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Boost resume with job titles?

laptop

If someone is a technical support representative, is it ok to put technical support analyst on the resume instead?

The work is more of analyst related. but the pay is little, so they call us reps.

Is this considered lying on a resume?

I have a couple friends who were hired as "Help Desk" but they put "Support Analyst" on their resumes.

I know a guy who was hired as a "Database Officer" because i saw the job posting. But he did business analysis kind of work. He put "Consultant" on his resume.

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Comments

higherho

laptop wrote: »

If someone is a technical support representative, is it ok to put technical support analyst on the resume instead?

The work is more of analyst related. but the pay is little, so they call us reps.

Is this considered lying on a resume?

I have a couple friends who were hired as "Help Desk" but they put "Support Analyst" on their resumes.

I know a guy who was hired as a "Database Officer" because i saw the job posting. But he did business analysis kind of work. He put "Consultant" on his resume.

I would just put your official title down. In the end the title is only a little portion but the part that matters is what you did at the job. IT hiring managers would be able to point out the differences in the roles based on what they did.

I was a Technical Support Analyst back in College which really all I did was Help Desk work. Support analyst can mean many things and in certain companies can mean help desk.

General rule of thumb on resumes:

Never lie. Put your title down what your employer gave you.

ChooseLife

laptop wrote: »

Is this considered lying on a resume?

In my opinion - yes

laptop wrote: »

I have a couple friends who were hired as "Help Desk" but they put "Support Analyst" on their resumes.

I also know people listing certificates when they only attended a prep class. Both of these piss me off enormously...

Everyone

higherho wrote: »

Put your title down what your employer gave you.

I will say there are a couple small exception to this rule. Military IT experience for example.

I do not put down "Communications Computer Systems Operations Craftsman", very few people would understand that.

I put "Help Desk Technician" for the few months I spent as one, and "Systems Administrator" for when I was performing those duties or "Network Security Manager" for when I was a "Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge of Network Security". The titles match the work I actually performed, and make more sense in the civilian world. I've never been questioned on it. If I was questioned, it's easy to explain that it's a civilian translation of a Military title.

For my civilian jobs, I put down what everybody knew my title as (most importantly my boss!). For example, at one job, for pay purposes, I think my title was something like "Computer Systems Analyst III", but I was actually the "Lead Messaging Systems Administrator", which is what my boss introduced me to people as, and what I put on my e-mail signature.

If they call your references, what are your references going to say your title was?

If they call a past employer/supervisor, what will they say your title was?

Both of those should match, and they should match what you have on your resume.

I don't really like my current title of "Exchange Administrator", but that's what it is. I've had some people look at that and say "It looks like you do a lot more than Exchange right?". "Messaging Systems Engineer" or just plain "Systems Engineer" would be much better titles for the work I perform. I don't use them because that isn't my title, or what people know me as. I've asked my boss if I can get my title officially changed to either of those. He was supposed to talk to HR about it, but hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Hope that helps.