Back at the start of my career I worked for a mid-sized software company that was growing by buying small companies in our general field. I was assigned to work

Back at the start of my career I worked for a mid-sized software company that was growing by buying small companies in our general field. I was assigned to work on integrating one of those company's products with my team's product. Mostly because I was young and not tied down and could happily spend a couple weeks at a time in another state. Once I finished that, the CTO decided I was going to be the guy he sent around to all the acquired companies to work out the technical integration plans. Obviously integration was a priority, but no one understood all the technical details of the various pieces that needed to fit together. I wasn't really poached to another team, exactly, but I also had no direct work on my officially assigned project. I spent months and months bouncing around the country figuring out how to make everything work together. I kept my same manager, but all my work product went to the CTO. It was kind of a weird situation on paper, but on the ground it made sense to have someone "outside the system" to be the one digging around in all the newly acquired projects. Obviously great for my career, and indirectly great for my manager's career. Heck, he has his own consulting business even now that's based on supporting and customizing that suite of software. He knows all the pieces from my work bouncing around.