How to Pitch Yourself for an Internal Communications Role (From the Inside)

I worked in internal communication long before anyone gave me an “official” title to reflect the work. I’ve had many conversations with people over the years who say things like:

“I’ve always supported internal communications, my employer just didn’t acknowledge it as its own role.”

“I fell into internal communications because I picked up the work no one else would.”

“I work in internal communications because I always did the work, I just didn’t know it was its own discipline.”

It’s become clear that this is how many communicators enter this line of work (myself included). But I’ve also been fortunate enough to claim an official internal communications title by pitching myself within an organization I was already part of.

This is an often-overlooked but, in the right context, incredibly beneficial path for both employers and the individual. Do I recommend it for every organization? No. I also don’t recommend it for everyone in an internal, people-focused role (especially if you don’t want to work in internal comms full-time).

It’s important to recognize that pitching yourself for an internal communications role might not be the best move in every situation. For example, if your organization does not value or understand internal communications as a distinct function, or if there is no appetite for creating new roles, your efforts may be better focused elsewhere. Similarly, if you do not feel genuinely interested in communications work, or would only be taking on the role out of necessity rather than passion, it may not be a good fit. Taking a moment to self-assess your motivations and your organization’s openness will help you avoid frustration and ensure you are making your pitch at the right time, for the right reasons.

But if you are anything like me and feel a natural craving to step into internal communications with a formal title to back it up, I’m going to walk you through how to pitch yourself for an internal comms role as an internal employee.

There’s a persistent myth that internal communication requires a specific professional communications background. While it is a specialized function, and some formal training in communications can be helpful, that’s not the only path; it’s just the one that's widely known.

Some of the best internal communicators bring tangential people-focused backgrounds to their roles without a communications degree or any formal training. People inside an organization with experience in human resources (HR), operations, executive support, internal event management, and change management, to name a few, possess the skills and knowledge to navigate the complexities of how the organization (and people) function. And this can equip them to be a good fit for an internal communications role because:

• They already understand the culture. People who work inside an organization already have exposure to communication sensitivities, dynamics between leaders and departments, communication styles, and employee receptiveness (or lack thereof) to current internal communications practices. Cultural understanding is imperative for building strong internal communications foundations.
• They have relationships across the organization. Internal communications is, at its core, a relationship-dependent function. If you’ve been working inside an organization for any period of time, you likely already have some relationships with leaders and others (far more than an external hire).
• They are part of the employee audience. One of the most overlooked advantages of being an internal fill for an internal communications role is that you have received internal communications firsthand. You might be the one writing them already, but if you aren’t, you are receiving them and can use both your experience, as well as your colleagues’, to improve them where they lack.
• They might already be doing the work. Particularly in startups or small organizations, executive and administrative assistants, HR assistants, operations managers, and event planners are likely already shouldering the brunt of this work. The reality is that all organizations have internal communications, whether they designate a full-time role for the work or not.

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from individuals in internal roles who want to move into internal communications is, “How do I actually demonstrate that I have the skills for an internal comms role and already do the work?”

It’s one thing to know you’re capable of doing the work, but another to position yourself to claim ownership of it confidently. One of the first things I encourage is a full skill translation exercise as follows:

Before you can make the case that your skills map to an internal communications role, it helps to know what shows up most often in job descriptions. The specifics vary by organization, and I recommend browsing through current internal communications job descriptions for the most accurate picture. The specifics vary by organization, but in general, most IC roles touch some combination of the following:

• A blend of strategic decision-making and tactical execution
• Executive and leadership ghostwriting and editing
• Draft, edit, and proofread employee communications, including internal emails, newsletter articles, talking points, FAQs, SMS, intranet articles, and other operational communications
• Support internal stakeholders with corporate communications initiatives
• Internal event support, marketing, and execution
• Develop and support change communications and stakeholder engagement
• Support manager communications and enablement
• Communications measurement and reporting
• Development and execution of an internal communications strategy

The goal is to make the connection between your experience and these areas obvious.

The most effective way to bridge your experience to an internal communications role is to make the translation explicit, which means we need to identify specific examples of previous internal communications support and successes.

Here are some thought-starters for building out a skill map:

• Have you managed logistics, content, scheduling, coordination, or support for all-hands meetings?
• Have you drafted emails on behalf of senior leadership, managers, or other individuals? Do you edit or proofread others’ emails before they send them?
• Have you contributed to an internal newsletter? Created content for it? Helped design and put it together? Sent it?
• Have you developed communications plans for any events, key messages, changes, or any other longer-term initiatives?
• Have you planned any corporate events and led the event marketing, signup, or execution?
• Have you managed any sort of content calendars?

We’re looking for concrete examples here, with or without data to prove their success. If you have internal communications data, great — think things like engagement rates, participation numbers, email open or click rates, or employee feedback. These types of data points can help show your impact and give your examples more weight. But even if you don’t have access to hard numbers, our goal here is to showcase the range of skills you possess.

Here were some examples from my list before ever securing an official internal communications title:

• I chaired an internal training committee to improve call center communication, onboarding practices, and team preparedness, so we could better serve each other and our clients
• I planned and executed two company-wide, record-breaking employee engagement events, overseeing internal promotion, messaging, and feedback collection
• I created and maintained internal training and onboarding documentation
• I took over our organization’s weekly newsletter process and revamped and improved it, owning the new version through 70+ publications
• I coordinated the facilitation of our monthly all-hands meeting and supported executives with their content development
• Leaders frequently relied on me for ghostwriting and editing support, particularly for all-staff communications

Every effort, no matter how seemingly small, counts. If you drafted a communication, ran the slide deck for a town hall, or supported a communications plan that wasn’t in your job description, you supported internal communications execution. Don’t sell yourself short here.

Consider that you might also have transferable experience and skills from outside of your day job. Your life outside of your day job is totally fair game.

For example, while building my pitch, I had freelance writing experience (primarily ghostwriting) on the side, as well as volunteer experience with a local change management organization. I included the skills I gathered from both of these opportunities:

• Freelance writing: Ghostwriting, communication style adaptation (following brand guidelines), content clarity, time management
• Volunteering with the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) Colorado Chapter: Content creation, newsletter development and execution, social media management, event support and execution, change management knowledge development, and communicating with different audiences

These weren’t traditional internal communications, but both opportunities showed I can write clearly, meet deadlines, manage editorial processes, produce content people want to read, and have additional areas of expertise (change management) that would be valuable in an internal communications role.

Here are some thought-starters for identifying relevant experience outside of your day job:

• Do you write anything outside of work? A blog, newsletter, articles, social content, freelance pieces?
• Have you volunteered in a communications, administrative, marketing, or events capacity for any organization?
• Have you taken any courses, certifications, or completed any self-learning paths in communications, writing, or related areas?
• Do you have a creative or side project that involves writing, storytelling, or any kind of content creation?

Before you create your pitch, spend some time doing your homework. The thing that sets a strong internal pitch apart is specificity and a clear connection to your current environment.

When I pitched myself for an internal communications role, it was for the organization’s first-ever internal communications title, but leaders on the marketing and HR teams were already supporting internal communications. Because I previously served as an executive assistant (among other back-office titles) within this organization, I had access to historical internal communications data and experience as a recipient of internal communications, which helped me get a better lay of the land.

Study what already exists within your organization. If you already have an internal communications team or function, understand what they do and own. Who’s on the team (if there is one)? What are your organization’s regular channels? What’s the cadence? What do you feel like works well? Where might you see opportunities for improvement?

Be careful here. You don’t want to frame any of this as criticism, but rather as opportunities to point to specific areas where additional support (from you, in a full-time internal comms role) would make a positive difference. For example, you might say, "I’ve noticed our internal newsletter has grown in content and frequency over the past year, and I see an opportunity to streamline the process and boost engagement even further with dedicated support."

Bonus tip: If your situation is similar to mine, emphasize in your pitch how you will reduce the workloads of those currently supporting internal communications.

Next, you want to learn to speak the language of internal communications. Pull up a handful of internal communications job postings and read them closely. What skills and experiences show up repeatedly? What does the role typically own? What language are hiring managers using to describe the work?

This helps you understand exactly what employers expect the function to deliver, so you can make sure your pitch speaks to those priorities directly. And it also hands you the vocabulary. If every posting you read mentions "change communications," or "manager enablement," or "employee listening," those are the terms you want showing up in your pitch to demonstrate that you understand the landscape.

Beyond job postings, strengthen your pitch even more by spending some time reading about internal communications as a discipline. Even a few hours of reading will give you reference points that most internal candidates won't have. Browse my resource hub for a few starting points.

Use any context you have about the organization to your advantage. For example, the organization I worked for was preparing for a CEO transition. The new CEO sat on our board and was someone I had a good relationship with, having supported them for a handful of years as an executive assistant. He knew me and the quality of my work.

Pitching yourself for an internal communications role preceding a significant change is strategic. Is there a reorg on the horizon? A new strategic direction? A major technology rollout? These are examples of moments where strong internal communications support makes an enormous difference, and naming them in your pitch (as long as you already have access to this information and do not obtain it unjustly) shows you are thinking about the function strategically, not just as a personal benefit.

Connect the dots: Here’s what’s coming for the business, and here’s why investing in internal communications, from someone who already knows this organization, is the right move right now.

You’ve done the work and the research, and now it’s time to pitch yourself! I’m going to share the exact slide deck outline I used for my pitch deck, but your pitch doesn’t have to be in a slide deck format. Depending on your organization’s culture, a well-prepared conversation or a simple leave-behind document may land just as well.

Before I get into the outline, here’s some important context about my pitch: My organization opened a Senior Communications Manager position for internal and external communications support. That means an intent to hire (and the budget) existed before I pitched myself. Additionally, I pitched myself for an internal communications and change-only role (no external communications).

Here’s my outline (and a few notes on how I’d tweak this slightly to meet your needs):

Kick off with your cover and an optional agenda. I used my organization’s slide deck template format, which included an agenda. Use what you know about your team’s current branding, presentations, and pitches here.

Start with 2-3 context-specific, evidence-based observations about internal communications inside your organization. Remember, we’re not attacking or critiquing current processes and practices, but rather highlighting the areas of opportunity (and positioning yourself to fill them).

Showcase the evidence. Pull from the direct experience list you created earlier and share specific examples with as much concrete detail as you can offer. If you have samples, show them here.

Review your current job description. Highlight any of your current responsibilities that overlap with those of an internal communications job description. For example, in my specific pitch, I pulled the job description for my title at the time (Organizational Change Manager). I compared it against the proposed job description for the Senior Manager of Communications. I put each job description on its own slide, and then created a third slide that specifically highlighted the overlapping responsibilities between the two roles.

Optional: Present an initial draft of the job description you seek to obtain. Depending on who you are pitching to and your comfort level, if you can take the driver’s seat in terms of your exact title and job description, run with it.

This is your chance to emphasize why you’re the right person to support internal communications with an official title. Be direct about what you are asking for here. What do you want? A new role and title? A title that reflects work you are doing (and a raise)? A trial period to demonstrate why you should move into internal communications?

I wanted the Senior Communications Manager role and strove to persuade the hiring team to revise the job description and remove the external components, making it strictly an internal communications role focused on change management. That was the goal.

I recommend highlighting business benefits, your unique skill set inside the organization, and relevant experience outside the organization. If it feels relevant, add in some personal reasons or references that the person you are pitching to will understand.

I provided a list of 10 reasons why my organization should (1) adjust the role to be internal communications and change-focused versus internal and external communications, and (2) why I was the right person for the role. Here’s a breakdown of the themes of each point I used:

1. Business benefit: Financial reasons
2. Business benefit: Cultural reasons
3. Business benefit: Change management certification would prove beneficial during an upcoming CEO transition
4. Business benefit: Previous relationships with senior leaders (full C-Suite team)
5. Business benefit: Pre-existing relationship with incoming CEO
6. Experience benefit: Tenure and understanding of culture and transitions over the years
7. Experience benefit: Previous experience working with the Marketing team and the reporting manager for this role (read more about working in IC and reporting to Marketing)
8. Experience benefit: External experience and how it would benefit me in the role
9. Personal reference: Connection point to the hiring manager
10. Personal reference/story: Connection to how I initially joined the organization

End with something memorable (like a personal story) or a compelling closing statement to drive your case home.

Since I pitched an adjustment to an open role, the hiring team (Marketing) already had an idea of what the person hired for the position would focus on first. If you are pitching yourself for a role that does not yet exist (either a title change or title and responsibility change), consider whether it’d be helpful to highlight what you would focus on first in the new role.

This might look like a 30/60/90-day timeline, a shortlist of high priorities, or the explicit actions you would take to address the areas of opportunity you identified previously.

Reiterate your request and wrap up your argument. Don’t forget to express your gratitude for the time and consideration.

You don’t have to wait for someone to notice the work you do (they might not). You don’t have to wait for a job posting, or for the “perfect” job description to appear (it might not). You can build the case and make the ask.

If you already support internal communications in your current role and have a genuine interest in pursuing communications as a career, put yourself out there. You never know where you might end up.

Need help putting your pitch together or working through your positioning? Hire me for a Power Hour, and we’ll work through it together.