Job title / project role on CV

[TheFaQQer]

Someone I used to work with insists on describing himself as "Senior Executive Management Consultant" and "Princiapl [sic] Management Consultant" when in reality he is always a low-paid technical grunt who tries his hand a functional work and fails dismally because he hasn't got the skills for it.

Just checking his LinkedIn, every role has been "Senior..." since he graduated some two-bit poly. Then after a few of those, it becomes Princiapl [sic] and now "Senior Advisory / Strategist".

He finds work by being dirt cheap, and then the clients find out exactly what kind of monkey they have brought in.

[northernladuk]

I have had the same issue in the past with some clients having some very strange titles which didn't accurately reflect the work done. In cases such as this I have spoken to the client at the time and mentioned the role title is a bit odd and most laugh and agree. I've then brought up the question of whether or not it would be an issue if I alter the title to more reflect the work done when I apply for other roles and every time the client has said it isn't a problem.The only problem that this raises is you have to make sure your linked in matches your CV. If they are different that could start raising flags with prospective clients.

What I have also been very careful not to do is to put a title in that doesn't reflect the work done, i.e. big up the role when it isn't justified. In your case if you are genuinely a system analyst and your responsibilities match that title then changing it to a title that makes you look better is starting to push it IMO. I don't think it's worth bending the truth just because you think your title looks a step back. I really don't think clients take that much notice of a title.

[Calvin]

This came up with my current contract. Role names I had on my CV did not all match the companies HR references. It was queried by the agency and I explained, much as you have, that HR roles didn't match actual job roles.

[TheFaQQer]

I have one job - managing director at MyCo. I have had a number of project roles, and I detail those on my CV.

[fh9977]

Hi all,
What do you use in your CVs career history, the actual job title or the project role? I suppose that if you don't use your actual job title in CV it could be an issue with references?

I've been working as product owner for sometime, job titles have been either Senior BA or Product Manager. Now I've secured a position where job title is Systems Analyst, which looks like a step back if you only read job titles. Actual project role is as product owner, project is amazing, company is a giant (dev team is over 200 people), rate is same as now. But product owner is a role that does not exist in HR, it has to be systems analyst. Is this something that will become hard to sell?

Ideally in my career history I'd like to say Product Owner for every role I had as such.

thanks!