Latest / The Resume Room with Fexingo: Resume Writing, Cover Letters, and Application Strategy / How to Explain a Lateral Career Move on Your Resume
Transcript
- Lucas: So you've been in your current role for maybe two or three years, you're good at it, but you're not moving up — and an opportunity opens up at the same level, just in a different part of the business or a different industry. Lateral move. Luna: And a lot of people worry that looks like a stall on the resume. Lucas: Exactly. The assumption is that career progress is a straight line up, and if you're not getting a title bump or a big raise, you're coasting. But that's a narrow way to think about it. In fact, some of the most strategic career moves I've seen are lateral. Luna: Give me a concrete example. Lucas: Let's use a marketing manager who spent four years at a consumer goods company — let's say a cereal brand. She ran influencer campaigns, managed social, did a lot of brand awareness stuff. Then she moves to a software company as a marketing manager — same title, same salary band — but now she's marketing a SaaS product to IT procurement managers. Luna: So B2C to B2B. That's a huge skills shift even if the title doesn't change. Lucas: Huge. But if she just lists 'Marketing Manager' at both companies with the same bullet points, a recruiter skimming might think she just changed companies and kept doing the same thing. The resume has to make the lateral move read as a deliberate skills expansion. Luna: So how do you do that? I imagine the first step is owning it in the summary or headline. Lucas: That's exactly right. The top of the resume needs a one-line narrative reframe. Something like 'Marketing leader with deep expertise in consumer brand building, now applying that skillset to B2B demand generation.' That signals intentionality. You're not wandering — you're applying a foundation to a new context. Luna: And then the bullet points under each role need to highlight what's different, not just what's similar. Lucas: Right. For the B2C role, you lead with the consumer-facing metrics — impressions, engagement rates, influencer ROI. For the B2B role, you lead with pipeline metrics — qualified leads, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost. Same skill set — campaign management — but the context changes the emphasis. A recruiter should be able to look at those two sections and see growth. Luna: What about the concern that a lateral move means you weren't promoted? Should you address that explicitly? Lucas: Generally no, unless the move involves a significant pay cut or a step back in responsibility. If it's a true lateral — same level, similar comp — let the skills narrative do the work. If a recruiter asks in an interview, you say something like 'I was looking to deepen my expertise in a different market context, and this role offered that without distracting me with new management duties.' That's a strong answer. Luna: But there are cases where a brief context line can help. Like if the lateral move is into a completely different function — say, from sales to product marketing. Lucas: That's a good point. In a functional pivot, you might add a one-liner under the job title. Something in parentheses like 'Transition from direct sales to product marketing — focused on messaging and competitive positioning.' That signals the shift without needing a long explanation. But keep it to one line. Luna: And the cover letter? That's where you tell the story. Lucas: The cover letter is where you connect the dots. You write something like 'After four years driving consumer engagement for a CPG brand, I was ready to tackle a different kind of marketing challenge — one where the buyer is a committee and the sales cycle is six months. That's why I moved into B2B marketing at a SaaS company.' That's a compelling narrative. It shows self-awareness and intent. Luna: And it addresses the elephant in the room — why you didn't stay and get promoted — in a positive way. Lucas: Exactly. Now, let me give you a specific example of how to rewrite a bullet point to reflect a lateral expansion. Say in your B2C role you wrote 'Managed $500K influencer budget across 20 campaigns, driving 15% engagement rate.' That's fine. But in the B2B role, you want to write something like 'Managed $500K content syndication and ABM budget, generating 200 qualified leads and a 5% conversion to demo.' Same budget management skill, totally different context and metric. Luna: So the recruiter sees budget responsibility at scale in both, but also sees the shift from engagement to pipeline. That's a growth story. Lucas: Exactly. And if you have room, you can add a line that explicitly ties the two together. Something like 'Leveraged consumer storytelling techniques to create B2B case studies that resonated with technical buyers.' That shows you're not starting from zero — you're building on what you already know. Luna: What about the timeline? If the lateral move is recent, do you need to explain why you left after only a year or two? Lucas: If you've been in the new role for less than a year, you might want to frame it as a 'recent transition' in your summary. But honestly, most recruiters understand that lateral moves happen for strategic reasons. The real red flag is when someone has three or four lateral moves in a row with no upward trajectory at all. That looks like a lack of ambition. Luna: Unless they're all in different functions or industries — then it looks like a pattern of exploration. Lucas: That's a great nuance. If you have multiple laterals, you need a unifying thread. Maybe you're a 'marketing generalist who has built expertise across brand, demand gen, and product marketing.' Then each lateral move becomes a deliberate building block. The resume should lead with that thread in the summary. Luna: Let's talk about the actual format. Should the resume be chronological or functional for someone with laterals? Lucas: I'd still recommend chronological — reverse chronological. Recruiters are suspicious of functional resumes because they feel like you're hiding something. With lateral moves, you want to show the progression of your skills over time. But you can group bullets thematically within each role to emphasize growth. Luna: Right — within each role, you can have a 'Campaign Management' section and a 'Strategic Growth' section, or whatever matches the story you're telling. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're worried about the title not changing, you can add a sub-title or context line just below the job title that says something like 'Focused on B2B demand generation' or 'Led transition from brand to performance marketing.' That's a clean way to differentiate without lying about the title. Luna: One thing I've seen work well is using a 'Career Highlights' section above the experience list that pulls out the most impressive metrics from both roles. That way the lateral move is already framed as a collection of achievements. Lucas: That's a smart tactic — especially for someone applying to a role that requires a blend of both skill sets. If the job is a marketing manager role that oversees both brand and demand gen, you want to show you've done both. The highlights section can lead with 'Built consumer and B2B marketing programs generating $2M in combined pipeline and 500K impressions.' That's a powerful headline. Luna: So the key takeaway is: don't apologize for the lateral move. Reframe it as a strategic pivot. Lucas: Absolutely. And if you're listening and you're considering a lateral move yourself, don't let resume anxiety hold you back. I've seen people's careers take off because they took a lateral into a faster-growing industry or a function with better long-term trajectory. The resume just needs to tell that story. Luna: Before we wrap, I want to say — if this episode helped you think through your own career narrative, that's exactly why we make it. These episodes stay free and ad-free because listeners like you support the show. Lucas: Yeah, and it's a small thing — you can go to buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's 'fexingo' — F-E-X-I-N-G-O. It helps us keep the lights on and keep these conversations going. Luna: And we really appreciate it. Now back to the topic — one last tip: if you have a lateral move that's more than five years old, you probably don't need to explain it at all. The resume should focus on your most recent three roles and let the early career laterals just exist as part of your history. Lucas: Good point. The older the move, the less it needs justification. The narrative is about where you are now and where you're going — not every turn in the road.