Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How to Use a Career Sniper on Your Internal Move
Transcript
- Lucas: So you've been at your company for a couple of years, you're good at your job, but you're restless. You open the internal job board and there are forty-seven open roles. Maybe you apply to five of them, fire off the same resume, wait. And hear nothing back. Luna: That's the feeling. It's the classic 'spray and pray' approach to internal mobility. Lucas: Right. And it almost never works. Because internal hiring managers get hundreds of applications too — sometimes more, since no recruiter is filtering for them. So today I want to talk about the opposite approach. I call it the career sniper. Luna: The career sniper. I like that. What's the play? Lucas: You pick exactly one role — maybe two, max — and you go deep. You research the team, the manager, the problems they're trying to solve. You find a way to demonstrate that you can solve those problems before you even formally apply. And you build a relationship with the hiring manager before they see your resume. Luna: So it's like external networking but inside the building. Lucas: Exactly. And I've got a real case to ground this. A marketing manager at a Fortune 500 — let's call her Priya — she wanted to move into the analytics team. She had a background in data but no official title. Instead of applying to the ten analytics postings, she picked three specific teams: the customer insights group, the pricing analytics group, and the marketing analytics group. Luna: Three. That's the sniper count. Lucas: Yeah. She spent two weeks just understanding what each team did. She looked at their recent projects, read their internal documentation, even found a few of their reports in the company's knowledge base. Then she reached out to each director for an informational interview — not asking for a job, just 'I'm curious about your work, could I buy you coffee?' Luna: And did they say yes? Lucas: Two out of three did. The third was too busy but referred her to a senior analyst. In those conversations, she asked specific questions: 'I noticed your last customer segmentation had a higher than expected churn in the millennial cohort. How did you model that?' That's the kind of question that signals depth. It's not generic. Luna: It shows she did her homework. And it's a compliment to their work. Lucas: Exactly. One of the directors, the head of marketing analytics, was impressed enough to say, 'You know, we have a project coming up on cross-channel attribution. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.' Priya spent the weekend building a one-page proposal — no ask, just a sketch of how she'd approach it. She sent it over with a note: 'Just a thought, no pressure.' Luna: So she's essentially auditioning without a formal interview. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the sniper move. She didn't apply through the portal until the director said, 'Hey, I'm opening a headcount next quarter, you should apply.' By the time her application hit the system, she was the only candidate the manager had in mind. Luna: I love that. But let's talk about the risks. What if the director had been territorial? Or if Priya's current manager found out she was networking externally? Lucas: Great question. Priya was careful. She scheduled the coffees off-site or in common areas. She didn't badmouth her current team. And she framed it as professional development, not a job search. 'I'm trying to understand the broader business.' That's defensible. Luna: So the sniper approach requires some discretion. Lucas: It does. And it also requires patience. Priya spent about six weeks from first coffee to offer. That's not an overnight move. But compare that to the typical internal transfer which can take three to four months of back and forth, and she got a faster result because she was the only candidate in the funnel. Luna: Six weeks is fast. What was the outcome? Lucas: She got the role. The director created a new position specifically around the cross-channel attribution work. Priya got a promotion and a pay raise — which is rare for internal moves — because the director had to justify the new headcount, so she could set the salary band. Priya negotiated from a position of strength. Luna: That's the dream. But what about someone who doesn't have a strong internal network yet? How do you even find those three target teams? Lucas: Start with your own curiosity. What part of the business do you find yourself reading about in internal newsletters? What teams do you envy when you see their presentations? That's your first filter. Then use the org chart — if you don't have access, ask your manager or HR for a copy, it's usually public. Luna: Right. And then you can look for recent hires or internal moves on LinkedIn to see who's on those teams. Lucas: Exactly. You don't need a deep network. You just need a target. The sniper approach works because it's focused, not because you know everyone. The research phase is the most important part. Luna: Let's talk about the pitch. Priya sent that one-pager. What does a good internal sniper pitch look like? Lucas: It's not a resume. It's a problem-solution memo. Two paragraphs max. 'I understand your team is working on X. I have experience in Y. Here's a specific idea for how I could contribute to Z.' No fluff. No career objectives. Just value. Luna: And it should be tailored to each team? Even if they're similar? Lucas: Absolutely. If you send the same memo to two different directors, it's obvious. Sniper means custom ammunition. For Priya, her pitch to the pricing analytics team focused on her experience with A/B testing. For the marketing analytics team, it was about attribution. Different angles, same core skill set. Luna: That takes time. But it's more respectful of the hiring manager's attention. Lucas: It is. And it signals that you're serious. The biggest mistake people make with internal transfers is treating them like less important than external job applications. Actually, they're harder, because the manager can see your work history and your reputation. You have to be even more prepared. Luna: You know, this episode feels like a natural extension of the career lattice and the reverse mentor episodes. It's a very targeted approach. Lucas: Yeah, it's the tactical execution of a lattice strategy. Once you know where you want to go, the sniper method gets you there. Luna: And it's the kind of practical advice that we try to deliver every episode. Which brings me to something — we keep this show ad-free. No sponsors, no pre-rolls, none of that. Lucas: We do. And that's a conscious choice. We don't want to interrupt the flow with something that has nothing to do with your career. Luna: If you've found the show useful — maybe you're planning your own internal move — and you'd like to support that choice, there's a simple way. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That helps keep the lights on and the episodes coming without any ad breaks. Lucas: And we really appreciate that. Now, back to the sniper — one more thing that's crucial. Timing. When should you start the sniper process? Luna: When you're still happy in your current role. That's the ideal time. Not when you're desperate. Lucas: Exactly. The worst time to look for a new role is when you hate your current one. Because you come across as desperate, and you might take the first option. The sniper approach works best when you have the luxury of time. Priya started looking when she was still performing well and had energy to spare. Luna: So the takeaway: do your research, pick three targets, build relationships, and send a value-focused pitch. And do it before you need to. Lucas: That's it. One role, deep focus, early timing. That's the career sniper. Luna: Next episode, I want to talk about what happens when you get that internal offer and your current manager counteroffers. We touched on it in episode 10, but there's a new wrinkle with remote work. Lucas: We'll dig into that. Until then, happy sniping.