I speak to many clients who report that they are unsure of what jobs they should be applying for as the job titles do not appear to directly relate to them and their experience. One of the most significant changes recently is the evolution of job titles and the new types of roles appearing. Preparing professional CVs and LinkedIn profiles in an ever changing market place has become more complex as employers seem to use ever more ‘creative’ job titles to stand out on the digital job board. I recently came across a job title of ‘Recruitment Decision Support Analyst’ which is simply akin to a Junior Recruitment Consultant or Recruitment Administrator. So if you know what you want to do, how do you find the job title that matches your experience?
Of course the most common thing to do is to investigate the various job or company websites and see what roles are in your field, whether that is in IT, engineering, analyst, finance, or HR etc. Then scroll through these to see what grabs your interest. However, as things have changed you may not find the role you are seeking and your CV may not lend itself to applying for that role. Here are some tips for you to consider when deciphering those ‘unique ‘job titles and understanding more explicitly what is suited to you:
- Undertake some research: examine various job titles within your industry and adjacent to your fields of interest to find out what is related to what you want to do. Use various job websites and also LinkedIn research to see what appears for those individuals in your field. This will help you identify the key words being used in your fields of interest and understanding more about what they mean.
- Remember skills are skills: when understanding if you are suitable for a role, you should analyse the skills an employer is seeking in their job description. In the end, skills are skills and you either have them or you do not. Write down your key skills and then see if you can match them to the roles you are looking at. This should allow you to understand whether this role is what you want to do.
- Level of the role: sometimes salaries, even disclosed unambiguously instead of ‘competitive’, do not tell you much about the seniority of a role. However, the role description should provide indication of who the role reports to and how many direct reports it may have, size of budgets and decisions this individual will be expected to take. From this you can then understand if your experience matches this role.
- Tailor your CV and LinkedIn: Hopefully most of you do this as you progress through your career and before you apply for any roles. You should aim to understand the company language that you are applying for and align your CV style accordingly. Remember, if you are applying for a role it usually has to pass some form of screening by the recruitment or HR personnel prior to being invited for interview. Therefore, this becomes very important especially if you are applying for ‘unique’ job titles where your skills and experience become more important than the titles of jobs you have had throughout your career.
Needless to say the ever changing nature of the world we work in and the skills employers believe they need in order to stay ahead of the competition means you need to maintain your knowledge of the job market if you are to manage your career effectively.
I hope this all helps and good luck in your job search!