Why Selecting A Proper Job Title Is So Important

What job titles are you using in your latest job postings? Are they flashy and fun? Or boring and bland? Creative job titles can show your company’s culture and make a not-so-glamorous job look more appealing, but it may not be the most effective strategy for finding the right person for the job.

Take a minute and put yourself in the job candidate’s shoes. As a job seeker, you are most likely to visit a job board or a company’s website to search for a job. For example, if you wanted to be a website designer, you’ll probably plug in something like “designer” into the search box. Then you would browse through the listings and see what comes up – ideally clicking and applying for the job postings that are most appealing.

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Now what happens when you have a job posting for a website designer, but instead of using the standard job title of “website designer”, you got creative and used “World Wide Web Ninja” or “Internet Wizard” in hopes of making the job more appealing? The result is that your job posting will never be seen by a large majority of job seekers who are qualified to fill your job listing. That’s not good.

It’s time to ditch ninja, jester, guru, rock star, wizard, and other fun, but vague words in your job titles. Visit LinkedIn and you’ll see thousands of people who are social media gurus, sales ninjas, or marketing mavens. When it comes to recruiting your next superstar employee, terms like these do not help you hire the right people. In fact it limits the number of people who will even see your job listing. If you want to use catchy job titles, that’s fine. But don’t use them in your job postings. No one knows what they mean.

The job title may be the most important part of the job listing. These highly visible words need to clearly and directly provide an immediate impression of the job’s role and responsibilities. Job titles should follow industry standards so that they are searchable.

If you’re unsure what job title to use, visit your competitor’s websites and search the job boards. See what else is out there. Use keywords and create clear job titles that people understand and that truly represent the job. It will ultimately help you hire the right person for the job.