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Let's say you are in a situation where perhaps the title you have is not reflective of your career level. To elaborate, my company has me down with "Director" in the title for whatever reason. Manager may be closer to being accurate, but certainly not a Director. I know "It's just a title", but I feel that in my job search, seeing that I am listed as a Director on my resume while going after Manager or Specialist roles may turn off potential employers. What do you think? Can I somehow leave my given title out of the equation?
For reference, I am in digital marketing. Digital marketing specialist, digital marketing manager and digital marketing director are examples of different roles.
Let's say you are in a situation where perhaps the title you have is not reflective of your career level. To elaborate, my company has me down with "Director" in the title for whatever reason. Manager may be closer to being accurate, but certainly not a Director. I know "It's just a title", but I feel that in my job search, seeing that I am listed as a Director on my resume while going after Manager or Specialist roles may turn off potential employers. What do you think? Can I somehow leave my given title out of the equation?
For reference, I am in digital marketing. Digital marketing specialist, digital marketing manager and digital marketing director are examples of different roles.
It's actually a pretty valid concern. To some extent, title can "price you out" of jobs that you're qualified for because people will assume one or more of the following:
a) You were pretty bad at your director level position so you're taking a step down
b) You'll expect pay that's on par with a director level even if the position is a manager level
c) You won't want to take a step down
OP, I don't know that you can leave it off your resume without it raising red flags, but you can try to "down play" your director title by making the responsibilities sound more like a manager for example.
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Director is more of a "big picture" position, dealing with long range planning, budget, and supervising managers. Not a hands-on or technical position. Definitely makes you seem either over-qualified or looking for a demotion, but companies do have poorly chosen titles at times. Just make sure your listed duties are appropriate to the position you are applying for.
Are you still at this job? The main thing with job titles is to make sure that any references from that place know what title you're going to be using. While I would never bump a title up (i.e. change a Manager position to VP) I don't think it's a big deal to change a title if you're doing it to clarify what your job actually consisted of doing, just make sure any references you're using from that place know how you listed your experience on your resume.
I also think there's a difference between being a "Marketing Director" and something like "Director of Marketing". The first makes me think the person worked at a small place and was a one person marketing department. The second makes me think the person was managing a department, and most likely was supervising managers and dealing with strategy.
You might consider adding in your cover letter a statement reading something like,
'While my current title is Director, my role is more at the Manager level in other companies, which is why I am seeking a position at this level.
Having said that, many people apply to the next level up when looking for a new job, so I would also consider Director level jobs.
Forget about looking down now. Unfortunately you can only apply for Director and up positions now.
I actually worked for a client who did that. They had managers who worked as business analyst but when they hired them from their competitor, they gave them a raise and these fancy positions which made it look good on resume and linkedin but in reality they were doing the same work that they were doing before.
Let's say you are in a situation where perhaps the title you have is not reflective of your career level. To elaborate, my company has me down with "Director" in the title for whatever reason. Manager may be closer to being accurate, but certainly not a Director. I know "It's just a title", but I feel that in my job search, seeing that I am listed as a Director on my resume while going after Manager or Specialist roles may turn off potential employers. What do you think? Can I somehow leave my given title out of the equation?
For reference, I am in digital marketing. Digital marketing specialist, digital marketing manager and digital marketing director are examples of different roles.
Job titles for the exact job vary between companies. I list on my resume a functional job title for each position, because some places have job titles which are unique to their company and almost no one else uses them.
If your provide information about each job you had and your accomplishments, people can also decide from the job title if it fits your job. But simply add an additional line for a functional job title.
My last job listed me as an Account Manager (that's what the company chose to call us) which is technically more of a sales rep job, but I was actually the fabrication production manager. One of our two owners handled most of sales. I did interact with the buyers from our customer but that was mainly to make sure everything remained on schedule.
I didn't list Account Manager on my resume' but instead actually listed Fab Production Manager since that was my physical role. Didn't seem to cause any hiccups...
Let's say you are in a situation where perhaps the title you have is not reflective of your career level. To elaborate, my company has me down with "Director" in the title for whatever reason. Manager may be closer to being accurate, but certainly not a Director. I know "It's just a title", but I feel that in my job search, seeing that I am listed as a Director on my resume while going after Manager or Specialist roles may turn off potential employers. What do you think? Can I somehow leave my given title out of the equation?
For reference, I am in digital marketing. Digital marketing specialist, digital marketing manager and digital marketing director are examples of different roles.
So it's like banks where everyone is a VP?
In all seriousness though, I don't think your title alone will turn off potential employers. If you are actively looking while remaining employed it may help you, especially when it comes to salary negotiations, etc.
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