[Discuss] What is my work title?

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Richard Pieri)]

On Mar 29, 2012, at 5:27 PM, Jerry Natowitz wrote:
> 
> Okay, maybe I should have said that my job is going away and I'd like something fairly descriptive on my resume that might cause a person or (more likely) data mining program to notice me.

Yes, that does change my inferred context.

Your resume should say "Senior Applications Engineer" in the "title" section, because that is your formal title, along with a more descriptive title.  It's like resume where I have "Senior Systems Administrator/Assistant Vice President" for my last gig because SSA was my title when I was hired and AVP was what it was changed to when we got acquired by a bank.  I frequently had to explain bank titles to prospective employers.  Omitting or falsifying your job title can be seen as a significant lie, one that will get you dropped from a hiring manager's prospects lists as soon as it is discovered.  It will be discovered when they run background checks.

It wouldn't hurt to ask your HR people to formally change your title to something more descriptive and relevant before the position disappears.  Once you figure out what that is, anyway.  Looks a lot like "System Administrator" to me.  Managing computer systems is what SAs do.  Suggest to HR that your title be formally changed to "Senior Systems and Applications Engineer" (or Administrator).  That covers both your box on the org chart and your actual responsibilities.

It also doesn't hurt to ask hiring agents if you can remove an inappropriate formal title from the copies of your resume you send them.  Sometimes they will say yes, sometimes they will say no.  You won't know which until you ask.

--Rich P.