A lateral move means you stay at your same company but you move to a different department, subsidiary or regional office. I visited a former employer, and one of the junior recruiters was now in marketing. I recently hired a sales executive who had started in marketing before moving to sales. Yet another example of a lateral move is a former coaching client of mine who moved from a creative function to HR at her same longtime company. A lateral move is desirable for several reasons:
- If you like your company but not your role, you can still make a change without having to leave it;
- By working in a different area, you expand your skill set and company knowledge;
- If your ultimate goal is general management, varied experience and relationships across different functions is critical, so lateral moves keep you competitive for broader roles.
Below is a five-step process to successfully make a lateral move within your company, but you can also check out my deep dive on careers, why they stall, how to assess where you are, and what you can do.
Determine Your Point B
Where do you want to move? I shared examples from recruiting to marketing, marketing to sales, and creative to HR, but any department or functional area is really up for grabs. You might also be interested in moving to another region, or to another subsidiary that your company owns. Before you can map out a plan for how to get there, you need to determine your point B. If you’re not sure, talk to people who have roles that interest you. If you’re worried about sending out signals prematurely, talk to people who have left the company or people who work in similar roles for other companies.
Find Out Your Company Rules Around Lateral Moves
Some companies have specific policies governing lateral movement – e.g., how long you need to be in your current role, whether and how soon you need to inform your current manager. You want to know and play by these rules. If you need to be in your current role for one year or longer, then you know applying earlier than that will disqualify you and make things awkward where you are. If your company requires you to inform your manager before interviewing with another department, then you want to schedule that conversation so it doesn’t look like you’re trying to go around them.
Enroll Your Stakeholders
Many managers are helpful with lateral moves. Your manager might see that you’re underutilized where you are or perhaps more interested in another area. Your manager might be open to making an introduction for you or even keeping you updated on new openings that arise. In addition to your manager, you may have mentors in other parts of the company who can keep their eyes and ears open for you and also help with introductions and preparation for any meetings you get. Colleagues in other departments can share information about people and department-specific cultures. Your stakeholders also include people outside the company – if you’re trying to move into marketing, maybe a classmate who is now in marketing knows the marketing people in your company and can put in a good word for you. Enroll all of your stakeholders in your move, not just the obvious ones.
Apply Officially And Unofficially
So now that you know where you want to move, how the company processes lateral moves, and who you might tap to help you, you can apply – both officially and unofficially. Officially, you want to follow the company policies for lateral moves – this might include meeting with HR first or applying to an internal job board. Unofficially, you also want to network and speak to people directly outside of published job postings. If your target area is marketing, have lunch with people in marketing, even if there isn’t a specific opportunity yet. You can start developing relationships, learn more about the area, and be better positioned if something does officially open up.
Plan For A Smooth Transition
If it turns out that you are able to make a move, make sure you spend as much effort on planning your exit as you did your move. You are staying at the same company, so even though you won’t be in your same group, your soon-to-be former colleagues will still be your colleagues. Plan for a smooth transition by letting both your former and your upcoming manager agree on a start date. Help your manager secure your replacement (or train your replacement if s/he is already there). Document exactly where you are on open assignments, and prepare a transition guidebook for your successor so they can easily jump into your special projects and ongoing responsibilities. Hopefully whoever did the job you’re now taking has done the same proactive transition work for you!
Feeling stuck in your career? Check out my deep dive on careers, where I cover why people stall in their career, how to assess where you are in your career, and what you can do to move ahead.
A version of this post originally appeared in my column for Forbes.com.
