Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How an Internal Transfer Can Help You Learn a Different Company Function
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about something that I think is one of the most underutilized advantages of an internal transfer, and it's not about escaping a bad boss or getting a raise. It's about using a move to learn a completely different function within your own company. Luna: You mean like, a marketing person moving into product? Or finance moving into operations? Because that sounds risky — you're starting from zero in a new discipline. Lucas: Exactly that. And you're right, it sounds risky. But the interesting thing is, when you do it internally, the ramp-up is actually much faster than if you tried the same switch at a new company. You already know the products, the customers, the internal systems, the political landscape. You're not learning all of that from scratch. You're just learning the new functional skills. Luna: Yeah, that makes sense. So what's a good example of this working well? Lucas: I was talking to a friend who works at a large consumer goods company — think one of the big packaged food firms. She was in brand marketing for about four years, and she felt like she was getting good at the marketing piece, but she wanted to understand how products actually get built. So she applied for an internal product management role, got it, and within 18 months she had a really solid grasp of that function. Luna: And she said the learning curve was manageable because she already knew the business? Lucas: Exactly. She told me that the first three months were intense — she had to learn agile development, roadmap prioritization, working with engineers. But she already knew who the key stakeholders were, she knew the brand strategy, she knew what the retailers needed. So she could focus 100 percent of her brain on learning the new craft, without also trying to decode the company culture. Luna: That's a huge advantage. If she'd left the company and tried to get a product role at a different firm, she'd be learning the function and the organization at the same time. Lucas: Right. And by the way, if we've helped you think through a career move or decision like this, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these episodes going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And we keep the show ad-free that way. Lucas: So back to functional rotations. The key insight is that not all departments are equally open to lateral moves from other functions. Some are notoriously siloed. Finance, for example, often wants people with finance backgrounds. But product management, especially in tech and consumer goods, is surprisingly open to people from marketing, consulting, even sales. Luna: Why is that? I would think product would want someone who already knows how to build products. Lucas: You'd think. But actually, a lot of product leaders say that domain expertise can be taught — what's harder to teach is empathy for the customer and the ability to synthesize insights. And those are skills marketers often have in spades. So it's a natural bridge. Luna: Okay, so what about the opposite direction? Could a product person move into marketing internally? Lucas: Absolutely. I know a guy who was a technical product manager at a software company, and he moved into product marketing. He said the hardest part was learning to write compelling copy — but because he already understood the product's technical architecture, he could explain it to customers in a way that the existing marketing team couldn't. Luna: So he had a unique value proposition because of his cross-functional background. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the real prize. When you do a functional rotation internally, you become one of the few people in the company who has actually worked in two different disciplines. That gives you a systems-level view that most people never develop. You understand how marketing decisions affect product development, or how finance constraints affect operations. Luna: It sounds like you're basically building a T-shaped skill set, but within one company. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. The vertical bar is your depth in the new function, and the horizontal bar is your company-specific knowledge that spans across functions. And companies love that. They'll pay a premium for people who can connect the dots. Luna: So what's the concrete advice for someone who wants to do this? How do they identify which functions are open to cross-functional hires? Lucas: First, look at the internal job postings. If a posting says 'preferred qualifications include experience in,' that's a green light. Second, talk to people in the target function. Ask them directly: 'Have you seen people from other functions successfully transfer into your team? What made them successful?' Luna: And if they say no, that's a red flag. Lucas: Big red flag. It means the hiring manager is either not open to it, or the team culture is hostile to outsiders. Either way, you don't want that move. Luna: What about the timing? Should you wait until you've mastered your current role before trying a functional switch? Lucas: I think you need to be good enough that people see you as competent, but you don't have to be the world's best marketer. In fact, if you wait too long, you might get pigeonholed as 'the marketing person' and it becomes harder to make the case that you can do something else. Luna: So there's a sweet spot — maybe two to four years in, when you've proven yourself but you're still seen as versatile. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing: when you interview for the internal role, don't just pitch your existing skills. Pitch your learning velocity. Say something like: 'I know I don't have direct experience in product management, but here are three things I've learned from scratch in my current role, and here's how I'll approach learning this function.' Luna: That's really concrete. I like that. It shows self-awareness and a plan. Lucas: And it signals that you're not going to be helpless for six months. You're going to hit the ground running, even if you're running in a new direction. Luna: So bottom line: a functional rotation internally can give you a huge competitive advantage, but you have to be strategic about which function you target and how you pitch yourself. Lucas: Exactly. And the payoff isn't just a new job title — it's a much richer understanding of how your company actually works. That's the kind of knowledge that can carry you all the way to the C-suite.