Why a lateral job change can be the best decision for your long-term growth
We have been led to believe that our careers will always be linear. We’ll start as the most junior person in the room and slowly get promoted every few years, moving up the ranks until we’re as close to the top as possible.
But the reality is much more complex and our careers rarely follow straight paths. In fact, there comes a time in almost everyone’s work history when you have to make a decision. Instead of taking on the next job, you may consider a career move horizontally or even slightly downward for a variety of reasons.
Horizontal career moves are rarely driven by money or status and are instead fueled by more intrinsic values, such as learning something new, finding more enjoyment, or trying to find a job that better aligns with your values.
Plus, under the right circumstances, they can be a game changer in your career. Making a lateral move can improve your skills, expand your network, and teach you how to thrive in new situations that will pay off in the long run.
I’ve written before about the problem with job promotions; When someone is successful in a particular role, we promote them to another position where they have to start the learning curve all over again. From this perspective, a horizontal change can be positive if it allows you to continue doing what you are good at, in a new role, department or industry.
There is also new research supporting these benefits. Professor Michael Waldman of Cornell University found that people who move laterally within an organization are more likely to be promoted and experience greater pay increases in the long run than employees who are not promoted.
None of this matters when you’re offered a lateral ‘promotion’ and it still feels like an emotional punch.
He found that when you move sideways, you learn how to perform a particular task better, and this diversifies your skills, which increases your productivity when you’re promoted later.
There is also a management term for this. Some people call it a “career cage” where, instead of career ladders, employees move to other departments at the same level, only to see promotions go up or down.
Businesses that actively embrace this concept of an agile workforce, where multifaceted changes can strengthen different areas, actually see fewer employees leaving the company and more internal hiring rather than external recruitment.
But none of that matters when you’re offered a lateral “promotion” and it still feels like an emotional punch. One of their biggest drawbacks is that they don’t give you the same “honeymoon” feeling that a standard vertical promotion does.
A long-running study that followed thousands of workers in the United Kingdom concluded that receiving a traditional promotion provided a short-term increase in job satisfaction, whereas lateral moves had little effect. Although there are benefits, it may take years to see them.
The only way to counter this is to try to push your career away. If you’re considering moving into a new role that’s about the same or even lower than your current position, it can be tempting to think about everything you’ve lost.
Instead, try to predict where you will be in 18 months and use that as a timeline to evaluate. Will you have more skills, a larger network, or a better work environment than you have today?
If your answer is “yes” to any of these, leave short-term emotions aside and make a horizontal move with confidence. Although it may not seem like it at the time, this may be the best move you make in your career.
Tim Duggan is the author of: Korc Backward: The Revolutionary Way to Work Smarter and Live Better. He writes a regular newsletter timduggan.substack.com.
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Tim Duggan is the author of Working Backward, Cult State, and Killer Thought. He is one of the founders of Junkee Media and writes a monthly newsletter called OUTLET.
