Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / The Case Against the Internal Transfer Cold Pitch
Transcript
- Lucas: So here's a number I've been thinking about: according to LinkedIn's 2025 Workforce Report, employees who had three or more informal conversations with people in their target role or department before formally applying for an internal transfer were 2.4 times more likely to still be in that role twelve months later. Luna: That's a huge retention gap. And it's not about the interview — it's about what happens before you even raise your hand. Lucas: Exactly. And I think most people get this backwards. They see an interesting job posting internally, and their first instinct is to email the hiring manager with their resume attached. That's what I'd call the cold pitch. And it almost always triggers a defensive reaction from your current boss who gets looped in before you've built any internal consensus. Luna: Yeah, and then you're suddenly in a weird loyalty negotiation before you've even figured out if the role is right for you. Lucas: Right. So today I want to walk through the alternative approach — one that I've seen work really well at a few big companies. I'll use a specific example: a marketing manager at a Fortune 500 consumer goods company, let's call her Sarah. She wanted to move from brand marketing into corporate strategy. She didn't apply to a single posted job for the first six months. Luna: Six months of not applying? That feels counterintuitive when you're impatient for a change. Lucas: It is counterintuitive, but here's what Sarah did instead. She spent those six months building what I'd call internal network velocity. She identified fifteen people in the strategy group — across different levels and geographies — and set up informal coffees. Not asking for a job. Just asking about their work, their biggest challenges, what a typical week looked like. Luna: So she was doing informational interviews but inside the same company. That's smart because she could leverage the internal directory and common Slack channels. Lucas: Exactly. And she was careful about timing. She never sent the same message to two people in the same week. She spaced them out so no one noticed a pattern. And she never mentioned it to her manager. The goal was to gather signal — to understand whether she actually wanted the job and whether she'd be a good fit — before she committed to anything publicly. Luna: I love that. It's the opposite of the spray and pray approach. She was building a map of the strategy group's social network. Lucas: And that's the first step in the framework — map. Step one: map the target group's structure and culture before you signal any interest. Figure out who the influencers are, who has hiring authority, and what the actual day-to-day looks like. Sarah learned that the strategy team valued analytical rigor over creative instinct — which meant she needed to highlight her work on a recent pricing model, not her Super Bowl ad campaign. Luna: That's a crucial distinction. Most people would lead with their flashiest accomplishment, but if that's not what the new group values, you're just making noise. Lucas: So after mapping, step two is connect. This is where you intentionally build relationships with two to three people who are well-connected in the target group but not necessarily hiring managers. In Sarah's case, she connected with a senior analyst who had been in strategy for five years and knew everyone. That person became her informal sponsor. Luna: And this is where the weak ties theory really kicks in. Sociologist Mark Granovetter's research shows that job leads often come from acquaintances, not close friends, because your close friends know the same people you do. Inside a company, that means the person one or two steps removed from your current circle is often the most valuable. Lucas: That's exactly right. Sarah's sponsor in strategy didn't have a role to offer her. But when a senior associate unexpectedly left in month five, that sponsor mentioned Sarah to the director before the job was ever posted. The director called Sarah for an exploratory chat — still not an interview — and by then she already knew the team's language, their biggest project, and the director's management style. Luna: So she walked in already fluent. That's a massive advantage over external candidates who are reading the company website. Lucas: And then step three is signal. This is the most delicate part — how you let people know you're interested without triggering your current manager's alarm. Sarah did it by offering to help on a cross-functional project that the strategy team was working on. She volunteered for a data analysis task that was outside her marketing role but played to her strengths. That gave her a reason to interact with the team formally. Luna: So she created a legitimate reason to work with them, rather than just saying 'I want your job.' That's the non-ask approach — you signal through action, not through a direct conversation. Lucas: Exactly. And the non-ask is powerful because it doesn't put anyone in an awkward position. The strategy director could evaluate her work without committing to anything. And Sarah could test whether she actually enjoyed the work — because sometimes the fantasy of a role is better than the reality. She spent two weeks on that project and confirmed she loved the analytical side. Luna: What about the risk of her current manager finding out? That's the fear that stops most people from even starting this process. Lucas: It's a real risk, but manageable if you're strategic. Sarah never worked on the cross-functional project during her core hours. She did it during lunch or after work. And she framed it to her manager as professional development — which it genuinely was. The key is to never lie, but also never explicitly state your intentions until you're ready. If your manager asks, you say 'I'm exploring some development opportunities' — which is true. Luna: That's a good line. It's honest but vague enough that you don't get boxed into a loyalty conversation prematurely. Lucas: So the fourth step — and this is where most people start — is apply. But by the time Sarah applied, the job had been posted for a week, she already knew three people on the team, had done a trial project, and the director had seen her work. The formal interview was essentially a rubber stamp. Luna: And that's why the retention number is so high. She didn't just get the job — she joined with a built-in support network and a realistic understanding of the role. Lucas: Exactly. The LinkedIn data backs this up. The report showed that internal hires who had three-plus informal conversations were retained at a rate of 87 percent after one year, compared to 62 percent for those who applied cold. That's a 25 percentage point difference. Luna: And this framework works for any company, not just Fortune 500s. I've seen it work in startups and nonprofits too, because the underlying social dynamics are the same. Lucas: Agreed. The specifics change — in a small company you can't map fifteen people because there aren't fifteen people — but the principles hold. You still need to understand the culture, build relationships, signal through action, and only then apply. Luna: One thing I want to add: this approach takes time. Sarah's timeline was six months. That's longer than most people want to wait. But the alternative — applying cold, getting rejected, or worse, getting the job and failing — is even slower in the long run. Lucas: That's a fair point. The internal mobility process is a marathon, not a sprint. And I think companies are starting to recognize that they need to support this better. Some are creating internal talent marketplaces where you can signal interest anonymously. But even then, the human connection piece is irreplaceable. Luna: So for someone listening who's thinking about an internal move right now, what's the one thing they should do this week? Lucas: Find one person in the group you're curious about — someone who's not a hiring manager — and ask for a fifteen-minute chat. No agenda, no ask. Just say you're interested in learning about their work. That first conversation is the hardest one. After that, the network velocity starts to build on its own. Luna: I'd add: keep a simple log of who you talk to and what you learn. Because six months from now, when you're ready to apply, you'll want to remember the details that made you excited about the role in the first place. Lucas: That's a great habit. And I'll leave you with this: the next time you see an internal job posting that looks perfect, resist the urge to click 'apply' for at least a week. Spend that week talking to people instead. Your future self — and your retention rate — will thank you.