Title for resume

Sort of a one man show at my job I am over a not for profit that has a private School. The School has a fulltime IT guy that reports to me and then the rest is provided by local vendors. All managed by me. My official title is Director of Information Technology, but my job is also very hands on. Everything from budgets and contracts to hey my printer is jammed! Now based on my experience I will probably end up applying for more hands on technical jobs. I could call myself a network admin, system admin, or director of IT depending on the job. Or I could call myself the czar of geekdom as my boss is not into titles.

Anyone have any suggestion for something a little more general? I know a lot will look at Dir of IT and can the resume if the job is more hands on and network and system admin might imply a level of skill I don’t really have.. Any input would be appreciated.

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Comments

networker050184

You should use your official title. If they call and verify employment for thats what they are going to get.

cyberguypr

networker050184 wrote: »

You should use your official title. If they call and verify employment for that's what they are going to get.

Agree. You may be inclined to change it to reflect something related to the position you are pursuing but don't forget that the truth will always surface no matter how much dirt you put over it. You take the risk of having your resume thrown in the circular file for the simple fact that the title you put down doesn't match the employment verification.

LordQarlyn

geek4god wrote: »

Sort of a one man show at my job I am over a not for profit that has a private School. The School has a fulltime IT guy that reports to me and then the rest is provided by local vendors. All managed by me. My official title is Director of Information Technology, but my job is also very hands on. Everything from budgets and contracts to hey my printer is jammed! Now based on my experience I will probably end up applying for more hands on technical jobs. I could call myself a network admin, system admin, or director of IT depending on the job. Or I could call myself the czar of geekdom as my boss is not into titles.

Anyone have any suggestion for something a little more general? I know a lot will look at Dir of IT and can the resume if the job is more hands on and network and system admin might imply a level of skill I don’t really have.. Any input would be appreciated.

Agree with the above.

As I said on another post, we have geek tech jobs, but this is still a corporate world. Use your boring, uninteresting-sounding, but official titles.

N2IT

networker050184 wrote: »

You should use your official title. If they call and verify employment for thats what they are going to get.

+1

I agree and I will say because it's the right thing to do. Titles are just that, list your experiences which IMO is what really matters.

Essendon

Though I agree with the above posters, but try imagining what that dumb HR goon would be like when he saw a resume for a system admin role he had and your current job title said Director of IT, the HR baboon would go "Whoa!, this guy has applied for the wrong job", delete, next. Just something to think about.

geek4god

Yea, not trying to inflate my title, trying to dumb it down! The truth is I am all of the above! I have had head hunter call and as soon as I say Director of Information Technology you can hear them zone out. They are not hiring a Director they are looking for a sys admin, or a network admin. Or a support analyst etc etc. And the ones looking for an IT Director are not looking for one that has one direct report and is the guy who fixes the printer jam.

For the majority of jobs resumes are scanned and processed looking for keywords. Resumes with more keywords have a tendency to float to the top. The days of an HR/manager reading a resume are over. Even the ones who do it manually are just skimming them to narrow the stack down. When they narrow it then they read them! (maybe) When skimming resumes Director of IT is going to stick out in a bad way and at best get me in pile B..

I think my best bet "may" be to not include a title at all and simple work the appropriate keywords (that apply to my experience) into the job description. When/if I am asked for my title I can then give it and explain it versus leaving it up for interpretation. I think my resume is far more likely to be skipped for having a title that is completely inappropriate for the job then not having one at all..

geek4god

A resume should have a couple goals. The first and most important goal is to get past the gatekeeper. This could be an automated system that simply looks for keywords. Or it could be someone simply skimming a stack. In my past life I worked in staffing, 90% of what I did was clerical or light industrial. I interviewed over a 1000 people and put over 1500 on jobs.. You get really good at skimming; you have to as you do not have the time to read everything. It is the reason so many use automated systems these days. When you see a job description it is going to have keywords. If your experience truly matches those keywords it goes on the resume! If you are NOT rewriting your resume for the job then you are going to have a harder time getting past the gatekeeper. You first have to have the skills and the experience, but step two is making sure your resume is crafted so that an automated system or a person skimming it can see that you have what they are looking for. If you are counting on someone reading between the lines to see if you have what they want, forget it! It is NOT going to happen at this point.

Goal two is your resume has to convey that you are someone worth bringing in for an interview! Resumes do NOT get you jobs, interviews and contacts and to a lesser degree skills and experience get you the job. This is the reason it is an art and not a science. If your resume just lists skills and experience you might get past the gatekeeper but the odds of getting an interview are diminished unless you have some unique set of skills or experience they can't live without. Your resume when it gets past the gatekeeper needs to show the reader that you can positively impact the organization. It needs at this point to convey action and accomplishments. Implemented a VOIP phone system under budget and on time. Reduced waste in X by doing Y. Increased Z by doing X. etc etc. At this point is all about framing your skills and experience in a manner that makes them want to bring you in to interview..

That is my 2 cents on the topic of resumes.. It is more complicated than that and there is a reason most people get jobs because of contacts!

MentholMoose

You could include a functional title (sysadmin, etc.) along with your official title in parentheses, or vice versa, for clarification.

N2IT

Essendon wrote: »

Though I agree with the above posters, but try imagining what that dumb HR goon would be like when he saw a resume for a system admin role he had and your current job title said Director of IT, the HR baboon would go "Whoa!, this guy has applied for the wrong job", delete, next. Just something to think about.

I agree Ess

It depends, but I don't like to tell people to go down that road usually.