In a Careers class, I urge senior students seeking an ‘ideal fit’ employer to study the morale of a firm/dept (observe staff demeanour via a personal visit, check Glassdoor reviews, etc) & its Values (Tip: Values are reflected in what they DO, not what the SAY). But what if a student can’t get into the dept of their dreams, but an entry role in another dept- will it be worthwhile? Answer: it depends!
Many firms claim open mindedness about cross functional transfers, but Talk is Cheap; if a student does take a nontraditional/nonlinear Entry Role (eg in another dept/function), yes, they’ll be at a desired employer’s org, being paid by that employer… but there are other long term career considerations.
Is the dept Visible? Vital? Does the dept have ‘profile’? if a recruit performs well, is it even noticed?
“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is near…” (look it up)
-stories might illustrate the ‘tree falling in forest’ principle.
Story1: at a formal Marketing firm (so formal it didn’t even call it ‘Marketing’; it was ‘Brand’–oooh!!!!) a savvy Head of Purchasing desired an even more senior role. Nope. Cant promote you, said the set-in-its-way firm. Top roles were held just for ‘Brand’ staff. So a biz-proven grey haired 20 yr employee went back to a study carrel desk & began his career again, as a Brand Assistant.
Story2: A company shifted the ‘Customer Service Dept’ from 1 division to another, for decades. What caused that? Customer Service had a stable medium-sized headcount & a perception it’d be easy to manage (ie no front line experience or special qualifications to manage). As a bite-sized bolt-on dept (headcount addition), if an ambitious dept VP wanted a promotion to SVP, but their existing headcount wdn’t support an ‘SVP’ title/pay, the ambitious person ‘made a play’ for Customer Service & ‘bolted it on’ to win an SVP title. After this, they’d typically ignore Cust Service staff, incl high performers among them, their career desires, etc. Customer Service there was also occasionally dumped under a new senior manager to oversee, with NO extra pay or title enhancement involved. This ‘reporting reassignment’ took place when senior exec’s were under ‘optics pressure’, needed to ‘show responsible streamlining’ as revenue fell. Whether Cust Service was reassigned for personal ambition/ gamesmanship, or reassigned for optics during a downturn, the takeaway is the same –the dept wasn’t important– its staff weren’t worth worrying about. Changing managers erratically & often would upend staff career plans, long term projects … but who cares? Being repeatedly moved around spoke volumes on how Customer Service was viewed.
Point of these stories? Look b4 you leap; choose a dept with visibility, importance. Also: research their actions, not words- ensure HISTORY shows that one CAN transfer from this dept into your desired dept. Yes you CAN try to ‘pioneer change’, ‘break thru’, ‘make company history’, etc but consider that big change is usually more easily done by a manager, than a novice recruit