How do I request a transfer within my firm?

Question

How would you go about requesting a transfer to a different team/role within your company?

I've been at my job for the last year or so, and I really like the firm, the pay and the people.

Without going into specifics, I'm really not enjoying my actual work and my department is a real mess to work in*. Though there is plenty of scope for promotion and I have been promoted recently, what I do from day to day is unlikely to change.

*At least relative to the rest of the company - I know everyone claims this about their work! And I have gently tried to suggest improvements but people are (well meaning but) stuck in their ways.

The teams I would prefer to be in use different languages, so this could be an issue. However as I am still in a fairly junior role and also as management do think I'm good, I hope they would prefer to hang on to me and let me reacquaint myself rather than to let me go and take a chance with a new recruit.

How do you spin: "I like the company but please let me work on something different, otherwise I plan to quit." into a positive message to your seniors, or how have you dealt with this in the past?

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Edit - Thanks for your responses so far. Looks like sitting and talking about it is best, as opposed to letters or emails too. I hadn't appreciated how negative my approach was, and certainly didn't mean to use the notion of quitting as blackmail. Moving to my area of interest is of course the main motivation. I worry though that not revealing any level of dissatisfaction might hurt my chances if pressed for more details...

Answer 1

By approaching your manager positively and asking for more responsibility and a more challenging role. I don't think any manager would object to that. I wouldn't mention anything about planning to quit otherwise. That's probably best to keep to yourself. Corporate blackmail is rarely effective and even if you get what you want, you reputation will probably be tainted.

Answer 2

Don't even bring up the idea of quitting when you talk to your manager. Stay totally on the positive side. Explain that, as part of your career growth, you'd like to branch out into other languages and technologies. Be direct about your interest in other projects. Ideally, your manager will reflect your positivity and will be open to the idea of moving you within the company, even if that means that you'd get a new manager.

If management can't move you right away but is open to moving you in the future, don't be afraid to keep bringing it up, as long as it's not too often and not too nagging. Again, ideally, they'll want to do what they can to keep you happily employed, so give them the chance to do that.

If your situation is less than this ideal and you don't get a positive reaction, then it would be appropriate to suggest that you might look for work elsewhere. But again, do that as positively as possible.

Answer 3

Think about approaching the problem from the other side too. Find the part of the company that you want to work in, becomes friends with those people, and get one of the managers on that side to ask about bringing you over. Be upfront with your own manager that you're young and at the beginning of your career and that you're looking around for the sorts of things that interest you.

Don't make any of this about the people you currently work with, your current manager, or politics. Just say that the other area really interests you and you'd like to work over there. If you are going to stay in the same company, you might need friends in your old department.

However, as a general rule for career development, it's always good to keep track of where else you might be able to get a job. Start making friends at user groups or other industry events. Maybe you don't change jobs now, but when you decide to, you'll have some contacts.

When you decide to change jobs, don't make it about the politics and people even if that's the real reason. Again, you might need those people later in life. You don't have to lie, but you also don't owe anyone an explanation. An HR person might interrogate you in an exit interview, but you have nothing to gain by airing out dirty laundry. People change jobs for all sorts of reasons, so you don't have to choose one of the ugly reasons.

Good luck, :)

Answer 4

Lots of good advice here.

Stepping back, I'd consider mobility within the company one of the perks of a good job. Your boss's job isn't to make his team succeed; it's to make the company succeed. If they resist your move to somewhere you would do better, they're working against that.

• At Microsoft, the company is so huge that there are huge range of jobs available.

• At Google, they encourage people to move to a different project when they want to

• At a startup, you get to do a bunch of different things in any job

Answer 5

Check your company's HR policies on transfers as well. There are usually specific rules for internal candidates when applying to alternate roles/positions in the company to help the new job take hold without negatively impacting your old team.

Answer 6

Your approach will depend on how your supervisor feels about the issue. If they support your desire to move to a new team, then you can directly make the request. However often a supervisor does not want to lose a good person. In this case they may not only not encourage you, they may actually stand in your way. Be very careful. You find that you not only do get to transfer, but that your current position maybe become even worse.

Answer 7

Are there openings within the teams you like? This would be one good question to ponder as if the company already has tons of developers in that group, they may not be looking to add more there.

How well do you know about those other teams you like? This would be another factor to consider since if you just know what technologies they use this may seem like a "grass is greener, on the other side" kind of scenario.

Could you put together as part of an employee review a proposal that would be beneficial for the company to have you move onto another team? For example, could you bring knowledge of one area and what does and doesn't work there that may help another area? How well have you seen the process that the other teams go through? The language difference may be little if there are significant process changes that you'd have to learn, e.g. going from a traditional Waterfall development to an Agile, Scrum, and Test driven development style.

Answer 8

Please give me good reason, I am working in a different town as my wife. For three year we are not together. She want to write a strong letter to her HR ofice, and give good reason for he to get a transfee, it will be good if your good office can forward me good reason