Job titles - how to stay consistent

moneysjb

Hi - I understand the rationale of keeping job titles consistent across applications but any thoughts on how to do so when many applications only have fixed drop-downs which aren't consistent across organisations. Especially important when things that might be considered close synonyms are treated differently (like PA / secretary; or priest /  imam / vicar etc)

MattMattMattUK

moneysjb said:

Hi - I understand the rationale of keeping job titles consistent across applications but any thoughts on how to do so when many applications only have fixed drop-downs which aren't consistent across organisations. Especially important when things that might be considered close synonyms are treated differently (like PA / secretary; or priest /  imam / vicar etc)

Pick the one you think fits best. PA and Secretary are largely the same thing, Priest, Imam and Vicar are similar (all are religious preachers), but also different as a Priest, Vicar and Imam are somewhat different as a Priest is someone appointed by an official body (although often used in cases where that is not applicable), vicars are a subset of priests, Imam is a social honorific and has no official meaning. 

DullGreyGuy

moneysjb said:

Hi - I understand the rationale of keeping job titles consistent across applications but any thoughts on how to do so when many applications only have fixed drop-downs which aren't consistent across organisations. Especially important when things that might be considered close synonyms are treated differently (like PA / secretary; or priest /  imam / vicar etc)

Across organisations it doesn't really matter too much... from a referencing point of view you ideally want what you enter to match what your former employer is going to put on your reference to avoid the awkward questions when you've listed yourself as a Marketing Manager but your employer says you were an Office Assistance. Obviously if the prospective employer has given you a drop down list then clearly they are going to be used to non-matches. 

Sometimes it can be a consideration of if you do want to adjust a job title to reflect the reality rather than just what you were called. You could have been called a Project Manager but the day to day was more a hybrid PM/BA role and so if you're applying for a BA role now you may want to make it more obvious with the job title.