How to Propose a New Career Title

When job duties change, job titles might need updating. A communication coordinator who now oversees a budget and trains her department’s interns, for instance, might want a title that reflects her new supervisory responsibilities. The more your duties have changed, the more likely your employer is to approve your title-change proposal.

Review your job description. It outlines your job’s original duties and responsibilities. Underline the tasks you’re still doing. Draw lines through duties you no longer perform and include duties that were eliminated or assigned to someone else.
 
List your new tasks. If, for example, you used to call temporary agencies when the office needed extra help but now you also interview temp workers for long-term assignments, add this major job change to your list. If your organization eliminated a position and assigned its duties to you, your job has expanded, and both your job description and your title should reflect that.

Note the overall number of new or expanded duties you now perform and whether they’ve significantly changed your job description.

Select a new title for your job. For ideas, read job postings for positions that are similar to yours. Jobtitles.org, an online repository of career titles, has more than 10,000 listings to review. Pick a title that best conveys what you do at your level of responsibility. Avoid titles that imply you’ve been promoted; don’t bump up your title from, say, “coordinator” to “director.”

Write your proposal. Explain in the opening paragraph that significant additions to your duties have caused the need for a job-title change. Include your suggestion for a new title.

Open the second paragraph with an introductory clause, such as: “The additions and changes to my duties include…” Follow the clause with a bulleted list of all your additional tasks. Keep the task descriptions brief but precise. In the third paragraph, ask the reader if he would kindly consider your request for a title change. Proofread and sign your proposal.

Discuss your proposal with your manager. She might need the human resources, finance and possibly legal departments to approve your title change. Give each party a copy to review and retain one for your files.







SOURCE: work.chron.com