Should I take a lateral job offer?
A lateral move forces you to choose between taking a new opportunity now and holding out another year for a manager promotion. It often feels like a weird career direction, making it hard to know if the daily work will count as legitimate experience for future roles. This uncertainty leaves you overthinking whether the switch will eventually look ridiculous on your resume.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Taking the lateral move for the immediate pay increase and focusing on a promotion laterDid this help you?
- 2Holding out in the current role to secure a management title soonerDid this help you?
- 3Using the time in the new lateral role to gain additional certifications or technical experienceDid this help you?
- 4Translating the strange daily duties into highly professional, standard industry terminology (like 'executive communications') for future resumes.Did this help you?
- 5Taking the position but treating it primarily as a vehicle to network with other high-level executives.Did this help you?
- 6Insisting on regular collaboration with leadership to ensure you aren't guessing their priorities and taking the fall for mistakes.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm having trouble deciding whether this is a great opportunity or a really weird direction to take my career.”source ↗
“Would you consider this legitimate experience for future communications roles? Because explaining that I spent 3 years pretending to be somebody's CEO on LinkedIn sounds ridiculous.”source ↗
“looking for some opinions on a lateral senior accountant offer, ideally from other seniors or managers.”source ↗
“I know this looks obvious on paper (and it probably is but I’m an overthinker lol), but some of my peers/friends think I should hold out for another year and then look for a manager role in NFP.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Is this job offer a wise move for my long-term goals?
- 5Is a long commute worth it for a stable job?
- 13Should I take a very low-paying entry-level job out of desperation?
- 6Switching to the trades at 45 from a desk job
- 8Is a massive pay cut for startup equity worth it?
- 23How to choose between job offers when you have a baby on the way