Nobody Outside Your Building Knows What Your Title Means

Nobody chose your job title with you in mind.

It came out of a pay band. Or an org chart that needed a level between two other levels. Or a compromise somebody made in 2019 when they could not get the raise approved and handed out a longer title instead. Titles get written for internal reasons by people solving internal problems, and then you carry that word around for six years as though it describes you.

Here is the part that costs people real money. Your title is not a description of your work. Out in the market, it is a search term.

That is not a metaphor. It is the literal mechanic of how hiring works now. A recruiter opens a database, types in the title they are filling, and talks to whoever comes back. That list is the shortlist. It gets built before anyone reads a single resume, and it gets built out of words.

Which means whether the right people ever find you has almost nothing to do with how good you are at your job, and quite a lot to do with a word you did not pick.

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