Job Descriptions

One topic we discussed last week in the lecture was the importance of a job title to a potential employee or potential applicant. This was a really interesting topic because there’s a lot of truth to it, I have experienced something very similar. Having a strong title is very important to people because it symbolizes their importance when they’re talking about their careers. Since it’s my senior year, I’ve been going through the job application process and have definitely favored jobs over others just because of the job title. For example, a sales company will advertise a sales position as “sales manager” when in reality you’re not going to be running a team until you move your way up in the company.

In my current job I worked as a barista for four years, I then finally received a promotion of “Shift Lead”. This made me seem very important and I gained more respect from my co-workers and more respect from the people I told I worked at a coffee shop. The ironic thing with this, I only received a 50-cent-per-hour pay raise and I was doing the same barista work I was doing for the first four years. All this title really meant was I was in charge when management wasn’t there. The job title really didn’t change my job description all that much, but made me feel more valued and important. The idea of changing the name of a job title is essential for attracting more potential employees, and making employees feel more valued.