How to Avoid a Sideways Move That Does Not Help Your Career
This article is part of the Career Progression in Skilled Sectors guide.
A sideways move is a job change that improves one or two things — salary, travel, employer stability — without advancing your career. Sometimes a sideways move is deliberate and sensible: you need the improvement more than you need the advancement right now. But often it is accidental: you thought the role would open doors that it does not.
How sideways moves happen
- A role that sounds like a step up (better title, larger company) but involves the same work at the same level
- A move for salary that takes you to an employer with no internal progression pathway
- A move for better conditions that ends your access to the development your previous employer was providing
- A move to a company that is contracting rather than growing
The test for every opportunity
Before accepting any role, ask:
- In two years, will this role have made me more valuable to the market?
- Will I have gained skills, qualifications or experience that I don’t have today?
- Is there a credible next step at this employer — and do they have a track record of making it happen?
- Would I be proud to have this employer on my CV, and would future employers value it?
If the answers are uncertain, the move may be sideways rather than forward.
Sideways is sometimes right
If your current situation is genuinely harmful — poor management, unsafe conditions, unstable employer — a sideways move to stability is a good decision. Just make it consciously, with a plan for what the forward move looks like from there.
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