Job titles on a CV

[Sir Humphrey Appleby]

What's the score with putting your job title on a CV? I've found a job that's very similar to a job I used to do (probably the best I've performed in any job) but with a slightly different name, the responsibilities are almost identical, would it go against me if I changed the name of it to match the job opening at the new company so they see it as being the same name?

 

[Reggs]

I've done this before and it's been fine. I've turned generic titles into something very specific, like Marketing Specialist into Market Analyst because the false title was really a better identifier for what I did on that job. The catch is that your reference has to identify you by that same title. In this case, Id give a heads up to a former boss that I was far in the interview process and if ____ company called, I had the title of _____ and these specific qualifications if they ever got a phone call. If you have an HR department that will not go for that stuff, then you should pressure them to change your title to whatever position you intend to look for when you jump ship. That can take some grooming and political work though. If you take either of the two precautions, an issue will never be raised.

When people call me as a reference, I've been asked what a former employer's title was. If I liked the former employer, I always "forgot" what the title was and the reference interview moved on to other subjects.

 

[mythikal]

Basically as along as the Titles are similar they don't care whether you're called a Market Analyst or Marketing Specialist. As long as you're not adding Chief Marketing Specialist when you're really a Market Analyst.

I work at an IT Staffing firm and we do a lot of placements.