Titles on LinkedIn (I, II, III, IV, etc)

jabokim

Hi everyone!

I recently got a job as a network engineer (my first network engineer job :):)). My offer letter says my official title is 'Network Engineer II (2). On my LinkedIn should I just put my position as 'network engineer' or would it look better and be more beneficial to put 'network engineer II' ?

Thanks!

emerald_octane

Don't do it. What's the point? Levels are highly specific to an organization; one may be a level IV tech because he has been there the longest out of four networking guys. In other orgs that level only comes with 20 yrs experience and a masters degree. I'd let the title stand on its own, definitely include sr titles in there though.

jabokim

Thanks emerald_octane, I was leaning towards that line of thought too!

ninjaturtle

I agree with Emerald_octane. I've been at my company for a long time 8+ years, but they won't give me the senior title simply because of money. But I still claim Network Engineer on the resume. No need to add the I, II ect... You should really only keep network engineer or senior network engineer. The levels are definitely company specific, like working for AT&T or something.

TheFORCE

Personally I would put the official title that you got hired for. It shows that you are at a different level, sure it might depend on the company, but in your case and for this company they feel that you deserve to be distinguished by having a different title. The other point is, why lower your title on your own when they are giving it to you officially?

Edit: To expand a little bit on this.
A lot of IT people do not think like business people, this is true with a lot of people I've met, even here. They would rather let their "skills" talk for themselves but then wonder how someone lower in skills than them has a higher paying job than them. The reason is, that person was able to "sell" and approach their skills and character as a business case. I have seen here in this forum many people say about how certain certs are resume foder and only help you get past HR. Well if that is the case, why wouldn't you use your job title as a standing point on your resume also? Recruiters, hiring managers, HR people all these people think on the business side of things, they LOVE to see progress! So why wouldn't you show them progress? Why put yourself in a disadvantage when you have an advantage already? I see people so far on this thread saying, "if the title was senior" then you should do it. Well here is my question to you. In the future you would want that senior title, do you think it will be easier for you to move from a Network Engineer level 2 to senior or from just Network Engineer? Remember you are dealing with HR and Recruiters that LOVE to see progress because they can "sell" you as a business point. Think yourself as a business, as a product that you are selling, so in that case why wouldn't you use all the attributes of your product to make it stand out a little bit more?

olaHalo

I put my numbers on linkedin =D

markulous

Not really pertinent in my opinion. I put what my job title truly is but hiring managers have to realize that job titles in IT mean absolutely nothing.

Eston21

The point is that hiring managers often times do not.

aderon

Personally I would put it. First of all, it's your official title, so there's no reason to put anything different. And Second, most recruiters rely on these sort of things to help them recruit. Plus I can't think of a downside?

dou2ble

markulous wrote: »

...job titles in IT mean absolutely nothing.

Do they really mean nothing? I think job titles do have value. The amount of value is what's subjective. Some attribute more weight than they should, and others don't accurately portray the position. This is why in addition to your title you should put a job description, education, and accomplishments.

For the OP, at first I would've said don't put the numbers. But after reading TheFORCE's arguement I can see why one would list it. When I've seen I-IV it usually associated with a payscale specific to that employer.This is why I'm not a fan of it.

markulous

dou2ble wrote: »

Do they really mean nothing? I think job titles do have value. The amount of value is what's subjective. Some attribute more weight than they should, and others don't accurately portray the position. This is why in addition to your title you should put a job description, education, and accomplishments.

For the OP, at first I would've said don't put the numbers. But after reading TheFORCE's arguement I can see why one would list it. When I've seen I-IV it usually associated with a payscale specific to that employer.This is why I'm not a fan of it.

I've seen jobs where they are labeled a senior systems engineer and it's a help desk role and the other side of the coin where a desktop specialist has his hands in all kinds of things (AD, firewalls, routing, etc.). I mean I wouldn't care if my job title was "Assistant Janitor" if my job description and duties were awesome.

NetworkNewb

Alot of IT labels are just confusing... Whenever anyone asks what I do I just say I work in IT. Actual title is Systems Support Analyst, no one is going to know what I mean if I say that.

snapdad

I agree that titles in IT are mostly useless. There is way too much variation from organization to organization. My current company lists Desktop techs as Network Engineers.

NetworkNewb

snapdad wrote: »

My current company lists Desktop techs as Network Engineers.

lol nice

philz1982

Put whatever you feel you do.

Sawedoff

snapdad wrote: »

I agree that titles in IT are mostly useless. There is way too much variation from organization to organization. My current company lists Desktop techs as Network Engineers.

Wow, that's extremely misleading.

There does seem to be an issue industry-wide with job titles. None of them make sense anymore.

This is what happens when non-IT people create titles.

cshkuru

I don't know about other places but the company I work for has a social media policy that specifies that you must use your full position title when referencing it on sites like linked in and in your email signature block etc.