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There are two ways you can advance in your career: by moving up or by moving sideways.
The conventional way most people are familiar with and pursue in their quest to advance in their career is to keep moving up the ladder until they get to the top. This means they keep getting promoted in their organisation or secure a higher paying role with another organisation in their industry.
However, another way to achieve career progression howbeit indirectly is by moving sideways.
To move sideways means to move to a different role in your industry that doesn’t come with a promotion or increased pay. Taking this route is not necessarily a bad move.
A study by Xin Jin of the University of South Florida and Michael Waldman of Cornell University concluded that employees who experienced sideways career moves were more likely to be promoted and to enjoy higher wage growth later in their careers than employees who did not.
To increase your chances of achieving progress in your career, you might want to consider this option as it offer a number of benefits
- Broadening your competences
An important factor that holds back many hardworking and talented employees in their career is that they have capabilities that are deep but not broad. This means that their wealth of knowledge, experience and skill set is so narrow that it doesn’t provide them the latitude required for employers to consider them for more senior roles. They are good at what they do but they have not developed a broad range of competences beyond their immediate role to enable them function in higher roles hence they are constantly bypassed for promotional opportunities.
It is a known fact that the topmost positions in companies are usually occupied by people with capabilities that are broad, not just deep. A sideway career move offers you the opportunity to learn new things which you may otherwise not learn if you remained in your current role. The skills, competences and experience you gain in the sideway role can offer you the latitude to then go for higher roles. In essence, lateral moves offer good promotion prospects.
- Expanding your network
Besides the skills you will gain, a sideway career move allows you to expand your internal network by bringing you in contact with more people in your organisation or industry. The expanded contacts you build in turn will prove to be an asset particularly when it comes to accessing vital information you need to perform your role. An expanded network will also increase your visibility in the workplace – a critical ingredient for securing promotional opportunities in the corporate world.
How do you make sideway or lateral career move?
- Apply for jobs in your workplace or industry
You can find and apply for job vacancies in your own organisation if you work with a large employer or in your industry if you don’t.
2. Participate in side-projects
If you work in a small organisation where job opportunities are typically limited, you can embrace opportunities to participate in a side-project. Volunteer to participate when such opportunities are presented or approach your line manager to enquire if such opportunities exist that you can be put forward for. Participating in new side projects will give you new motivation and more visibility in the workplace while allowing you to develop new skills, all of which you can eventually leverage to move up the career ladder.
There are important reasons why you should consider a lateral career move as a strategy for accelerating your career growth.
It is true that promotions offer fresh challenges but it is also true that you can easily get stuck waiting for a vacancy to open up above you. Looking to the side affords you more options.
A desire for career progression is not the only reason for making a lateral career move. It is possible to get to a point in your career when boredom sets in as a result of doing the same things day in day out. A sideway career move can help cure boredom when this happens. The very act of taking up new challenges and handling tasks you were not previously doing can offer you new motivation and inject new energy in you.
Not only that, taking on new challenges that are within your capabilities but can stretch you at the same time forcing you to develop new competences while also nurturing your hidden talents.
Lastly, the arrival of a high-flying boss in a company tend to trigger an intra-company transfer among employees. For instance, the new boss may choose to rejig his team and reassign employees to different roles some of which may be horizontal rather than vertical. When you find yourself in this situation, the lateral career move option you are given may actually prove pivotal to your growth in the long run.
Thank you for stopping by today. I’m Ayo Adebamowo. Author, Speaker and Tech Entrepreneur. I’m here to walk your success journey with you. Subscribe to my newsletter for regular nuggets or check out other empowering articles on my blog to help in that journey. My latest book is Make Money, a primer on launching and growing a profitable business.
Written by : Ayo Adebamowo
About the Facilitator – Ayo Adebamowo Ayo Adebamowo is an Author, Speaker and Tech Entrepreneur. He is the founder of MyMedicalBank, a health technology company promoting digital access to healthcare through creating innovative digital solutions.
A Nigerian-British national, Ayo has been named as one of the 70 Most Outstanding Healthcare Professionals in the United Kingdom.
Having started and run various businesses himself in healthcare, technology, agriculture and publishing, Ayo very much understands from a practical point of view the pains, struggles and mistakes aspiring and established business owners often make that delay their success. He therefore brings his wealth of experience coupled with years of experience and research to help other entrepreneurs succeed in their journey.
