A lateral move CAN benefit your career

QA's Learning Programme Director, Jennie Marshall, looks at why, in spite of what you might believe, lateral moves can be good for your career.

by Jennie Marshall
25 October 2018

You've been working hard and delivering for your organisation.

You hope to be offered a promotion, but instead a lateral move is put on the bargaining table.

Don't walk away just yet.

In spite of what you might believe, lateral moves can be good for your career. Here's why:

Broadened skill set

In larger organisations, a lateral move allows you to gain actual business unit experience, rather than just corporate experience.

The benefit: you get an operational perspective.

While this makes you more marketable in your current organisation, it can also make you attractive to recruiters and head hunters.

What does this mean? Even if there are no opportunities where you are now, making a lateral move might open the door to a higher pay grade elsewhere.

Network

Moving laterally allows you to grow your network.

A lateral move offers you opportunities to excel in different groups, with different teams and bosses. And anytime you grow your network, you increase your chances of hearing about upcoming openings - a great thing for your career.

Protection from downsizing

Increase your job security by making a lateral move. Sound counterintuitive? The more experience you have and the more people you know in your organisation, the greater your chances of staying with it if there's a downturn.

Change and adapt

Lateral moves create growth. They force you to change and adapt. Whether it's new personnel, systems or different reporting timelines, making a lateral move causes you to continuously improve.

It's ingrained in our thinking that in order to succeed we must climb up, not sideways.

But sometimes it's a lateral move that opens the door to our next opportunity.

Relevant QA courses:

Organising Work and Time

Influencing and Persuading Skills

Understanding People and Conflict

Communicate Effectively

Assert Yourself and Build Confidence

Related blogs:

Creating leaders of tomorrow

Some do's and don'ts for being a great manager

Why technology professionals can benefit from coaching

How to be a successful Agile and remote worker

The importance of ongoing professional development for IT professionals

Network, network, network!

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Jennie Marshall

Jennie Marshall is a double award winning Learning Professional who joined QA in 2011 as a Learning Specialist in our Management, Leadership and Personal Effectiveness team. In her career she has enjoyed a variety of roles within different industries including Estate Agency, Imports and Exports, Financial Services, Call Centres, Utilities and Staff Unions.

In January 2014 she moved to a new role within the same department, as Head of Courseware Development where she was responsible for the overall quality, design, development, administration and coordination of our market leading courseware.

In January 2016 she then moved to a new role of Learning Consultant in the same team, where she now leads the design and delivery of innovative learning programmes linked to business / individual performance improvement for our customers.

She is a respect and trusted advisor within the team, and known for her experienced and dedicated approach to learning and development, with expertise including management, leadership and talent and training and facilitation developed within a variety of environments. Jennie has also supported our customers as a Product Owner on a secondment basis, using Agile methodologies to manage and deliver new learning products to their business. Her experienced was recognised in December 2018 when Jennie was awarded Chartered Manager (CMgr) status.

In her role she acts as lead consultant for a number of large clients and remains frequently involved with the development of various initiatives and programmes from graduate programmes to modular skills development journeys.

Alongside developing great learning products for clients, Jennie also works on refreshing the Management, Leadership and Personal Effectiveness curriculum and is a regular blog contributor on QA.com.

When not absorbed in course development, Jennie can usually be found in her garden, or involved in various pursuits through the Women’s Institute, where she is a Communications Secretary. She also features frequently on her local BBC radio station as a newspaper reviewer.