Grow your career through internal transfers

Co-Authored by Yu Xin & Chit Meng Cheong of VMware Design Team.

Are you interested in career growth opportunities? Internal transfers provide a way to stay at the company you love while taking on a new challenge. The VMware design team would like to share our experience of how internal transfers work and how rewarding they can be.

What is an internal transfer?

An internal transfer is when you change jobs within the company rather than switching to another company. There can be many types of internal transfers, such as changing products, domains, or roles. Here are a few examples from VMware Design.

• One of our product designers changed product teams from an on-premises infrastructure product to a cloud service platform.
• Another product designer changed domains from product design to system design by joining the Clarity design system team.
• A product design lead, working as an individual contributor, moved into design management in a different business unit.
• Conversely, a design manager moved into an individual contributor role as a design lead for a different product.

There are many possibilities when it comes to internal transfers. There is likely one that will accommodate your career goals.

What are you looking for next?

Similar to how designers conduct user research to discover the user problems and goals, take some time and ask yourself: What is not working in your current position? What are you looking for in the next opportunity? Here are a few examples from our team.

My old team was working on a project at a very early stage. The work there required a set of skillsets that did not really match what I wanted to work on as a new grade designer.

Returning back to the thing I love doing most: designing to solve real user problems. Drive product success through design and leading a large scope of work .

Why should you consider an internal transfer?

Transferring internally can benefit both yourself and your organization.

Benefits for you

As an individual, it comes with a lower cost when comparing with external job hunting.

• You will have a much shorter cycle to prepare yourself for interviews since your team already knows or can easily learn about your achievements and skills.
• You don’t have to onboard onto a completely new environment and lower the risk with an incompatible work culture.
• You can start contributing right away, leveraging your existing domain knowledge and internal network to dive right into your new project.
• Financially, you will likely keep your unvested stock and benefits without any gap.

Benefits for the organization

Using VMware Design as an example, internal transfers align with our organization’s values and make us more effective.

• We care about designer career development and always want to find the right position for you to grow.
• It can also contribute to a healthy organization by cross-pollination. The transferred designers can share best practices and experiences from the previous team, and potentially connect the two teams for more collaboration.
• The company saves a lot of resources by keeping an experienced designer rather than hiring externally and spending time onboarding.

VMware is building a thriving design community with plentiful opportunities. Our managers focus on growing our talent and when someone is looking for a change, we encourage them to consider the opportunities offered internally. There is probably a welcoming team waiting to meet them here.

— Sudeep Dasgupta, Design Director

When is the right time? Am I qualified?

At VMware, you can apply for an internal transfer if you have been in the current role for at least a year, and are in good standing. Check out your company’s policies and guidelines on internal transfers before you start the process.

How to get started?

You can start by having a conversation with your manager on your career goal. It is a part of a manager’s job to support their team’s career growth. If there is no fit within the team, your manager can reach out to the bigger organization.

Otherwise, if you are not comfortable bringing this up with your manager, or not sure if you want to switch yet, you can also do your own research by searching on the internal job site, reaching out to the related recruiters, or talking to your fellow coworkers.

It might take a while until the right position opens up. Also, don’t be afraid to look beyond your immediate circles. The broader you look, the better chances you get of finding a match.

Once you have found one or a few potential positions, you can engage with the hiring managers casually. Being in the same company or team can save you the step of connecting with the recruiter first. You can share your goals and expectations with the hiring manager directly to see there is a mutual fit. Take advantage of all these internal networks and resources to help you make a more informed decision which otherwise would not be possible for external applicants. Don’t be afraid to reach out, hiring managers are generally interested in internal applicants too.

“Hiring managers want you to find the right fit in your next move as much as they want the right fit for their available role. So the conversation will likely revolve around what you are looking for in your next step and why you think this role would help you achieve that. If you aren’t sure, do your research on similar roles and ask questions to discover how the role might differ from your current experience.”

— Rebecca McMillin, Sr. Manager

Start the application

Did it turn out to be a good fit? You can now move on to the formal application.

Step 0 - Make sure to communicate your decision with your current manager if you have not already done so. You will need your manager’s support to proceed. Tell them why this role interests you and what you are looking for from it.

Step 1- Work with the recruiter to start the application. Depending on the teams, you may or may not need an actual interview. Clarify the expectation with the recruiter or the new manager.

Step 2 - Go through the interview process if applicable. Some of our designers who were making major product or domain switches went through a formal interview that included a portfolio review and several 1:1 sessions. Others skipped the interview and started paperwork once the two managers aligned.

Step 3 - Wait for the recruiter to work with the two managers to go through the organizational changes to make it official.

What happens next?

If things go well, congratulations on the new job!

You can then start planning to hand off your current project. Identify an end date and communicate it to all the stakeholders, wrap up unfinished stories, document any resources for the person taking over. One interesting part of the internal transfer is that you are still in the company, so most likely there will be an overlapping period between your current and new role. The sooner you can hand over the work, the earlier you start with your new journey. It usually takes 1–3 months for our designers to finish the transition.

We know changing roles can be a huge transition, but we encourage you to check out opportunities for internal transfers now that you know all the benefits they come with. And if you’re still looking for a change, VMware Design is hiring!