People are always getting caught up with titles. Executive Director, Vice President, Manager, to name just a few. When this come into play most often is when you are looking for a new job, otherwise it truly does not matter your job title. In fact, more and more companies are coming up with creative titles that allow their employees to feel like everyone is on the same level (i.e. TOMS or Google). Of course, this doesn’t work in more traditional enterprise settings but still, titles are all just relative. Many factors contribute to a title, including size of the company, the manner in which business is conducted, the product or service being sold, etc.
So why am I saying this? Well, if you’re like everyone else looking for a job, your title is a critical component to your search. Don’t limit yourself to only searching for your current job title and don’t feel like you’ll be taking a step down if your current title is “director” and a position you’re interested in has the title of “manager.” Keep in mind it’s not what’s on your business card that matters, it’s the skills that you have to get the job done.
Here’s an example:
- Client A was a Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.
Now that’s a pretty big title right? What did they do there?
- Client A managed a team of four sales associates and reported directly to the Chief Operating Officer. Client A was also responsible for the P&L, creating and adhering to budgets, recruiting, hiring and training associates, attending industry tradeshows and developing / executing marketing campaigns.
Phew, that’s a lot of responsibilities. Client A’s company was a startup with only 10 employees. Their annual salary was $60,000.
What kinds of jobs will Client A be targeting?
From a career services perspective if Client A wants to work for a more established corporation versus a startup they will definitely be taking a “title cut.” To help in their search (here’s where a Career Coach would come in handy), a few titles that would be comparable in skills, experience and salary level would be as follows:
- Director of Marketing and/or Sales
- Director of Product Strategy
- Sr. Sales Manager
- Outside / Consumer Sales Director
This list of possible job titles could go on-and-on. The point I’m trying to make is that you should not be limited in applying for jobs just because you don’t think the title is worthy of your time. Subsequently, in the example above if Client A would have only been looking and applying for jobs containing the words “Vice President” chances are they would have been underqualified for the position.
Take a step back and analyze what you really do in your current position. You’ll find that there are a lot of job titles out there for you.
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