What do you do when you title should be something different

In my case I am more of an Data Analyst than a Business Analyst yet my official title is Business Analyst.

Do you just roll with the title and let your description and bullets do the taking for you? Or should you look to formally change your title before leaving the company? This sounds silly.

I can only imagine if your title was really different, eg accounting but you really support a financial system etc.

Regardless of the opinions your title is a huge part of branding and can have a positive or negative impact on your ability to get hired.

Thoughts?

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Comments

RHEL

My first 'real' job, I was hired on as a UNIX System Administrator... However, I found out from my paystubs that my official title with HR was systems analyst. I found out they did this because the lowest paygrade for system administrator started out more than what I was making.

What's even more messed up is that we had official defined job descriptions... I was performing duties of a system administrator, including 24x7x365 on-call while the analyst description made no mention of on-call. In this case, I think I would have had good cause to approach HR regarding the title discrepancy and say that I either want to be titled correctly for my responsibilities OR have my responsibilities lowered (no on-call) to match my title.

shodown

Double bladed sword. Some people care about them a lot. Others could care less. However when I meet a person who has the title network engineer, or Sr Network Engineer, it makes me cringe when they don't know the basics of networking

iBrokeIT

I think your experience and ability to do the job define you more than the title. When you go into a job interview you don't really talk about your title, you talk about your experience. Titles may get you noticed but it your experience and abilities that land you the job.

N2IT

shodown wrote: »

Double bladed sword. Some people care about them a lot. Others could care less. However when I meet a person who has the title network engineer, or Sr Network Engineer, it makes me cringe when they don't know the basics of networking

Thanks guys for posting back

This is important to me due to the nature of my situation.

I deal a lot with SQL, Data analysis, Excel, Access and some ETL and database management systems. However I don't story board, develop UML diagrams or build use cases.

Why am I called a BA when I am clearly a DA or SQL Analyst or whatever lol.

Anyway that's my point.

N2IT

@ iBrokeIT. This isn't about the conversation it's about the branding and being noticed to get the interview. I am not a recruiter but something tells me if your title aligns with your job function you'll get more opportunities for positions you are qualified for.

pinkydapimp

sadly title is important. If your title is completely wrong, i would go to HR and ask for a title change. I was able to do this in a past job and it makes a difference when it comes to people reading your resume.

Also, you can use this when negotiating a pay raise or promotion. If you dont get it, counter with the title change.

yzT

At my last job my title was "Engineer". I assigned myself the title of Security Engineer as that should have been my real title, and everyone at the workplace recognized me by that title and even my employer recommends me in LinkedIn as Security Engineer xD

pinkydapimp

yzT wrote: »

At my last job my title was "Engineer". I assigned myself the title of Security Engineer as that should have been my real title, and everyone at the workplace recognized me by that title and even my employer recommends me in LinkedIn as Security Engineer xD

You have to be careful though. If later on someone tries to verify your employment and HR doesnt have that title it could be an issue. I would just go to HR and ask them to change it.