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Misleading Job Titles: Are They Hurting Your Resume?

The companies you are applying to know what position they are trying to fill. They search for someone with a job title and history that matches their expectations for the position.

However, your own company might have a different approach to job titles. You should never change your job title on your resume: you should use the title your company uses. However, you may need to bridge the gap between your current title and your actual responsibilities, accomplishments, and contribution to your company.

Even the clearest job title, like Executive Assistant, might not sum up all you do. One executive assistant might take on project management responsibilities. Another might function more as a secretary. A third might run the company in the owner’s absence. Sometimes you need more than one job title at the start of your resume to show what you are really capable of: Executive Assistant & Project Manager.

Your accomplishments can include any duties outside the “normal” definition of your job title: “assumed leadership of the company in President’s absence.” Part of my job as a professional resume writer is to make sure that you give yourself credit for those extra duties.

Your job title might be too unusual. You may need to relate a title like Chief Strategist or Software Mastermind or Product Champion to a more standard title: Product Champion (Vice President of Product Development). Clever titles are fun but companies who are looking to hire do not have time to puzzle out their meaning.

Your job title might be standard for your profession but not well known. Someone who is hiring for the first time might not know the difference, for example, between a Corporate Marketing Director and a Chief Marketing Officer. Make sure your accomplishments clearly demonstrate to hiring managers and recruiters your responsibilities, knowledge, and contribution to your current company.

Take control of your career and your job search with a clearly defined title that reflects your value. Robin’s Resumes® is here to help.

Creative Job Titles: How They Can Hurt You

Creative job titles are becoming normal. I’ve come across job seekers with the title of “Chaos Manager,” “Strategy Partner,” “Growth Hacker,” “Sustainability Advocate” or “Director of Corporate Responsibility.” Many of those titles reflect recent business trends, such as those toward disruptive technology, collaboration, social responsibility, and marketing with stories (“Chief Storyteller”). Others are simply misguided attempts to be clever.

Fortune Magazine recently described the problem with creative job titles: “Not only do ‘creative’ job titles confuse clients, but they can also seriously hurt job seekers in the digital era. ‘Nobody reads resumes — we search our database using keywords and if your resume turns up, then we scan it — so no one’s impressed by cool stuff like witty job titles,’ Henry Goldbeck, president of a Vancouver-based recruiting firm, stated.”

Applicant tracking systems have many limitations. A lack of humor and a failure to appreciate creative expression are high among them.

While some creative titles are self-evident, others require that job seekers carefully explain what they do in terms more likely to be familiar with their audience. For example, Chaos Manager has its roots in the attempt to manage turbulence in companies, perhaps due to a change in culture or to extremely fast growth. Therefore, a Chaos Manager might also want to use the words “organizational development” or “cultural change agent” or similar words in describing accomplishments and skills. Better yet, the Chaos Manager may want to re-title the job to fit the expectations of hiring managers and recruiters in other companies.

Job applicants also have to be careful of artificially inflated titles (Chief Marketing Guru) in smaller companies that do not transfer well into larger companies (where a “guru” may be equal to Marketing Director). An inflated title alone will not carry a job applicant into a position; it has to be backed by real achievements and contributions.

By all means, you and your company should be able to indulge in creativity and fun when choosing titles, but be aware of the drawbacks once you start looking for that next great job. At Robin’s Resumes®, your Writer-in-Chief is happy to help.

Resume Lies

They creep in everywhere, the little exaggerations or omissions: those little resume lies. Some resume writers even encourage them in the name of “helping” a job applicant look good. But in my viewpoint, the consequences of lying are never worth the risk; they are too severe, both personally and professionally, and too likely to be exposed, even during the job interview. Those little lies include:

  • Inflating a job title. Your job title is so easy for someone to check that it makes no sense to inflate it. If your job title does not reflect what you really accomplished in your job, follow it by a sentence like “held managerial responsibility” or “fulfilled functions of CFO.” Then list the accomplishments that prove that statement.
  • Juggling dates to hide a gap. Nowadays, almost everyone has a gap in their job history. If you are experiencing a gap, fill it with volunteer activities, freelance work or other activities. Do not try to hide it afterwards by altering your dates of employment; this little lie will never hold up to a reference check.
  • Disguising the true nature of your experience. A stay-at-home parent is not a relationship manager. A babysitter is not in the customer service industry. Any interviewer will find out the truth with a few sharp questions.
  • Hiding the extent of your experience. While it is easy to write a resume that overcomes the “overqualified” hurdle, few people can hide the achievements and successes of a lifetime in a personal interview. The way you present yourself, the answers you give to questions, the very questions you ask of the interviewer, all serve to expose your true accomplishments.

Drawing on my own years of experience as a professional resume writer with high standards of integrity and service to clients, I write resumes that get clients interviews based on the truth, not little lies that lead to contradictions, embarrassment and even loss of a potential job. Contact me today for a resume you will be proud to submit.

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