How Important is Previous Job Title on Job Application

[Not So Mild]

I'm curious how important is my previous job title when applying for new jobs. Currently, I'm an "IT Technician" at the company I'm working at, despite being more of a "Jr Sys Admin." The company is a hospital with about ~220 employees, and we only have 3 people in the IT department. My manager handles the meetings and vendors; the more managerial tasks. That leaves the Sys Admin and myself.

I don't plan on staying at this job forever. I've been here 1.5 years. The plan was to only be here about 3 years to fill the resume. I'm only 22 years old, and this is definitely my first IT job, so I'm just building a foundation. I feel like I'm being underpaid, but it's reasonable considering the small business side, and the added benefits of working at a hospital. When I do start applying at new jobs, will they ignore the title I was given and focus primarily on the tasks I do? Or should I speak to my manager about changing my job title? I know this field is littered with a bunch of titles that don't describe the actual tasks being done, and I don't really care what people see as my job title while working here. This is 100% concerning what future employers will see me as.

 

[Zeze]

I'd say important because that's the first thing they see and judge you on.

As long as your professional references are okay with it, feel free to 'pad' your title as long as you can deliver it. My company had a strange ass 'Delivery Manager' that takes on more than PMs do.

So I just go with Project Manager. No one had problems- hiring company, my references, my former boss, HR, etc. Although HR, they only just checked my working date range & duties.

 

[Zeze]

22 omg you are so young.

Just keep on working, building networks, expand your knowledge. You'll make good money in no time (mid late 20s)

 

[Not So Mild]

That's what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't setting myself up for failure here in a few years.

I know I'm pretty young. I'm not too worried about where I'm at now. My job now allows me to learn a lot about different systems because we are so small. I think this is way better for my future then if I were to work at a large company as help desk support.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I'd say important because that's the first thing they see and judge you on.

As long as your professional references are okay with it, feel free to 'pad' your title as long as you can deliver it. My company had a strange ass 'Delivery Manager' that takes on more than PMs do.

So I just go with Project Manager. No one had problems- hiring company, my references, my former boss, HR, etc. Although HR, they only just checked my working date range & duties.

I don't think I've ever used or provided a reference list. Mostly because there is no one from work that I have had a close enough relationship to (especially one I kept in contact with over years).

 

[Zeze]

That's what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't setting myself up for failure here in a few years.

I know I'm pretty young. I'm not too worried about where I'm at now. My job now allows me to learn a lot about different systems because we are so small. I think this is way better for my future then if I were to work at a large company as help desk support.

I missed a question. I'd start looking for a new job in little as 2 years in your current job.

Why? Because that's just fine for moving on to better companies for better jobs and better learning. This you can get a 'real' IT job and further break into your desired area. Waiting more than 2 years is too costly both financially & your career growth/learning.

You are lucky, because I did not have same level of casual know-hows in navigating job finding / career jumping on internet like this.

1. Best raises usually come from new companies & new jobs. Other than that, your raises will be paltra 2-4% unless you get an actual promotion. I got a new job paying 70k from a 45k job. 70k would've been a fantasy in the former company. Currently I broke well over 100k, also from jumping jobs.

2. Same goes for promotions.

3. Always negotiate the first offer of ALL jobs. In my experience, I always got the counter offer, something as little as $5000/yr, that's huge year after year. And all subsequent raises compound that obviously.

 

[Exterous]

Depends on the company doing the interview. Some care a ton about title. One of the groups I work with is going to hire a CIO with no direct reports (very small company) to be the CIO of a much larger group (hundreds of people many direct reports and like 100x times the budget\scope) over someone who is currently near the top of an org with a bunch of direct reports and similar budget\scope solely based on title. They were actually told "We think you would be a great fit but you just don't have the right title to make this transition". I think this will end badly

Others are not so hung up on title but experience and how you handle\learn new things

 

[Zeze]

Depends on the company doing the interview. Some care a ton about title. One of the groups I work with is going to hire a CIO with no direct reports (very small company) to be the CIO of a much larger group (hundreds of people many direct reports and like 100x times the budget\scope) over someone who is currently near the top of an org with a bunch of direct reports and similar budget\scope solely based on title. They were actually told "We think you would be a great fit but you just don't have the right title to make this transition". I think this will end badly

Others are not so hung up on title but experience and how you handle\learn new things

A nice anecdote, thanks.

 

[Not So Mild]

I missed a question. I'd start looking for a new job in little as 2 years in your current job.

Why? Because that's just fine for moving on to better companies for better jobs and better learning. This you can get a 'real' IT job and further break into your desired area. Waiting more than 2 years is too costly both financially & your career growth/learning.

You are lucky, because I did not have same level of casual know-hows in navigating job finding / career jumping on internet like this.

1. Best raises usually come from new companies & new jobs. Other than that, your raises will be paltra 2-4% unless you get an actual promotion. I got a new job paying 70k from a 45k job. 70k would've been a fantasy in the former company. Currently I broke well over 100k, also from jumping jobs.

2. Same goes for promotions.

3. Always negotiate the first offer of ALL jobs. In my experience, I always got the counter offer, something as little as $5000/yr, that's huge year after year. And all subsequent raises compound that obviously.

The idea of 3 years is just an arbitrary number I chose because I have no experience. I felt like that was long enough to put on an application and employers could see that I was a good fit for a long term position. About 3 weeks ago some pretty big stuff went down here. I see a large change of management coming along (pretty much most C class other than the CEO (guess who's behind it all)). I discovered there are a lot of scummy things going on behind the scenes here, just something I don't want to be apart of. I was pretty OK with it before, and then it started affected my department and my relationships with my coworkers. I've been really stressed out while at work because of this, and it can't be good for my mental health. I'm glad you think 2 years is long enough, because I'm not sure how much longer I want to last.

I knew changing jobs would give you better raises than an internal promotion. It's something I never understood, but something I always knew. Why not just promote somebody who is already trained and hire for the lower position, than hire and train somebody for a more complex position? I've never been a part of management at any place I've worked, so hopefully it makes sense on some level. The only issue with this is that since I work for a 220 employee hospital, you can imagine it's not a very large town. This is definitely the best job opportunity around. I think the best job opportunity within a 50 mile radius is at the energy plant. That's kind of the dream job here, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to apply there. I still have a lot to learn. I'm good at finding answers, I just wish I knew more without having to search for stuff. I'm going to try and get a homelab going here shortly to brush up on a few topics and grab a couple certs when I know exactly what I want in a career. I guess it's time to stop being lazy and get my butt into gear.

I appreciate the responses. I know this community is a lot older and wiser than I am. You guys have done the hard work and figured it out on your own, so I appreciate you helping me out and everyone else who is in similar shoes.

 

[Zeze]

Such a nice kid, this forum is gonna defile you soon enough.

Companies pay more for new hires because they perceive an outsider to be an expert at what he does or about to do. Also you have internal politics and predispositions of people at internal. Someone gets promoted while you can certainly do that job all along.

So you as a professional individual seize this gap. You ARE the outsider to them. You ace interviews and land big $$ jobs.

And I think frequent job hopping (I'm talking every 2-3 yrs) isn't even that frowned upon anymore. This isn't the 60's where people worked 20+ years and retired.

But you being so young (are you even a millennial?), I thought you'd think today's norm was obvious to you.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I knew changing jobs would give you better raises than an internal promotion. It's something I never understood, but something I always knew. Why not just promote somebody who is already trained and hire for the lower position, than hire and train somebody for a more complex position? I've never been a part of management at any place I've worked, so hopefully it makes sense on some level. The only issue with this is that since I work for a 220 employee hospital, you can imagine it's not a very large town. This is definitely the best job opportunity around. I think the best job opportunity within a 50 mile radius is at the energy plant. That's kind of the dream job here, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to apply there. I still have a lot to learn. I'm good at finding answers, I just wish I knew more without having to search for stuff. I'm going to try and get a homelab going here shortly to brush up on a few topics and grab a couple certs when I know exactly what I want in a career. I guess it's time to stop being lazy and get my butt into gear.

From my personal experience, most of your raises in IT come from job transitions, not internal stuff. Exception being if you're doing contract work (either actual contracts or govt 'contracts' where you're an employee of a contracting agency) and you renegotiate. As to your original question, no idea what/how much companies care about those titles, but if it were me I'd just put what I felt I was. If I felt I was a jr sysad, I'd put that, if I felt I was a systems architect, I'd put that. Mind you, I'd be able to back it up with either knowledge or documented results, but that's just me.

Never sell yourself short, cuz everyone else will.

 

[Exterous]

That's what I figured, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't setting myself up for failure here in a few years.

I know I'm pretty young. I'm not too worried about where I'm at now. My job now allows me to learn a lot about different systems because we are so small. I think this is way better for my future then if I were to work at a large company as help desk support.

I've worked at a small 2 IT person company and one with thousands of IT people (with others in between that rather large range). There are benefits to both. Sure you get a lot of broad experience at a small company but your depth tends to be shallow and budgets are often limited. No way I would have ever gotten to play with a multi PB redundant Isilon array worth millions at the 2 person company. It can also be tougher to find people with a great depth of knowledge you can learn from at a small place.

You'll probably also miss out on all the red tape and bureaucracy of a large org but you also don't learn how to deal with operating in an environment where there are 40 different Key Stakeholders. While that can be a PITA if you do well working in something like that you can probably make a lot of $ by being able to actually accomplish something (This is what I do somewhat often now)

So depending on your career goals and options it might be worthwhile trying a large IT group. Some people never do and thats fine but there are a lot of potential benefits to it (just like there are a lot of potential benefits to a small company)

That's kind of the dream job here, but I don't feel like I'm qualified enough to apply there.

One of the best lessons in my career was when someone told me "Let the people doing the hiring decide that". You rarely have anything to lose and job descriptions\ work environments are tricky things to explain\figure out from a job posting or even from talking to people. When I applied for my recent position I wasn't entirely sure I knew enough but I applied anyway (I almost didn't until I thought back to that saying). Turns out I am really good at the job, like the job and have moved up quickly. Not applying would have been a huge mistake on my part

Even if you don't get the job you can say stuff like "Thank you for the consideration. Can you let me know what areas I could improve on to make me a stronger candidate?"

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Don't be like me. I got comfortable for a bit while I was in the process of buying a house and traveling that I'm struggling to find a opportunity. I started here at 23 and I'm about to turn turn 27, same industry help desk/IT.

Question for you guys, he's talking about changing his title on his resume but what about LinkedIn when you have a ton of your co-workers on there already. Is it okay to change it there where they can see it?

 

[Zeze]

Don't be like me. I got comfortable for a bit while I was in the process of buying a house and traveling that I'm struggling to find a opportunity. I started here at 23 and I'm about to turn turn 27, same industry help desk/IT.

Question for you guys, he's talking about changing his title on his resume but what about LinkedIn when you have a ton of your co-workers on there already. Is it okay to change it there where they can see it?

I don't use LinkedIn. Why should you?

 

[XavierMace]

I don't use LinkedIn.

That's because you're old.

 

[Thebobo]

When I got out of high school I was a Petroleum Dispensing Technician.
"Check your horn fluid mam?"

 

[Not So Mild]

(Snipped)
One of the best lessons in my career was when someone told me "Let the people doing the hiring decide that". You rarely have anything to lose and job descriptions\ work environments are tricky things to explain\figure out from a job posting or even from talking to people. When I applied for my recent position I wasn't entirely sure I knew enough but I applied anyway (I almost didn't until I thought back to that saying). Turns out I am really good at the job, like the job and have moved up quickly. Not applying would have been a huge mistake on my part

Even if you don't get the job you can say stuff like "Thank you for the consideration. Can you let me know what areas I could improve on to make me a stronger candidate?"

Thanks for the advice, but a quick question.

Like I said, there's one dream job here that I know will provide a significant pay increase, but I also believe it will also allow me to advance my career much more than my current job. If I were to apply today, and completely fail the interview/hiring process, but am very professional about it, will that look badly on me if I were to apply again in say 6 months when I've worked on those things they said needed work? To me that shows dedication and a willingness to learn, which I imagine look good, but do the hiring managers see it the same?

 

[XavierMace]

If you fail the interview purely due to experience, most interviewers aren't going to hold that against you. But I doubt they'd consider 6 months enough time to change that. There is another side to the coin of a story like Exterous. His worked out for him, I've seen it go the other direction though where you end up getting hired for a job you're completely unqualified for and tank it.

When I interview someone, I'm less concerned with them knowing the answer on how to do something and more concerned with what they do when they don't know it. I can write a document on how to do a task. Anybody can follow a document. OK, anybody should be able to follow a document. I need people that can figure out what to do when there's no document.

 

[Not So Mild]

If you fail the interview purely due to experience, most interviewers aren't going to hold that against you. But I doubt they'd consider 6 months enough time to change that. There is another side to the coin of a story like Exterous. His worked out for him, I've seen it go the other direction though where you end up getting hired for a job you're completely unqualified for and tank it.

When I interview someone, I'm less concerned with them knowing the answer on how to do something and more concerned with what they do when they don't know it. I can write a document on how to do a task. Anybody can follow a document. OK, anybody should be able to follow a document. I need people that can figure out what to do when there's no document.

Makes sense. Maybe I'll try to find an old job posting for one that I want. I believe those are more of a wish list than they are actual requirements, so if I'm comfortable in those areas, might as well try for an interview.

 

[XavierMace]

The size of the company affects how much of it is a wish list. In larger companies you should have other people to support you. Smaller companies often expect people to be a one man show.

 

[Exterous]

Thanks for the advice, but a quick question.

Like I said, there's one dream job here that I know will provide a significant pay increase, but I also believe it will also allow me to advance my career much more than my current job. If I were to apply today, and completely fail the interview/hiring process, but am very professional about it, will that look badly on me if I were to apply again in say 6 months when I've worked on those things they said needed work? To me that shows dedication and a willingness to learn, which I imagine look good, but do the hiring managers see it the same?

I think most people would view that as a positive sign although 6 months may not be enough time depending on the viewed skill gap. I certainly would see it as a plus but I can't say what everyone would do and there are a lot of dumb HR\managers out there. I think its certainly better to risk applying than letting an opportunity slip by. They may also not remember you

If you fail the interview purely due to experience, most interviewers aren't going to hold that against you. But I doubt they'd consider 6 months enough time to change that. There is another side to the coin of a story like Exterous. His worked out for him, I've seen it go the other direction though where you end up getting hired for a job you're completely unqualified for and tank it.

Sure but then you at least get the title! You can also re-evaluate risk vs reward if they extend an offer. You won't even have that chance if you don't apply.