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I have been interning for a large company for about two years now. For about the past 6 months, the company has been looking to find someplace to move me into fulltime. They finally found me a new spot at the start of the year, and the plan was that I would be hired into this new department as soon as I graduated.

I graudated about two weeks ago, and this is my first week within the new position (although, keep in mind I've been in the department as an intern for about five months). I knew when they put me in this new position that it was not 100% what I wanted to do. I graduated with a degree in Computer Science, and this is what I would call a "systems support" position for a business unit. I dabble in a little bit of everything (coding, databases, data analytics, etc.) in order to support a larger system our group is responsible for.

This is all fine and dandy, but I was really hoping to get into more of an IT organization that would maintain/create IT applications for the company. I expressed this desire to my managers during my intership, but nothing was avaliable at the time, and I figured I should take what I could get just to get on with the company.

Just recently, the exact job I was looking for has opened up. I look to be pretty qualified for it, and I think I'd enjoy it more than my current position. However, I don't really want to leave a new position that I've only been in for a week, even if the new job is still within the company. I'm afraid that will have a negative impact on my reputation within the company, and this isn't really a company I want to have to leave.

A couple of points to note:

  • The new position is at a different location so if I got an interview I would need to discuss leaving for a few hours with my manager.
  • Since I've been interning in this new job for about five months, I'm afraid of looking like I wasted my manager's time since most of this was spent training me for the position I just took.
  • There will probably be no salary difference between the positions

Does anyone have some advice?

David K
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user2276280
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  • @DavidK a more apt comparison would be a contractor converting to full time then leaving, so close to a duplicate but i think different enough not to be marked a duplicate. – RubberChickenLeader May 07 '15 at 19:58
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    @WindRaven Actually, I think the bigger distinction is that this would be an internal transfer, not leaving the company (which I missed the first time), so this question would also be related. – David K May 07 '15 at 20:23
  • It's pretty much a combination of the two linked questions - moving positions internally when you've only just started working for the company. Which makes it distinct enough from the other two to warrant its own question. – Zibbobz May 07 '15 at 20:43
  • As a comment-not-answer, if you do bring this up, don't neglect to mention your background is stronger in the new position than it is in your current one - it will make it look like less of a loss (though it will still be hard on your current supervisor, no matter what you do). – Zibbobz May 07 '15 at 20:45

1 Answers1

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Be upfront about it - this is not the same situation as jumping to a different company, and you really want to avoid burning bridges.

Be respectful - simply remind them that when you were interning you hoping for such a position, and ask if it would be okay if you applied to transfer to the new position.

Be prepared for them to say no - it might not be flat out no - they might just want you to cut your chops in the support role first.

Be patient - you have just started at the new place - and chances are more positions will be available in the future. If not, after having a year or two under you belt, you'd be able to move to a different company easily enough.

HorusKol
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