What's the best way to approach a team switching conversation with my manager?

Question

I've been on my current team for around a half, working primarily on the back-end. Unfortunately, I discovered after I joined the team that Android work is very interesting to me, so in order to pursue this, I would need to switch teams. There is actually a team fairly close to mine in my org where there's compelling Android work.

Right now, I'm heads down on a big project, so my immediate instinct is to wait until that's done to bring up this conversation with my manager, who I have a very good relationship with. Is this the right thing to do or should I have this conversation sooner rather than later?

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

In a nutshell**: Tell your manager as soon as possible. These kind of moves take time to set up, so it's better to set up this process early to make the timing work out more smoothly. Of course, letting a bad manager know that you're looking to change teams is a recipe for disaster as they will often retaliate. But this doesn't seem to be the case for you, and that's great! At a higher level, it's important to understand that Meta is arguably the best company in the world when it comes to team switching culture. Meta would much rather have you incur some thrash changing teams when you're looking for a chance of pace vs. you exiting the company entirely or not functioning at 100%. You will be surprised at how supportive managers are of team changes, especially the good managers. Back when I was a Meta and wanted to switch teams off of Portal, my manager literally helped me leave the team. They set me up with other EMs they knew to see if those teams would be a good fit for me. You will take a productivity hit switching teams and stacks, but it should be made up for by doing something that aligns more with your interests.

What's the best way to approach a team switching conversation with my manager?

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