Embellishing job titles

wantsajob

Would anyone advocate embellishing previous job titles, or tailoring them for jobs being applied to? - in a manner similar to using this tool for car insurance http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/

lynzpower

Guess it totally depends what you did in the past? Shop work ive seen called 'sales assistant' or 'sales associate' or retail assistant or cashier.

For example one of my previous jobs was a *** coordinator (overly fancified name) but it was basically sales + admin: I often clarify the post one way or the other depending what Im applying for.

Andy_L

No.
Anyone who's actually doing recruiting knows that job titles are faily meaningless.
What happens if the job title in your reference disagrees with your application?

If you want to tailor your job applicationthen you do that in the skills & experience bit

wantsajob

Thinking in terms of I volunteered at a Museum. The work involved cataloguing books, labelling, and organising them. The Museum happened to be in the same building as the Library, and the books stored in the same room as the Libraries long-term book storage (as the room was climate/humidity controlled to help prevent damaging the books). The title I was given was Voluntary Museum Assistant. I was thinking if I was applying for posts at Libraries, I could say I was a Voluntary Library Assistant. I think if my referee was called for a reference, and the title was mentioned, they wouldn't argue the point.

lynzpower

I would put Volunteer Museum Assistant(Libraries) then it gets both strengths in.

IF and only IF your responsiblities were to maintain the books, humidity, control of them and so forth. If you were volunteering on the info desk then definately not.


As per martins article

"what would a reasonable person think"

agrinnall

:rotfl:

lynzpower wrote: »

I would put Volunteer Museum Assistant(Libraries) then it gets both strengths in.

IF and only IF your responsiblities were to maintain the books, humidity, control of them and so forth. If you were volunteering on the info desk then definately not.


As per martins article

"what would a reasonable person think"

I think this shows a lack of understanding of what a library job these days consists of, which is far more likely to be working on an info desk than maintaining books (which is more of a conservation task). [I have a MSc in Information and Library Studies].

However, I'd agree with Andy L that the job title is pretty meaningless, it's what you've done in the job that matters.

lynzpower

agrinnall wrote: »

:rotfl:

I think this shows a lack of understanding of what a library job these days consists of, which is far more likely to be working on an info desk than maintaining books (which is more of a conservation task). [I have a MSc in Information and Library Studies].

However, I'd agree with Andy L that the job title is pretty meaningless, it's what you've done in the job that matters.

No I meant the information desk in a museum, not in a library: obviously I know that the people who work on an information desk in a library are librarians.

In London anyone can get volunteering in museums, but certainly not in the library section, but they usually work on information desks around the sites, helping people with directions to the loos and the like. that is hardly librarian work.