You’ve been working hard and delivering for your organization. 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 finance career.
Why a Lateral Move Could Benefit Your Career
Broadened Skill Set
In larger organizations, 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 organization, 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 organization, the greater your chances of staying with it if there’s a downturn.
Gain Cross-Functional Experience
Lateral moves often involve transitioning into roles that require collaboration with different departments within the organization. This exposure to diverse teams and perspectives can broaden your understanding of how the finance department interacts with other business functions, giving you a more comprehensive view of the company’s operations.
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. Not only that, lateral moves can sometimes lead to opportunities to work with different clients or industries, exposing you to new market trends, financial strategies, and regulatory requirements.
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. But, if you’re thinking about making a move to a new company, we’ve got a number of finance and accounting roles available. Check them out here and follow us on LinkedIn for career insights and advice.
