Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How an Internal Transfer Can Help You Gain Transferable Skills
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a question I think a lot of people don't ask when they're considering an internal transfer, and it's not about the title or the pay bump or even the manager they're trying to get away from. It's this: what am I actually learning here that I could take anywhere? Luna: Transferable skills. The stuff that makes you hireable outside the building, not just inside it. Lucas: Exactly. And I think internal transfers are actually one of the best ways to build those skills, because you get to try on a new role without the full risk of leaving your current employer. But the catch is, you have to be intentional about it. You don't just automatically acquire portable knowledge by switching teams. Luna: So where do we start? Give me a real example of someone who did this well. Lucas: Let me tell you about a marketing manager I know at a midsize tech company — let's call her Sarah. She had been in marketing for about four years, mostly running demand generation campaigns. She was good at it, but she felt like she was getting pigeonholed as 'the email person.' So she applied for an internal role in product operations, which is a pretty different function. She got it. Luna: Product ops. That's a fairly new role in a lot of companies. What did she actually do day-to-day? Lucas: She was basically the person who made sure the product team's processes didn't fall apart. She managed the roadmap tool, organized cross-functional stand-ups, tracked OKRs, and helped product managers prioritize features based on data from customer support and sales. It's a lot of coordination and analysis. Luna: So she went from crafting email copy to running meetings and wrangling spreadsheets. That sounds like a pretty big shift. Lucas: It was, but here's the key point. After about eighteen months in product ops, she decided she wanted to leave the company entirely and join a startup. When she started interviewing, she realized that the skills she had built in that internal role were way more valuable on the open market than her marketing experience had been. Luna: Because everyone wants someone who can organize chaos and make data-driven decisions, not just send emails. Lucas: Right. She could talk about how she implemented a new project management framework that reduced feature cycle time by about fifteen percent. She could point to specific examples of cross-functional communication — getting engineering and sales to agree on priorities. And she had become fluent in SQL and data analysis, which she never would have learned in marketing. Luna: So the internal transfer gave her a whole new skill set that was more broadly applicable. But she also had to be smart about how she framed that on her resume, right? Because you can't just say 'I did product ops at Company X' and expect an outside employer to understand what that means. Lucas: That's actually the hardest part. When you're applying for jobs outside your current company, nobody knows your internal jargon. Sarah had to translate 'I managed the product roadmap tool' into 'I led the implementation of a prioritization system that aligned engineering resources with revenue-generating initiatives.' It's the same activity, but one version tells a story about impact, and the other sounds like a task list. Luna: And she couldn't use proprietary details. She couldn't name the specific tool or share exact revenue numbers. So how did she make it concrete? Lucas: She used percentages and before and after comparisons. Instead of saying 'I reduced cycle time by three weeks,' she said 'I reduced cycle time by fifteen percent.' Instead of saying 'I managed the OKR process,' she said 'I helped the product team achieve one hundred twenty percent of their quarterly goals for two consecutive quarters.' Those are verifiable-sounding claims without revealing anything confidential. Luna: It's about turning tasks into outcomes. And that's a skill in itself — learning to tell that story. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's one of the most transferable skills of all: being able to learn how an organization works and then articulate that learning in a way that any employer would value. Sarah's internal transfer forced her to become fluent in a new domain, work with different stakeholders, and then package that experience for the outside world. Luna: So if someone is listening and thinking about an internal transfer, what should they be looking for in terms of building transferable skills? Like, which roles tend to give you the most portable experience? Lucas: I think there are a few categories. First, any role that involves cross-functional collaboration — project management, product operations, program management. Those roles force you to communicate with different departments, which is almost always valuable. Second, roles that give you exposure to data and decision-making — analytics, business intelligence, even certain finance roles. And third, roles that involve managing external vendors or clients, because that builds negotiation and relationship skills. Luna: But you could also argue that almost any internal transfer builds transferable skills if you're deliberate about learning. Even moving from one marketing role to another — say from content to performance marketing — you pick up new technical skills like SEO or paid ads that are in demand everywhere. Lucas: Absolutely. The key is to ask yourself before you make the move: if I left this company in two years, what would I be able to say I learned here that I couldn't learn anywhere else? And if the answer is 'nothing,' you might want to rethink the move. Because the best internal transfers are the ones that stretch you into new competencies. Luna: I want to push back a little, though. Isn't there a risk that you become too specialized in your current company's way of doing things? Like, if you spend four years learning how Company X runs product ops, you might not know how a startup with no processes does it. Lucas: That's a real risk, and it's why you need to abstract your learning. Don't just learn the tool — learn the principle. If you're using Jira, don't just learn Jira. Learn the agile methodology behind it. If you're tracking OKRs, learn the framework, not just the spreadsheet. That way, when you go to a company that uses a different tool, you still know the underlying logic. Luna: So it's about learning the 'why' behind the process. That makes sense. Lucas: Exactly. And I think that's where an internal transfer actually gives you an advantage over someone who switches companies entirely. Because when you stay inside the same company, you see the before and after. You know what the old process was, and you can see why the new one is better. That comparative insight is itself a transferable skill — the ability to diagnose and improve systems. Luna: I've also noticed that people who do internal transfers tend to have a broader network inside the company, which gives them more context about how different parts of the business work. And that context is something they can draw on when they interview elsewhere. Lucas: Right. Sarah, for example, could speak knowledgeably about how sales, marketing, and engineering all interact because she had worked with all three groups. That's a huge differentiator in an interview. Most candidates can only talk about their own silo. Luna: So if you're thinking about an internal transfer, you should look for roles that put you at the intersection of different functions, not roles that are even more siloed than your current one. Lucas: Exactly. And look for roles where you'll be measured on outcomes, not just activities. If your new role has clear metrics — cycle time, customer satisfaction, revenue — then you can build a portfolio of results that travel with you. If the role is vague, it's harder to prove you made a difference. Luna: This is really valuable. I think a lot of people view internal transfers as a way to escape a bad situation, but they should also see it as a way to build career capital. Lucas: Yeah, and that's the lens we're trying to offer today. It's not just about moving laterally — it's about moving deliberately into a role that invests in your future employability, wherever that may be. Luna: And if listeners found this useful, I think it's worth mentioning that the reason we can keep having these conversations without ads is that some of you support the show directly. Lucas: That's right. If today's episode helped you think about your career in a new way, and you want to help us keep doing that for other people, you can buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that makes a big difference for us. Luna: We're grateful for every bit of support. It keeps the show focused on what matters — real advice for real career decisions. Lucas: So back to transferable skills. One last thing I want to leave you with is this: when you're interviewing for an internal transfer, ask the hiring manager what skills people who leave that role go on to use. That question tells you a lot about whether the role builds portable capabilities or just company-specific knowledge. Luna: That's a great tactic. And it also signals that you're thinking strategically about your career, which managers appreciate. Lucas: Exactly. So next time you're eyeing an internal move, don't just think about the escape hatch. Think about what you'll carry with you when you walk out the door for the last time. Luna: And that's the real ROI of a smart internal transfer. Lucas: Absolutely. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.