Is job title important to you?

As topic, given if the next job is still align to what you are doing everyday and you get a reasonable pay raise; but due to company culture, the job title is a messed up. Does it matter to you?

I started my first job as Security Analyst working in a small MSS SOC in my country, subsequently promoted to Senior Security Analyst and then to Competency Lead.

After that, I move up to a larger company,working as the same role as Security Analyst in a SOC, but the job title would be known as Application Specialist. Since this company is bigger, the salary scale is higher as well.

Now, I am moving on to an even larger company for their global SOC, the next job title is Global Cyber Security Operation Center - Tier 1 (Associate).

Im interested in a raise of hands, had you have a job title that could have match better? It doesn't matter much to me, but I do once had a colleague who view this as important, what about you?

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Comments

Essendon

They shouldnt matter, much. But everywhere you go for interviews, people are bound to ask you the question if your title sounds a rung lower than the role you are interviewing for. I am officially a "Senior Systems Engineer" and I applied for a Systems Engineer role at VMware, when I got a call from the HR goon the first question he asked was just that - you are blah blah now, why do you want to go down a level? Rolling my eyes I told him job titles didnt matter much in the IT industry it was the kind of work that mattered and the role I was applying for was the next level up in terms of the work I'd be doing.

In all honesty, most hiring folks would tend to like to see a logical progression in both job titles and job responsibilities. To me though, job responsibilities matter waaay more than a job title. You could be a Network Engineer at one company resetting passwords and fixing printers and a Technical Support Engineer at another solving escalated L3/4 problems.

adam220891

Not sure how I feel about this one. The job I applied for was 'Jr. Network Administrator' but in the phone directory I'm listed as 'Network Technician' and in AD I'm listed as 'IT Technician.'

I fix PCs, printers, etc. I also make network diagrams, have done firewall/group policy adjustments, set up an IP camera, etc. I do not, unfortunately, touch the switches (outside of patching them to the patch panel). You be the judge.

I personally prefer 'Jr. Network Administrator' but feel my knowledge and day to day activities more closely align with 'network technician.' I do some help desk and remote support occasionally....just the deal when you are a growing company with a smaller IT department.

paul78

As far as job titles go, I absolutely care about the internal rank more than the external title as it relates to the specific company. For example, the internal rank in a larger company conveys rank and level of authority - junior, senior, lead, manager, Director, VP, Senior VP, Exec VP - all convey level of authority within a large company. Yes - it's very important to me.

apr911

There are 3 instance I can think of where title matters to me:

1. When applying for a new job. As has already been said, recruiters like to see a logical progression and like to recruit for like roles i.e. engineer-to-engineer, senior-to-senior, etc. An engineer title or senior level role in your current position opens doors that weren't open before. Even though its not what should matter (actual duties is what matters) this just is not the case. I have yet to see a resume cross my desk for a Jr-to-Sr or Sr-to-Jr level admin and that's disappointing because it should be about capabilities. I guess I understand as it makes the recruiters job easier if they can DQ all people who dont have a matching or similar job title which probably eliminates a large percentage of resumes but Im sure there are more than a few being disqualified on those ground who would be capable of filling the role.

2. When it comes to job comparison internally. As has already been mentioned, one company's engineer is another's helpdesk admin 1 so putting stock in job descriptions in that scenario is somewhat useless but when the same company has the same disparity in skill level for a single job title it becomes extremely frustrating to watch. Especially when less skilled "Jr Admins" become an "Engineer" before you because of a change in department. Especially when you know, because of number 3, the "engineer" now makes more than you despite being less skilled and capable of only being a Jr Admin in your department.

3. When it comes to salary negotiation & career progression. This is really the big one because even #1 & #2 roll into this in some degree. Most people (especially IT people) like to feel like their progressing in their careers and companies often reward that progression with a new title and pay. Personally, if past titles didnt matter so much when searching for a new job, you could give me whatever title you wanted just as long as it comes with the pay I expect and regular increases but company's like to fit everything in nice neat little boxes and this is true even for salary. They like their paybands and paybands are often tied to title.

While paul78 makes a good point about the importance of title in the corporate hierarchy, I dont think it applies as much to IT workers. IT is one of the few "self-organizing" departments. We frequently reorganize ourselves around the individuals who make our jobs easier independent of the Org chart. I have personally been on several teams where issues were brought to "junior" level admins before the "senior" admin or team lead/manager because the team had marginalized the senior admin or team lead/manager and organized around the junior admin... Yes there are some flaws with this self organization (namely the team lead/manager, no matter how marginalized by the team, still represents the team to higher-ups and also controls the progression/pay of their underlings and what tasks the team takes on) but authority is 1/2 granted by title and 1/2 earned by respect.

Master Of Puppets

I don't care at all what they call me. Usually I am called a number of things - network security engineer, security consultant, information security consultant, network security professional etc. All I care about is job responsibilities. They can call me a jedi for all I care as long as I do what is agreed upon and what I want. Plus, I think all other matters are based on what you actually do, not what they call you(or at least they should).

JoJoCal19

It matters to me, especially being in the banking/finance world. It also depends on the firm. At my previous banking/finance firm they gave out "title promotions" like candy. There were people doing second level desktop support that were VP. At my new firm, also in banking/finance, they don't do that. You get the title when you have a promotion to a job at that level or your job duties change enough to warrant it.

N2IT

It should matter it basically tells people what you do in one or two words.

I know of a health care provider in the area that has their title mixed up. No lie, Developers are analyst and System Admins are developers. weirdest thing I have ever seen when it comes to that sort of thing.

Does it have to be "perfect" no not at all, but it has to be somewhat accurate.

I am a Business Analyst by title but I am more of a Data Analyst, Quality Analyst. That doesn't bother me enough to seek a job title change. I think it's going to be a hard sell though, because I analyze data, clean and match fuzzy data write quality KPI reporting (Variance reports, STD Dev, etc).

I don't build USE Cases or Story Board like a lot of technical BA's do.

networker050184

paul78 wrote: »

As far as job titles go, I absolutely care about the internal rank more than the external title as it relates to the specific company. For example, the internal rank in a larger company conveys rank and level of authority - junior, senior, lead, manager, Director, VP, Senior VP, Exec VP - all convey level of authority within a large company. Yes - it's very important to me.

My thoughts as well. As long as it lines up with the rest of the organization it doesn't really matter if I'm an analyst, engineer, architect etc.

MSP-IT

Does anyone else have many formal titles?

I would think they would consolidate titles for consistency reasons. I have a different title in HR, AD, E-Mail/IM, and our identity/account manager. Depending on who you ask, I could be a Security Automation Developer, ISS Developer, Information Security Specialist, or Oracle Engineer.

bub9001

It is also a good idea to remember with most large companies 500+ PC's, will have a HR department. And the HR department will sometimes classify a position off the job title, also pay comes in somewhere around there as well. My title leaves much to be desired, but never had a customer question my ability unless the customer would drowned if it rained.

paul78

apr911 wrote: »

We frequently reorganize ourselves around the individuals who make our jobs easier independent of the Org chart.

That's a really good point. That's sort of what I meant by internal rank versus external title. What I really should have said is functional title. In a larger corporation that has many lines-of-businesses, ranking is probably more important. And functional titles are really meant to denote scope of responsibility and functional capability. And different IT teams may organize themselves to suit their own business reuirements. For example, if I interact with a different line-of-business's CTO but the individual carry's a Director rank (Director, Chief Technology Officer of whateve business), I would be more senior even though the C-level title isnt part of my title and we don't organize in the same way.

GarudaMin

If you have put blood/sweat to work your way up many titles that are hard to get, on a personal level I think it really/should matter. It also should matter if you are moving from one place to another, especially if your job responsibility is the same in both old and new company. But in old company, you were a senior XXXX engineer, now you are XXX analyst even though you make more money, you went down in title. It would have been nice to get the same title.

One instance where I have noticed that my title matter was when I visited a different country. Even though the locals don't know what XXX engineer does, because it was preceded by 'senior', they were all 'OOO' and 'AHHH'

. Just saying that people in general care about what title you go by. The question that you should ask yourself is 'do I care about what people think of my title?'

dubzer

Probably care in a more senior role or specific technology position. But right now/starting off, it's all about what I do.

UNO23

Master Of Puppets wrote: »

I don't care at all what they call me. Usually I am called a number of things - network security engineer, security consultant, information security consultant, network security professional etc. All I care about is job responsibilities. They can call me a jedi for all I care as long as I do what is agreed upon and what I want. Plus, I think all other matters are based on what you actually do, not what they call you(or at least they should).

That was until I was pigeonholed into my current role. “Call whatever you want”, I used to say. Not anymore! Since my title today doesn’t align with the industry standard IT titles, I get the shaft to some degree when it comes to compensation and bonus. This, and a few other reasons is why I decided to take back control my IT career. Experience I have, but I need to get my skills back up to par with todays technologies and show that I can fill specific roles with the appropriate title for someone in that position. Just wanted to share my experience.

xenodamus

In my organization, HR does an annual analysis of our titles and how our pay ranges compare to industry averages. In that case it definitely matters. The difference between Jr. and Sr. equates to dollars around here.

jvrlopez

As long as someone can somewhat realize what I do, I don't mind as to specifics. What it says on my name plate, directory listing, and the contract I signed are all different.