Job Titles – Clarity or Confusion?

Learning #1 – companies had different criteria for similar sounding job titles.

Job title hierarchies – many companies I worked at had similar job titles (e.g., VP, Director, Principal), however, the hierarchy of these roles varied.  For example, in one company a Principal was higher than Director, whereas in another company it was switched.  

Learning #2 – companies had different organizational hierarchies and job title seniority rankings.

The 'confusing' adjective – some of my business titles contained words such as 'Executive' (as in Executive Director), 'Principal' (as in Principal Consultant), and 'Global' (as in Global Delivery Head).  You can probably guess where I'm going here; while these titles might sound glorious, they're open to interpretation and can be vague to anyone outside of the organization in which they're used.  

Learning #3 – job titles can be subjective descriptions, and oftentimes need further definition to company outsiders.

To summarize, our job titles (yes – the ones we prominently display on business cards, LinkedIn profiles, desktops, and professional resumes) are somewhat subjective and open to interpretation.  So, I'll ask the question – do our job titles bring clarity or cause confusion?  I believe people form an initial impression by our titles alone, and at times this impression can be skewed based on their perceived definition of the title. 

For example, one might assume a 'CXO' title implies more seniority than a 'Team Lead' title, but doesn't it depend on the person's job responsibilities, organizational size & complexity, etc.?  Does a 'Global' head assume more responsibilities than a 'Regional' head?  What about an 'Area' head, or a 'Domestic' head?  The point here is we all have perceived meanings of these words, however, a further understanding may be required to truly know what they mean.  And, the definition is typically 'what a specific company defines it to be'. 

I recently read an article where a person purposefully changed his LinkedIn title from 'Regional Manager' to 'Regional Director'.   Nothing else changed – his job description, responsibilities, etc., stayed exactly the same.  Funny, he noted his LinkedIn traffic started to substantially increase based solely on this job title change! 

I also find it humorous to see people incorporate company slang into their job titles.  Ever see someone's resume highlighting something to the tune of "Project Lead – Code Name X" or "Transformation Head – Project Magellan Initiative"?    One might believe these words provide added meaning to the job title, but without specific context the significance is unclear.

In the Consulting world, we tend to play different roles – regardless of our official job title.  And in my experience, it's rare occasion when a client asks me for my 'formal' job title.  More often, they ask about my experience, capabilities, skills, etc. 

Being a boutique and industry-specialized consulting company, I believe Citisoft sets the bar high in terms of job titles and relevant work experience.  For example, some of our 'Senior Consultants' have 15-20+ years of experience.  And even our more junior 'Consultant' level roles require significant (minimum 5+ years) industry/IT/Ops experience.  I've worked at other companies where the experience required for the aforementioned job titles is considerably less.

While I'm certainly not implying all job titles are confusing and/or misleading, I do believe the meaning becomes clouded to folks unfamiliar with a company's rank and file.  More importantly, look beneath the title (headline) for a better appreciation of one's roles/responsibilities/capabilities.  In summary, the age old saying “Don't judge a book by its cover" applies here too!