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Are Job Titles Important? (This Might Surprise You)

Are job titles important? You might be contemplating on this if you’re trying to land your first job or thinking about switching jobs or hoping to move up the career ladder. 

Many career experts believe that job titles are very important. But the importance of a job title can be really dependent on the situation.

In this article, we will answer questions about job titles such as:

  • What Job Title Entails.
  • Why Are Job Titles Important?
  • Do Job Titles Affect Salaries?
  • Various Ways Of Explaining Your Job Title.

Article Road Map

What Job Titles Entails?

Job titles make it easier to recognize a person’s job role and provide a succinct explanation of that role. 

For instance, while writing content for a single organization, marketing content writers may be given the designation of internal copywriter. 

People can easily identify a person’s role and level of prominence in their organization by looking at their job title. 

Even when employees work on the same duties for competing organizations, job titles can differ. 

Thus, for the same position, one business might refer to the position as an internal copywriter while another might refer to it as a copywriter. 

Numerous factors, such as the following, may cause these slight differences:

  • Company Design

Businesses typically create varying internal layouts that may affect job titles. 

For example, one company may use the job title, managing copywriter, and another, team leader when describing the same position because of internal structural differences.

  • Job Duties

Employers may create different job titles based on an employee’s experience. 

For example, they may create a new master copywriter position for someone with over 10 years of experience in their job.

  • Experience

People with similar job duties may possess differing job titles when one person has more experience. 

For example, someone with a higher college degree may earn a managing copywriter job title even when performing the same duties as an internal copywriter.

  • Company Preference

Some companies may simply prefer specific job titles to others and use them instead. 

For example, they may label all copywriters as internal copywriters instead of differentiating between internal and external writers.

Understanding differences in these job titles may help you when applying for new positions. 

For example, you may find that a copywriter’s position asks a writer to produce content for multiple clients, while an internal copywriter’s job title includes just one primary client. 

Knowing this difference can help you apply to jobs that suit you and transition to better positions within your current company, such as trying to become a managing copywriter by focusing on improving your abilities when qualifying for that job.

Read Also: Top 5 Job Search Hints You Should Know

Why Are Job Titles Important?

Job titles provide many benefits that help your career, which makes them more than a convenient tag to use when describing a position. 

Job titles are important in this following reasons:

  • Job Title Helps To Explain Your Role

Job titles may briefly explain a person’s role and duties in a company. 

For instance, a mailroom clerk job title tells people you work in a mailroom and handle things like letter processing and delivery in a corporation. 

Updated job titles, like mailroom manager, communicate duties like creating schedules and managing a mailroom’s overall operation. 

Detailed job titles also help corporations when structuring their operations, such as creating multiple mailroom manager jobs and hiring individuals with other job titles who work for these people. 

It can also help executives track their employee count when considering new hires.

  • It Describes Your Level Of Experience

Job titles typically show a person’s experience level and make understanding their job easier for themselves, their employers and other potential employment opportunities. 

For example, a managing officer job title shows more experience than a supervising officer because management implies the job includes more tasks, like creating team schedules rather than supervising employee actions. 

Similarly, a sports editor implies more experience than a sportswriter because editors possess more extensive job duties than writers, like creating sports page layouts. 

The right job title mirrors your experience and lets other potential employers know what you bring to a position when hired.

  • Help During Recruiting And Hiring

When you post your job title on job recruiting sites, you may get approached by recruiters interested in hiring you based on your title. 

Companies often seek potential employees on these sites by searching for job titles and may recruit based on these titles alone. 

For example, a company seeking a managing officer may use that job title and narrow their search based on those results. 

If your job title matches that role, you may show up in their search and get a call. 

This makes appropriate job titles important for people trying to upgrade their position.

  • Impact A Job Search

People seeking for a new job can use their job title during interviews to make this process smoother. 

For example, you may earn an interview with a recruiter based on your job title and discuss your duties related to that position to see if they match the employer’s needs. 

Some people may even seek new positions on job sites using their current job title to streamline job applications. 

For instance, you may search for a managing officer on a job site, rather than a manager to apply to far fewer positions and potentially increase your job chances.

Do Job Titles Affect Salaries?

Job titles can affect your current or future salary in several ways such as:

  • Provide Accurate Job Information

Accurate job titles can help you get more salary by providing accurate and detailed information about your job. 

For example, the job title: marketer includes minimal information about a job and may confuse some potential employers due to its vagueness. 

Internal copywriter, for example, also tells potential employers that you wrote a copy for at least one company and helps them better understand your duties. 

This implies that they may offer you more money because you possess more specialized work experience that suits their needs. 

Job titles with terms like manager may also increase your salary because of increased management job duties and responsibilities.

  • Increase Job Perception

More impressive job titles may earn you more money even when performing duties identical to other, less impressive, job titles. 

For example, an expert internal copywriter may write the same content as an internal copywriter, but the job title may seem more impressive because your job title includes the term expert. 

Expanding job titles in these ways may cause potential employers to offer higher salaries or may give you some room to request higher salaries from your employers. 

Impressive titles may also make your resume more attractive to employers than those with less-impressive job titles on their resume.

  • Affects Your Bargaining Options

A better job title may give you more bargaining room when discussing a potential new job. 

For example, you can use a more impressive job title to argue your employment over others, discuss better payment options, negotiate better benefits and create a potentially better job role for yourself. 

Job titles may also help you when negotiating in your current position by letting you ask for more money based on a better title. 

Better job titles typically come with better pay automatically because they often represent an increase in job duties and responsibilities, you may still negotiate for better pay.

Various Ways Of Explaining Your Job Title

When talking to a potential employer about your current job title, or a job title you may earn when working with them, follow these steps to minimize any confusion during an interview:

  • Discuss Your Job Title Description

When opening a discussion about your job title, explain how the title reflects your job duties. 

For instance, using an internal copywriter as a case study.

You can discuss what an internal copywriter does at your position and how this compares to jobs with the same title. 

Highlight how your duties varied compared to others in your company, including things like brainstorming new content topics, researching each topic, writing an efficient article and proofreading and editing it for accuracy. 

You can also discuss how this job title relates to your new potential job, including pointing out similarities and differences in duties and responsibilities.

  • Highlight Your Experience In This Position

After defining your job title, answer your potential employer’s questions regarding your experience. 

Discuss what you did at your previous job and describe your responsibilities in great depth. 

For example, as an internal copywriter, you may describe your content research process by highlighting which sources you used and what benefits these sources brought to your articles. 

You may also compare and contrast your duties and experiences with other positions with similar job titles, such as external copywriter, to make your job clearer. 

Bring along recommendation letters from current work peers highlighting your duties and skills to showcase them even further.

  • Answer Questions About Company’s Organization

Job titles may vary slightly between different companies based on their design, so it is good that you discuss your company’s overall structure to help make your job title clearer to your potential employer. 

For example, they may misunderstand the job title of team leader or need further clarification on what team types you led. 

This job title may include separate writing groups within a marketing company or different sales groups that focus on specific markets and regions. 

Demonstrate how your duties differ from other team leader job titles and use your company’s organization model to further highlight your duties and overall company position.

  • Use Official Company Documents

Bring any job information related to your job title to your interview, including official duty descriptions. 

This information can help your employer better understand your responsibilities and how they compare to the current position. 

For example, their internal copywriter job title may include duties like creating new content to increase SEO presence online. 

You can use your job title description to highlight your experience in this field and help your potential employer better understand your abilities. 

Also, bring any emails or letters from managers or human resources describing your position to clarify your role.

  • Showcase Job Title Changes

If you changed job titles at your current company, you can discuss these changes with a potential employer to help them understand your career progress. 

For instance, you can discuss your change from copywriter to internal copywriter by discussing how these two similar job titles differ at your company. 

During this interaction, you can highlight how you helped your employer thrive, including discussing why you earned these new job titles. 

Discuss the pay and benefit increases to show how your differing job titles varied in compensation. 

By doing so, it will help you make pay negotiations easier by showing what you earned in the past.

FAQs

1. Should You Care About Your Job Title?

If you plan to work in any organization of your choice, then your job title is important. 
Sometimes jobs grow without managers noticing how much responsibility you’ve taken on. 
If you can’t get a pay rise at least a new title would give some recompense for your experience. 
Titles are free and if they’re important to you then go for it.

2. How Can I Make My Job Title Sound Better?

How to draft the best job titles are as follows:
Keep it simple, but precise.
Make it searchable.
Speak to the outsider, not the insider.
Write for the job seeker.
Save your prose for the job description.
Start attracting the best candidates today.

3. What To Do When You Job Title Doesn’t Match Your Actual Job

Make it clear that you’re a go-getter who takes on new tasks, regardless of what role you’re in. 
Don’t give away too much. 
Keep it brief, sharing just one anecdote about a successful project to demonstrate your real skill level. 
Also offer to explain further in a phone call or meeting.

4. Is Job Title Negotiable?

During the recruitment process, job candidates may negotiate their job titles with the hiring manager before they accept an offer.

5. Does A Title Make A Difference?

Title is a legal term that refers to ownership of something. 
For example, a job title means you have ownership over your role and specific set of responsibilities. 
You can also think of the word “entitle,” where you have ownership or control over something.

6. Why Is It Important To Have A Good Title And How Can You Tell If The Title Is Good?

The title summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study while a good title contains the fewest possible words needed to adequately describe the content or purpose of your research paper.

Conclusion

Being in the right or wrong job title can impact your career path in the future. 

So, make sure your job matches your title to ensure career growth success.

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