Doing the Lateral Career Move


Lateral career moves - humor by Andertoons cartoons

This cartoon came the way so many of mine do, reading the paper and jotting down stuff that catches my interest.

I ran across the phrase “lateral move” and, after a fair amount of coffee and staring out the window, I remembered that crabs walk sideways, and a cartoon was born.

This was also one of those times where I say to myself “Damn! That joke’s too good for me not to draw!” and I have to figure out how to draw something I haven’t before. I had to do a fair amount of crab research in Google images, but it was worth it.

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Mark Anderson, professional cartoonist

About the Author: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons cartoon blog.

9 Comments ▼

Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

9 Reactions
  1. Haha, not bad for your first go at crab cartooning!

  2. That’s really cute! I think it’s great how you can hear one phrase and be so inspired by it. Putting the phrase and crabs together is genious. Love it!

  3. Another smile brought to my face! I like how you’re providing the inspiration for the cartoons as well.

  4. Yeah, they can do the lateral move. But here’s the big question: can they do “the hustle”???

  5. I like it, I have a feeling there are a lot of lateral moves going on out there. Now he needs to create one for all the other moves (downsizing, right sizing, etc. 🙂

  6. Mark,

    Did you use Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking method when you came up with this cartoon? 🙂

  7. I’m not sure they can Hustle, but maybe the Electric Scuttle.

  8. One lesson from this is that you can literally live your life laterally 🙂

  9. Another good cartoon, Mark!

    However, I somewhat have a bad impression on crabs. Have you heard “crab mentality?” That’s too good to be true also in big corporate worlds and even in small, simple ones.