Your title should be your Current professional title. You can change your title as it pertains to the profession you are applying to but I would balance that with how laughable it sounds.

For instance if I wanted to switch careers to a role as a professional speed skater it would be appropriate to call myself:

Speed Skating Enthusiast

or

Amateur Speed Skater

It would definitely be inappropriate to call myself even:

Speed Skater

Because I am not and never have been.

Your title should be your Current professional title. You can change your title as it pertains to the profession you are applying to but I would balance that with how laughable it sounds.

For instance if I wanted to switch careers to a role as a professional speed skater it would be appropriate to call myself:

Speed Skating Enthusiast

or

Amateur Speed Skater

It would definitely be inappropriate to call myself even:

Speed Skater

Because I am not and never have been.

Leaving a title off is never wrong. At worst you are missing a chance to say something (possibly positive) about yourself.

Using your old title is best unless it will raise huge red flags. A software engineer applying for a dishwasher job isn't likely to even get an interview with me. It just seems too incongruous. However a transition from Engineer to Academics doesn't come off as nearly as unintelligible.

Your title should be your Current professional title.

Your title should be your Current professional title. You can change your title as it pertains to the profession you are applying to but I would balance that with how laughable it sounds.

For instance if I wanted to switch careers to a role as a professional speed skater it would be appropriate to call myself:

Speed Skating Enthusiast

or

Amateur Speed Skater

It would definitely be inappropriate to call myself even:

Speed Skater

Because I am not and never have been.