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I was given the title of "IT Technician" for my first job. The funny thing is: I have no clue how to be an IT person. I am a programmer. I made a program for our company's archive. Now I'm going around to various 'science machines' and auto-collecting the data from them. The data goes into our database and is used in our enterprise system. I actually call IT a lot for help with network issues and hardware purchases, but I have no idea how to do any of that.

My boss's boss recently pointed to me in a meeting and said, "He's our systems analyst." After looking up what that actually is, it makes sense. Heck, I've even decoded binary from a machine that is twice as old as I. That system totally got analyzed.

If I don't get my title officially changed with the company and report a different title on my resume, that is BAD, right? Would it be a messy scenario to attempt to get this changed?

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  • How do you define IT without using anything involving a program? – JB King Jan 30 '15 at 20:45
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    It is my understanding(possibly a wrong understanding) that IT people do the maintenance of systems and do not code. Would I be correct? – Yoda Bytes Jan 30 '15 at 20:47
  • Not in my world. Developers are still part of the IT department where there are more than a few developers on IT Toolbox as evidence that this is part of how things can be structured. – JB King Jan 30 '15 at 20:53
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    We do make a very clear distinction in my company between coders and IT. – Yoda Bytes Jan 30 '15 at 20:58
  • What department are coders then? Product development? – JB King Jan 30 '15 at 20:59
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Often times, particularly in large companies, the job title has little correlation with the work that is actually done. It might be that your specific job title defines your pay band, so to change your job title would actually require a promotion, demotion, or transfer. The question of how difficult it would be to change is really dependent on your company and not something we can answer here.

However, we can talk about, is it really important? In the long run, not very. If you search around here, there are plenty of people who feel their job title doesn't match their description (here, here, and here). I myself am listed as an Electronics Engineer, and I can guarantee you I won't be touching a circuit board anytime soon. When it comes time for the job search, your job description is really what matters. Many people will even list a fake job title that better fits their actual work either alongside or in place of their official title.

So to summarize, definitely talk to your boss to get a feel for how easy it is to change your title, but if it's a lot of hassle, I wouldn't sweat over it.

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Speak to your boss about changing the job title. Probably only people internal to your company will know what is involved with making such a change. I know that for some companies it is very difficult, where you have to go through HR, and get a dozen people's approvals, etc., etc. In other companies, it is trivial as the job title is never really used in any records, and they might just make up one for you on your first day, so you can put it on your resume.

Definitely stress to your boss that it's important to you to get a job title that accurately reflects your role. It's huge when shopping around with your resume, and people tend to glance at your past job titles, and little else.

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