How to handle job title ladder changes on resume

Question

The company I work for has changed titles and added an additional step in the ladder and I'm not sure how to appropriately reflect it on my resume.

Previous

• Associate Engineer
• Intermediate Engineer
• Senior Engineer

Now

• Engineer 1
• Engineer 2
• Engineer 3
• Engineer 4

Associate maps to 1 and senior maps to 4. Intermediate can map to 2 or 3 depending on experience level.

EDIT: I bolded the part below because some of the answers are responding as if it’s a straight title change.

I was hired in at associate and promoted to intermediate. While working as an intermediate the new titles were announced and I was mapped to a 3 (thus receiving an implicit promotion).

How do I convey this on my resume?

-- Things I'd considered (can be ingored) --

• Engineer 1 - date I was hired as associate
• Engineer 2 - date I was promoted to intermediate
• Engineer 3 - date I found out my title had changed

Downside of this approach is that the span of time between 2 and 3 is much shorter than 1 and 2 and may seem odd.

• Engineer 1 - date I was hired as associate
• Engineer 2 - come up with a date for the implicit promotion to 2 that is before promotion to intermediate
• Engineer 3 - date I found out my title had changed

Downside of this approach is that one of the dates is made up.

• Associate - date I was hired as associate
• Intermediate - date I was promoted to intermediate
• Engineer 3 - date I found out my title had changed

Downside of this approach is similar to the first example with the time between intermediate and 3 being much shorter than the time between associate and intermediate, which may seem odd. It also may be confusing to have the title progression change.

Answer 1

When reviewing your CV, titles are less important than experience.

On the resumes I've seen and wrote myself, title always followed by brief description of responsibilities. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, how your position is called.

You shouldn't fake promotions, so perhaps something like:

• Associate (MMYY-MMYY): did X, Y, was responsible for Z
• Intermediate (MMYY-MMYY, Engineer 3 after MMYY): did A, B, launched initiative to do C
• Engineer 4 (MMYY-MMYY): designed R, created architecture for Q (if you ever get promoted to E4)

Answer 2

In my opinion your resume ought to be one page. If you've only ever been at one company and are wanting to remove some white space, add the job titles and go into gratuitous detail for each different role you've had. But if you've been at ten different jobs and you're having a difficult time squeezing all of them onto the page... just mention the most recent job title, for brevity's sake, and move on.

I suppose LinkedIn would be different as the concept of "pages" doesn't really apply but even people reading your LinkedIn profile are going to have a limited attention span.

That said... a lot of small companies may not really have formal job titles. Distinguishing between Engineer 1 - 4 only makes sense if you have a lot of engineers. If your company has just 1-2 software engineers (or developers or whatever)... there's not really a lot of need to have more job titles then there are jobs lol. I suppose, in the case of small companies, you could use the title that's on your offer letter, but some small companies may not even offer offer letters...

Answer 3

As you have only held two roles at the place, you should only list two steps on the ladder. You should not represent that you had an implicit promotion, as you didn't have one - you were essentially promoted from E1 to E3. The fact that you actually skipped a rung (in the new system) can only be seen as a good thing.

I'd list as follows:

Associate Engineer/Engineer 1 (begin date-promotion date)

Intermediate Engineer/Engineer 3 (promotion date-present)

I think you should refer to the first role with both titles (even though you only had the original title), because it allows the reader to make sense of the promotion, and shows off that you skipped a level. I don't think it is necessary to explain (in the resume) that the company changed the ladders - but be prepared to answer that during an interview.

If you get promoted again to Engineer 4, I wouldn't list the old title (Sr. Eng.) for that job, as it is no longer relevant, and at that time I might just list the first role under the original title - maybe now I'd add a note on how the company changed the ladders, but it probably still isn't necessary.

Associate Engineer (begin date-promotion date 1)

Intermediate Engineer/Engineer 3 (promotion date 1-promotion date 2)

Engineer 4 (promotion date 2-present)

Answer 4

I wouldn't put too much worry into what title to use on your resume. You should use a title which is descriptive of the work you performed. The details you include about that position should give a much more meaningful description of the roles and responsibilities you held.

Titles change across companies and there are no rules about what a title must mean. Your own company's recent changes are a perfect example of how little they mean. They are changing them to meet their own organizational needs, but has your worked actually changed in a meaningful way?

If you make sure the title indicates the type of work you did and you provide the right information when describing what you did, you will be just fine. Even the concept of "Senior" should be evident based on your work history.