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When Your Job Title Doesn't Match Your Job Responsibilities
Imagine being in this situation as you sit down to write or revise a resumé: you work as an Office Manager for a small business. In this role, you assume all responsibilities typically associated with the position of Office Manager. In addition, you partner with the company owner to set policies, work with freelancers on marketing materials, serve as a liaison between vendors and shipping service companies, and conduct calls for sales leads collected at trade shows. In other words, your title doesn't encompass all of your job responsibilities. Several potential employers have even expressed concerns about the difference in your title and your overall position in the company, wondering if you have exaggerated your responsibilities on your resumé.
Many professionals run into situations in which the title they hold at their current job is so specific to the company that it carries no meaning outside of the organization, or it implies a position a level or more below their actual work responsibilities. The difficulty we face in these situations is accurately describing our professional experience on our resumé in order to advance in our careers. There is no easy way to address this problem. On one hand, you want to remain truthful on your resume; you wouldn't want your potential employer calling for a reference check and getting an impression you lied about your work history, do you? On the other, you don't want to sell yourself short and get locked into a job well below your skills and experience.
There is a debate among human resources professionals about listing job titles versus job functions on your resumé. Some job hunters prefer listing their title as it is, followed by a list of responsibilities, while others strongly prefer finding a way to rephrase their title to encompass actual job functions as they exist. Often the best option lies in finding a happy medium by which you can both list your job title and a brief description of your job function, before you begin listing your job responsibilities.
First, let's look at the possibility of making appropriate changes to job titles as you include them on your resume. If your title is unusual, or very specific to the particular organization for which you are working, you should try to find an equivalent title that is well-accepted and generally understood within your industry. For example, if you work as a customer support representative supporting a specific product and your title contains the product name, you can simply list Product Support Representative on your resumé and only mention the product name in the description of responsibilities or omit it altogether. However, be careful not to change your title so that it implies change in responsibility or salary level, or change the area of the organization where you work, or suggest you are directly reporting to a person in a higher position than that of your actual manager. These sorts of substantive changes on your resumé are dishonest and will negatively impact your credibility with your potential employer.
If your title implies less responsibility than you actually hold, chose the middle ground option of combining your formal job title with a brief description of your job skills. For example, if you are a Product Support Representative but are also responsible for training new hires for your team, list your title as follows: Product Support Representative -- Customer Support and New Hire Training. All you are doing here is elaborating on your job title by including a brief description of what it actually means in terms of your job function in your organization. Follow this title and description with power statements describing your actual job responsibilities in order of their importance and relevance to your long-term career goals. This method is preferred because you are honest about your title, but you are also indicating to your employer that your responsibilities are slightly different than what the title would normally indicate as a result of peculiarities of your specific organization. When a potential employer makes background checks and reference calls, you will not have to worry about misrepresenting your title or raising questions about your credibility.
Above all, your resumé must honestly represent your job experience and responsibilities. Although it may be frustrating to hold a formal job title that does not reflect your real responsibilities in the organization, particularly if downsizing has left you fulfilling the duties formerly held by several coworkers, you do not want to create the impression that you are attempting to inflate your responsibilities. Do the best you can to remain objective when it comes to matching your job title with the actual functions you are fulfilling and read your resumé as a potential employer might read it. Does it clearly communicate your job titles and functions in a way that both represents your actual responsibilities and the answers that your current employers will give when asked about them?
