris: We had a Global FTSE 100 enterprise stuck between product questions, integration challenges, and low adoption of features for a variety of reasons. I pulled product, services, and CS into one thread, set one outcome with clear owners, and made the cost of not adopting visible in the QBR.
That landed quick wins on to drive a different action, and opened the door to pilot new features where they’d gone a little bit quiet before. I also rebuilt the QBR into an exec roundtable, with less deck and more discussion, and captured decisions and next steps in the doc. Confidence went up, engagement followed, and it’s now my best attended session with faster senior follow through after each review. What changed in my approach was probably doubling down on being data led, and emphasising the cost of standing still, which any executive would not like to hear if its aligned with their strategic goals.
