Whats In A Job Title - Walrath Recruiting, Inc.

Whats In A Job Title - Walrath Recruiting, Inc. Job titles are a central point of focus for many professionals. They reference them  to determine their job status and career progress. In many instances  job titles are a good barometer for success. However, employees  tend to focus too much on using them to judge if theyre on track in their career. Job titles do have many functions for both employers and employees. Realizing what those are will ensure youre not over analyzing your title. Employer Job Title Functions Firstly, to begin thinking about  job titles, its important to look at them from the employer perspective. This approach shows the functional side of job titles. For a company, an employees job title is a way to classify an employee. Ideally, it illustrates what an employees responsibilities are at their organization. However, this isnt its only purpose. Job titles also help structure the hierarchy  for many companies. This determines who reports to who, and helps with planning out compensation. Now that you know how employers use job titles, we can discuss what they mean to you as an employee. You should find job satisfaction in your work, not your job title. What Job Titles Do For You Job titles play a huge role in personal branding for any professional. How you are regarded by your current organization plays a big part in raises, promotions, and resume consideration. Having a strong job title could help you achieve the next step in your career. Despite this, its important  that  you find comfort in your work, not your job title. Your main concern should be if your title is generally accurate in terms of describing your job function. A job title shouldnt be enough to explain what you do. If it is, you should try and diversify your responsibilities. (Over?)Modernizing the Job Title There is always a struggle to keep job titles current to the market and all responsibilities associated with a position. Its the reason the Marine Corps is removing the word man from 19 of their job titles. Job titles should reflect what you do, but you dont want to go overboard. Chief Everything Officer (CEO), Marketing Ninja (Marketing Manager), First Impressions Officer (Secretary), and a thousand  other more traditional job titles now have quirky modern permutations. Advertising Ninja may sound fun on paper, but in practice these titles may be off putting to managers. While they are fun, taking on a new age job title may hurt you more than help you. The environment may be right at a small tech startup, or a large forward thinking  company like Google, but many companies will be put off by these types of job titles. If you are searching for a new position, you may lose out if your new fun job title fails to include keywords that are essential to your resume getting visibility. These titles can come off as amateur, confusing, and even annoying to hiring managers or bosses. Always give a move to one of these titles extra consideration, not only in a present mindset, but also looking towards future job prospects. In closing, we all have different concerns and expectations from job titles as we progress throughout our career. While they  do have merit, its crucial  not to lose sight of what is really important. Make sure you are doing the work you want to be doing, even if the job title may not fit your exact expectations. If youre wondering what job titles had the largest growth in 2016, check out this great blog from Monster. Lastly, we hope you enjoyed this discussion on job titles, and check back on Wednesday for our next Interview Question of the Week!