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I am 36 and have the word associate in my job title. I am planning on applying to other jobs and I dont want to be stuck in an entry level position. I work in Higher Education/Online education/Ed tech, etc. That is my field. I deal with student issues that vary from having trouble logging onto our website to making sure they get proper credit in courses. I also have a masters degree. I feel like i've been underemployed I guess you could say for a while. As underemployed as i feel i cant seem to get ahead at the company i'm at. I have a 1 year old which doesnt help...but i feel this pressure to move on to a better role. If not now at least in the future...but I dont know what i'll be able to get. Anyone else feel this way? Will i be able to move out of what I'm doing now?
It's one thing to change your title in an attempt to standardize it. For example at one company, my title was GBS Analyst which stood for Global Business Systems Analyst. The more commonly used title for my position was Financial Systems Analyst.
No one really gave me a hard time about changing that because it's not like I gave myself a promotion or anything, I just wasn't using the company specific name for a common position.
If you're turning yourself into a Senior something or a Manager of something... then yeah, it'll probably hurt you down the road.
Stay real. in the end, hirings are done based on background - not titles alone. Not to mention titles don't always carry the same meaning from company to company.
I was in management consulting, and "Associate" is the entry level position at PWC, but it's mid-career at Booz. In the Financial sector, they give out VP titles like they're going out of style. I know at some banks, VPs are essentially branch managers, or folks who have the authority to approve/deny loans.
Also - if you inflate your title, there's a possibility you may "underwhelm" the hiring manager given your background.
I see people I worked with years ago have inflated their titles and increased the amount of time in jobs. At least 5 or 6 people I know have done that. Someone who had the title of something something manager when I knew them in the job, changed it to Director of something something. And they had not been promoted, no. I don't recommend that, just chiming in to say I've seen people do it and it hasn't appeared to come back to bite them.
oh i would never lie about the title...i'm just wondering how to embellish my job description...not just like, answered student inquiries. I work for an exciting company i think it would spark an interest in employers...it's just my title...associate. Blah.
Do not embellish the title because prospective employer is entitled to verify your title with HR, this is one of the items that they can certainly ask for, what you need to focus on is writing a strong resume where even routine job duties sound like you have done something of utmost importance. For example "Provided consistent guidance to students struggling with technical issues" is a rewording of your helping students log into website.
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