Sometimes the best career move is sideways

We have been trained to think about careers like ladders. You start at the bottom. You earn a promotion. You take on a bigger title. Then you repeat the process until you reach whatever rung represents success to you.

But sometimes the move that does the most for your future is not a move up. It is a move across.

In the latest episode of Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO, I talked with Dave Hunt about the idea that range is a professional superpower. Both Dave and I have had moves in our careers that may have looked lateral from the outside. They were not always obvious steps up on paper, but they expanded our perspective, gave us new experiences and helped us build a broader understanding of higher education.

A Lateral Move Is Not a Step Back

It is easy to evaluate a job opportunity by looking first at the title. Is it higher than the title I have now? Will other people see it as a promotion? Does it look like forward progress on LinkedIn?

Those questions are understandable. Titles can affect compensation, authority and future opportunities. But they are only one measure of growth.

A lateral move can give you access to a new audience, function, challenge or institutional priority. It can move you closer to revenue-generating work. It can teach you how another division makes decisions. It can put you in charge of a broader portfolio, even when the title itself does not sound more impressive.

The better question may be: What will I know how to do after this job that I do not know how to do today?

Evaluate the Opportunity Behind the Title

When you consider your next move, look past the position name and ask:

• What will the role allow you to own?

• What new skills will you develop?

• Which institutional leaders will you work with?

• Will you gain experience with budgets, data, people management, strategy or revenue?

• Will the role expose you to a part of higher education you do not yet understand?

• Will it fill a meaningful gap in your experience?

  
  

A bigger title can be valuable. But it should not be the only evidence that your career is progressing. Your career does not need to move upward in a perfectly straight line.

It needs to make you more capable, more adaptable and better prepared for the work you ultimately want to do.

Sometimes that means moving up. Sometimes it means moving across.