What is up with people inflating their job titles so dramatically on LinkedIn? I'm all for self promotion but at what point is it unethical?
13 replies (most recent on top)
I'm a senior PowerPoint engineer
I am a Senior Latrine Engineer in charge of the most important "paper"work at EMHC!
At the same time, it seems evident that ExxonMobil often uses less conventional or diluted job titles, possibly to limit external marketability. At least on the Controllers side.
We have Finance General Managers or Business Service Managers with scopes of work and responsibilities that would be the equivalent of a CFO or a Controller at another company.
We have Planning and Stewardship Advisors (which is title unique to XOM) that would typically be FP&A Advisors or Leads at other companies.
I imagine it’s difficult to get a foot in the door for a role with equivalent pay and responsibilities if your title is “General” Manager (my local McDonald’s has a GM… not the same). And I would think you are flying under the radar of recruiters looking for potential candidates for the slew of FP&A roles if you are a person doing similar work with an irrelevant/non-industry standard title.
Not sure if it’s similar for other organizations.
At the same time, we see people at the GBC’s with 5 years of experience in the Controllers department that are supervising transactional work with titles like Cluster Manager. As their counterparts with 15 - 20 years of experience in Houston are simply “Advisors”.
Ah yes, the classic “LinkedIn promotion”—from analyst to Global Strategy Lead in 6 months. Gotta love how some folks go from managing spreadsheets to “driving enterprise transformation” overnight.
Company lets people pick their own titles practically and the titles we use don’t make sense to people outside the company.
I’m an astronaut 08801 😂
I mean listing yourself a couple of levels above your actual title. Like you’re a manager and you call yourself a director or head or vp.
If you are applying for a job, if your resume and LinkedIn don't have a letter for letter match with the job description title, your application routes itself straight to the trash.
I'm in SHE and it is getting difficult to properly title myself.
Certainly don't want to mention Regulatory Compliance, or Safety or Health and certainly not Environment.
With OSHA and EPA gone - I'm stuck.
Even 'Liability Avoidance Executive' sounds shaky.
'Profit Retention Accounting Engineer', maybe?
If you follow your ExxonMobil colleagues on LinkedIn, you will find what they post on LinkedIn is "far removed" from what they do at work.
With exceptions by a few that are brutally honest about their careers and accomplishments, most ExxonMobil job descriptions and career development is creative "What Color Is Your Parachute" marketing fluff.
LinkedIn is not about your current job. It is about your next job.
It is all to sell yourself. I can say i am an engineer even though I am just a technician. Other companies don't know the shades operation exxon runs. They think exxon workers are the best. Build up your title, get a huge pay raise at another company and leave. It is all BS and business baby. Lie all you can and get as much as you can. I have met some clueless and worthless employees at exxon.
I see a lot of people calling themselves an "XYZ advisor." It is a combination of ego and lacking self-awareness.