Recently a friend of mine asked for my help in preparing her resume. She works as an Office Manager for a small business organization. According to her role, she is supposed to manage all the responsibilities of an Office Manager. Moreover, she partners with the company owner to set policies, also works with freelancers on marketing materials and serves as a liaison between vendors and also shipping service companies. She also conducts calls for sales leads, which are collected at trade shows. In a nutshell, her title doesn’t contain all of her job responsibilities. Many potential employers have had concerns about this difference in her title as well as her overall position in the company.
Like her, many professionals run into situations, where the title they carry at their current job is so specific to their company that it actually carries no meaning outside of the organization. The difficulty they face in these situations is accounting for their professional experience on their resume to advance in their careers. There is not an easy way to address this, as you want to remain truthful on your resume as well. Besides that, you also wouldn’t want your potential employer calling for a reference check and getting an impression you lied about your work history, do you? The best option would be to find a medium to list your job title with a few words, which describe your job function, even before you start off listing your job responsibilities.
First, try making changes to the job titles as you include them on your CV. If your title unusual, or very specific to the company, then try to find an equivalent title which will be well accepted. Also be careful not to exaggerate your title and don’t change your title which may imply any change in responsibility or salary level. If your resume is found to be dishonest, this will negatively impact your credibility with your employer.
If your title implies less responsibility than you hold, chose the middle ground option described above. List your actual title on your resume. For example, if you are a Product Support Representative but are also responsible for training new hires for your team, list your title as follows: Product Support Representative/Customer Support and New Hire Training. All you are doing here is elaborating on your job title by including a brief description of your job function. Following this title, make sure that your resume includes power statements describing your actual job responsibilities, in order of their importance and relevance to your career title. This method is preferred because you are honest about your title, but you are also indicating to your employer that your responsibilities are slightly different than what the title implicates. When background checks and reference calls are conducted, you will not have to worry about misrepresenting your title, or causing raised questions about your credibility. Above all, your resume must be honest. Do the best you can to remain objective when it comes to your job titles and functions – focus on the positives, and you are sure to have a winning resume.
