How to initiate changing roles internally

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash

If you read my previous article, Changing roles: Good or bad for your data career?, you already know the advantages and disadvantages of changing roles. I have found that the best way to optimize the pros and cons of changing jobs is to change roles internally.

The best way to optimize the pros and cons of changing jobs is to change roles internally.

Why? Especially in large companies (like Microsoft, where I work), you get almost all of the good when changing roles: You keep learning, you develop your growth mindset, you get to choose your own work, you expand your network, you practice interviewing, and sometimes you can even negotiate your compensation. And this is while you mitigate most of the bad: You won’t miss a bonus or vesting, your advocates and reputation are still present, and you don’t have to ramp up on the tech stack, benefits, or company culture.

In this way, it’s a win-win for you and your company — you get to learn, grow, and explore to find the right fit, and the company doesn’t have to spend money recruiting and onboarding someone new. You keep your business knowledge from the last role as you move into a new role, which is great for providing a different and informed perspective to your new team, and helps you execute on new work faster.

However, when I have spoken with colleagues who are looking for a change, many times they have indicated a preference to look externally instead of internally. They say it’s less awkward to quit for an external opportunity than to tell a manager they want to interview for internal roles — especially if they do not get the internal role. They also say they get more excited about external opportunities because there is more “new,” though personally I think that makes it easy to fall for the “grass is greener” illusion.

In this article, I am going to provide my tips for making an internal move within a company.

Start early and often

A mentor once told me, “If you start looking for a new role when you’re unhappy in your current role, it’s too late.”

“If you start looking for a new role when you’re unhappy in your current role, it’s too late.”

He’s right! It will likely take at least three months to land a new opportunity, including the time it takes to look for open roles, meet people, interview, and negotiate. If you start looking only when you are already unhappy with your role, you will be much more unhappy in another quarter.

Schedule 1:1 meetings with anyone whom you might be interested in working with, working for, or who is doing interesting projects. Retain contact with the ones you click with — add them on LinkedIn (and make the most out of your request), ask them if you can check in quarterly, reach out to them with articles or ideas that you have that are related to their area of the business, and try to work on projects that at least tangentially have an impact on their team.

As I write this, I’m four months into my role at Microsoft, and I have already been building my network across the company! I’ve met people in sales, gaming, video, product, LinkedIn, supply chain, and more. I don’t see myself leaving my current role anytime soon, but the contacts I’m making now will make it easier to find the next opportunity that I’m excited about if I want a change. In the meantime, this networking also helps in my current role because business is always more interconnected than we realize — and you never know when you’ll need a contact on another team.

But how do you find people to meet with? That brings me to my second tip.

Get involved in more Teams/Slack channels, attend more events, and don’t be afraid of cold messaging people

To meet people, you must put in the effort, especially in our increasingly virtual and hybrid working world. I think the best way to get involved in a company is through Teams and Slack channels. Interact with people, ask questions, answer questions, and soon, you will find people with whom you will want to schedule 1:1 meetings. Here are four ways that I have done that in the past:

• Helping other people in skills-related channels: While working at Home Depot, someone asked an interesting question in a skills-related channel (the channel was called #sql, #online-data, or something similar). The question was so interesting, and something that I would be excited about working on, so I answered her question to the best of my ability and asked whether I could set up time 1:1 to learn more about the problem and help me think of an even better solution.
• Spending time in social channels: Atlassian has more social channels than I have seen at any other company! They have very active channels like #nba and #nfl for sports fans, pet picture–based channels like #puppers and #cats, a #phreshemojis channel to show off newly made emojis or request new ones to get made, and hobby-related channels, like my favorite #social-fiber-arts. The #social-fiber-arts channel had bi-monthly video crafting happy hours where I met people from all over the company whom I would have never met otherwise. It turned out that one of them was one of the dozen or so other Atlanta-based employees, and another was working on a project with my same stakeholders! #Social-fiber-arts was one of the most fun and most useful work communities that I’ve ever joined!
• On LinkedIn: Recently, I saw a post on LinkedIn from someone who works at LinkedIn (a Microsoft subsidiary) and who was doing research on labor economics. Most of the podcasts that I listen to are about economics, so I reached out and scheduled time to learn more. As I mentioned when I reached out, I’m new at Microsoft! I am definitely not looking for a change right now, but just looking to open as many doors as possible and make friends across the company with similar interests!
• Clubs: When I worked at Capital One, I started a Toastmasters Public Speaking club in the Chicago office. My favorite part of Toastmasters was meeting other ambitious people taking time to work on their professional communication. We had representation from every line of business in the office — partnership credit cards, finance, marketing, technology, product, and more!
• Pay attention during project presentations: Maybe your team has a monthly “brown bag,” or perhaps your director brought a guest speaker to your team meeting. No matter how they come about, be engaged during project presentations and reach out to presenters who are doing the type of work that you want to be doing! I once saw someone present about inventory “shrink” at Home Depot, and I thought it was so interesting, so I scheduled a 1:1 with him. I found out we were taking the same online analytics master’s degree classes, and we became great friends! He’s even coming to my wedding next month.

As I mentioned before, building a network isn’t all about finding a new role. It can also be about finding a mentor, finding people to fill open roles on your team, learning new things, or just making friends!

Build your brand

When you are ready to make a change, especially internally within a company, it is always best to have as many advocates and sponsors as you can. You want to make it so that if someone on your new team asks anyone who knows you whether they would recommend you, they would say “Absolutely. And let me tell you why.”

Building a brand is much easier said than done, but here are some things that I have done that I know have benefited me:

• Writing: Specifically for Data Science @ Microsoft on Medium! My articles get sent to the whole department, which has helped get my name and work in front of leadership within my first quarter at Microsoft.
• Kick ass at your job: Again, much easier said than done. But the most important way to build your brand is to make an impact in the business.
• Consistency: If someone knows that you can be dependable, hit your deadlines, and communicate progress, it can be more valuable than being the most technical person on the team. Being reliable is one aspect of a brand that is hard to build, and easy to ruin.
• Ask questions and be engaged in meetings: People remember when you ask good questions, give great feedback, and help connect ideas across team members. Managers want people like this on their teams and will notice when people are engaged.
• Put yourself out there: I am still trying to figure out what my brand is, but I have noticed that every time I do something publicly, I have made incredible connections. Through attending and speaking at conferences, I’ve met mentors, been referred to other roles, and referred people to roles on my team. I’m active in some Slack communities like the Slack community for the Georgia Tech Online MS in Analytics and the measure.chat community, where I’ve met some great mentors, found backfills for roles that I left, and actually found out about the role that I’m currently in. It takes time to put myself out there, but I have seen huge rewards from doing so!

Don’t feel guilty

Remember, this is a job. Your company is paying you to do work, and you’re doing work. If you stop doing work, they will stop paying you.

If you’re bored, feel like you’re not growing, or you’re uninterested, you are not going to be doing your best work, and the company may want to see you move someplace where you are able to do more of your best work. This is because if you are engaged in your work, you will be more likely to make a bigger impact and stay at the company longer. And companies typically want to put someone in a role who will feel excited, challenged, and find the work rewarding.

By looking for new roles in the company when you feel like your role is not a fit for you anymore, you will be doing what is best for you and your company.

Know when to engage your manager

Do you have a good relationship with your manager? Are they encouraging you to grow and develop (even if it means eventually departing their team)? If so, it might be scary, but engage them early and get their insight on people you might want to meet, or areas of the business you might want to explore. They know you and the company pretty well; they might know of roles that would be a good fit for you that you might not have considered otherwise.

If you don’t have the best relationship, or you think your manager might push back on you leaving, wait to tell them until you’re ready to apply. No matter what, make sure to tell your manager before you tell another team you’re ready to apply for a different role.

Make sure to tell your manager before you tell another team you’re ready to apply for a different role.

I did that backwards. Twice. And it was a bad look for me. I know — I should have learned after the first time. But the second time seemed different! And I didn’t explicitly say that I was ready to apply, so I was surprised when the hiring manager reached out to my manager. Since then, I have always made sure to tell my manager as soon as I even hint to other teams that I would consider changing teams.

Be patient — but not too patient

Once you have decided that you want to change teams, don’t jump at the first opportunity that you get. Instead, take time to make sure you are running to something that you are really excited about (instead of running from something that you are bored of). On the other hand, consider that I know people who have been “patiently waiting” for years, when they could have tried two to four other roles in that time!

Articulate why you want to change roles

Make sure you know why you want to change roles. Ideally, your reasons should be more focused on the next role (like learning a new area of the business, aligning to a job family you’re more excited about, stretching to take on more responsibility, or learning new skills) rather than things that you do not like about your current role.

If there are things that you do not like about your current role, you might be able to change them! Find the right forums to give feedback respectfully, and initiate improvements. Try to make your role better before running away from existing problems. No role is perfect, so it’s always good to learn how to make your current situation better.

You can also talk with your manager about taking on different projects in your current role to make you happier. Maybe you’re in data science, and now thinking about pursuing product management. Maybe you think you are ready to make the jump to the next title. If you articulate these desires to your manager, you might actually be able to get the things you are looking for in a new role in your current one.

Talk with peers and mentors

We’re all familiar with the “grass is greener” phenomenon, where the next opportunity seems so much better — until you’re actually there. By talking with peers and mentors, you will take the time that’s needed to properly prepare for those conversations and process the advantages and disadvantages of the potential opportunities. You will also get outsider opinions and insights on your options. I know about myself that I am an external processor, so sometimes just talking about my options out loud helps me organize my thoughts and come to a decision.

You can change your mind

Things change. It is possible that you wanted to leave your team and so you were looking for new roles, but you changed your mind and would rather stay. Maybe someone new joined the team that you’re excited to work with, a new project opened up that you’re excited about, a clear path to promotion on your current team presented itself that you didn’t see before, the team took the feedback that you provided and is improving, or when you started learning about other teams, you realized your team is really actually pretty great.

Whatever the reason is, you are allowed to change your mind! And then you will be happier than ever in your role because you will know the reason that you decided to stay.

If you have decided it is the right time for you to make a role change, I recommend that you work on your resume. I wrote Writing a resume for a data science role that I hope will help you get started!

Riesling Meyer is on LinkedIn.