The Unwritten Importance of a Job Title

What’s the importance of a job title today? Is being the “senior” something or other as valuable to a person as being a “vice president” or something?

Job titles are a tricky business in today’s work environment. You want a job title that not only accurately describes the work you’re employed to do, but also a title that reflects your pay ranking and seniority within the organization. A good job title confers status on a worker and even can help with costs, especially when it comes to updates needed in business cards printing.

Corporate consultants Deloitte discuss the importance of job titles in an organization, especially in light of the amount of newly-created roles within large companies and the number of generically-titled jobs available in the marketplace. Recruiting coaches suggests that titles are a strong indication of what type of opportunity you may find on the horizon in your next job. Settling for a vague, lower job title may hurt future prospects down the line.

This may account for why Internet companies are doing their best to be creative in describing the work they do. Today’s Web firms can be a baffling display of job titles that mean little to someone outside of those types of jobs. Here’s a sampling of some recent job titles: Content Marketer, Webmaster, Link Building Campaign Manager, Social Media Manager, Director of SEO and PPC Account Manager. If you’re an insurance sales person, those job titles may not matter to you.

Fortune/CNN writes that it’s important for organizations to have a structure for job titles. Two key reasons emerged from job insights gathered from Web start-ups all the way up to large organizations like Facebook.

1. Employees want titles:

In many cases, having a strong job title is your catapult to your next job. Some employees need to plan for life after your company. Fortune notes “When your head of sales interviews for her next job, she won’t want to say that despite the fact that she ran a global sales force with hundreds of employees, her title was “Dude.”

2. Growth of Companies:

Eventually, companies grow, and it’s likely that all employees won’t know the others. Job titles provide a great way for people to describe the work they do for the company. It helps to add to a sense of job worth. Plus, an employee’s job title helps customers and business partners know who to reach out to in their dealings with the company.

These points matter to employees. Even though many of today’s new companies all try to be more even-handed on the balance of job titles and other ‘formal procedures,’ it’s important for a company to have a good structure in place for job titles. Without one in place, levels of imbalance can come to the surface in companies, leading to tensions and more.

It’s important that your current job title can set up your next move in your career. Knowing how to negotiate this title when joining a new company can help your career prospects in the long run.