Quirky job titles may be killing your recruiting pipeline. As hiring tightens, a rising trend of “vanity” descriptions of applicants’ work experiences is making hiring managers’ jobs more difficult. If you can’t glance at a resume and know that “Chief Happiness Guru” was really a Chief Human Resources Officer, it’s harder to tell if the applicant is someone you should look at more closely.
Some career coaches are trying to solve this problem, but may make it worse. In an article written for Business Insider, Andrea Wasserman advised job candidates to use “vanity” descriptions of their work, rather than their real titles. Those alterations are meant to showcase what you actually did rather than what it says on your HR file. She wrote:
“Rather than considering a vanity title an exaggeration of what you do, think of it as a more precise articulation of your role that helps others immediately understand your expertise and how they can work with you.”
Finding the right candidates can be difficult, and if a new title gets a qualified applicant out of the applicant tracking system and into the interview pile, what’s wrong with a little vanity?
To keep reading, click here: Why Vanity Job Titles Could Be Hurting Your Hiring