Ask Vicki: What is the importance of a job title?

In this answer on Quora, Monster career expert Vicki Salemi explains how your job title can matter more in the future than the present.

Ask Vicki: What is the importance of a job title?

Vicki Salemi

Each week, Monster’s career expert Vicki Salemi—a former recruiter who utilizes 15-plus years of experience in recruiting and human resources to empower job seekers—answers user questions on Quora. We’ll be republishing the answers here. If you have a question for Vicki, send it to socialmedia@monster.com.

Vicki Salemi

Q. What is the importance of a job title?

A. A job title is an indication of what you do; it’s a label assigned to your role so internally at a company and externally in your industry, people will have a sense of your career level and expertise.

Often, though, a job title may sound vague or all-encompassing (“human resources generalist”); and other times, titles are so specific (“native mobile fullstack application architect”) that you may not even know what a person actually does if you’re not well-versed in that industry.

Say you found a great job on Monster and got a sweet job offer, in addition to salary—which should come first—you may want to negotiate your title. Maybe you’re a manager now, but the role you’re interviewing for seems to be at a higher level than manager, in which case you could ask to be an associate director. See if the company has the ability to boost your title a grade or two.

This should automatically position you well when you’re ready to leave the company. Even if you make a lateral move externally, you’ll still have this higher title (and hopefully a higher a salary to match).

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Read Vicki Salemi's answer to "What is the importance of a job title?" on Quora.