A question from a Learner in Tekedia Mini-MBA: Does job title matter and should it play a role as I negotiate an offer?
My Response: Job title does matter because it provides a validation that at least you were ahead of any job below that title. However, the real issue is not the title, but the company giving the title.
A ten-person boring engineering company can make you a Director of Engineering when a big multinational firm will give you Engineer II. It will take wisdom to understand that the Engineer II is possibly a better job due to the wage, career development opportunity, it may command.
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My last job title while in banking was “Banking Executive” even though it was largely a low level management track position. But no matter how you see it, Ndubuisi was a banking executive! So, you are going to see titles being inflated by companies to achieve many strategic benefits. Practically, you could consider this as you make your decision:
When I began, my focus was actually higher pay and not title because I needed money, not title, to accelerate my professional development. If I am starting today as a fresh graduate, I will choose a clerical job that would pay me N500k over an engineering job that would pay me N70k, but I will design my plan to exit that clerical job within 3 years, using the resources it has provided to elevate my engineering skills (say MSc in engineering) and return to engineering at a higher level.
So, instead of being stuck at the base with no means to be developed and upskilled on a low wage, minimal development job, I am open to accepting an interesting title if that will provide resources.
But over time, certainly the title matters. Title connotes power, and it goes beyond financial earnings. As you grow in your career, the title becomes MONEY. Conference and event organizers look for the title you hold to extend invitations.
Everything you do is around that title and that is also where people become the titles they hold, to the extent that when they lose those jobs, they could get into personal mental crises because theCFO, CTO, etc, title is the “life”, and the business card is the most important asset they posses.
In summary, early, the focus could be the wage, development, etc, and opportunity, but over time, one could become fixated on titles. Good luck.
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The response is troubling in many levels, you can trace Nigeria’s underdevelopement to this as well. Do we go into employment with the mindset of the opportunities we can get and grow our personal career or the opportunities we can give the company and by so doing make it bigger? The answer will unpack quite a lot.
This puts SMEs at a great disadvantage, since they can neither pay huge salary nor offer a super and clear career development. So, it raises another question, how else can small businesses attract and keep tier one talents, or are they condemned to work with only average talents and mediocres? I am worried, because this is the exact mindset most people in the land carries. Everyone wants to be well taken care of, but rarely do you see people who go in with the mindset of taking care of the company. You will hear so many excuses and stories, but a builder is a builder, whether he’s well remunerated or not. How many builders are available in Nigeria?
A doctor wants a better pay, so if the US or Canada offers that, he is willing to move, but who will treat his own people when he leaves? We have institutionalized selfishness and personal comfort, but everyone dreams of a great Nigeria.
Maybe I am the last of my kind…