Job Titles > Skills

You can do anything you set your LinkedIn title to

Benjamin Franklin first penned the phrase, “You can do anything you set your mind to.” Now, over 200 years later, in the age of misinformation, a slightly tweaked quote seems to be more relevant: “You can do anything you set your LinkedIn title to.”

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed an alarming amount of title misrepresentation on professional networking sites. At first, it didn’t feel malicious, just slightly annoying. Of course, there would be individuals who were “CEO” of their own company because technically, they were. However, it didn’t take much from an outsider to conclude that this wasn’t as meaningful a position as someone who was CEO of a Fortune 500 company, so little harm was done. The more troublesome issue is that title misrepresentation has grown more commonplace at prominent, stable companies, making it difficult to determine a person’s experience.

It is essential not to confuse this with title inflation, a similar but different issue. While title inflation exists at the company level, where everyone is overrepresented, the decision of title misrepresentation lives at the individual level — a single person actively manipulates their title, replacing it with some degree of falsehood that they believe will benefit them. That said, title inflation is somewhat to blame for misrepresentation as people often use it to justify their actions, as we will see later on.

Overall, I have noticed three significant types of misrepresentation, in ascending order of maliciousness:

• Micro titles
• Cross-role titles
• Level-specific titles

Please note that most of the following observations are rooted in experience from the data science & machine learning fields, as that is where I have the most exposure. Due to the current widespread popularity in these areas, I feel misrepresentation exists at a higher rate in these communities. However, I do not doubt that this tendency exists elsewhere as well.

Micro Title Misrepresentation

Micro title misrepresentation is more challenging to catch than the other two, but it is also less harmful. Micro titles are special hats that an individual might wear within a team; technical lead, delivery lead, product lead, team captain, etc. They are often not formally assigned, and it is rare for them to be present in any official title. The labeling of these roles is meant to create structure within the team, and therefore these titles are limited in their scope. While it can still be awkward to see a teammate mistitle themselves in this way, it is likely due to miscommunication as the hope for external benefits seems insubstantial. Therefore, this instance ranks much lower in severity than the other two.

Cross-role Misrepresentation

Cross-role misrepresentation is more malignant but is easier to identify. This form of title manipulation is when somebody tags themselves as a different role altogether. Often the falsified role is close in proximity to the actual role. For example, the two most prevalent in the data science space are analysts tagging themselves as data scientists and data scientists tagging themselves as software engineers. While the individual is still responsible for accurate representation, this misrepresentation is somewhat understandable, especially in the example above. The majority of confusion is likely due to an overlap in responsibilities amongst these roles across different companies. Therefore, the lines become blurred, making it hard to deduce how someone should accurately label themselves if searching for a new job. The issue here is less problematic if the misrepresented title does not already explicitly exist within the company. However, when a business has already formalized the role with specific qualifications, it could be detrimental to branding for certain teams if individuals outside of it use the wrong title without having the underlying aptitude.

Thankfully, most cross-role misrepresentation on social networks takes on an appending form rather than a replacement form, so they are easy to identify. For example, a label might be “Analyst & Data Scientist & Software Engineer” instead of an explicit switch from one to another. Even though accountability still falls on the individual, SEO advantages are somewhat to blame, encouraging people to glamorize their titles to appear more often in search. In any case, the multi-titling approach has always come off as comical to me. While I have zero statistics on the matter, I would not be surprised if it is detrimental to one’s career, especially later on. There is increased friction as recruiters and potential employers have to invest time parsing a profile to determine a candidate’s actual specialization. There is a saying: “You can do anything, but not everything.”; attempting to straddle too many buzzwords at any given time will either undermine the depth of knowledge or indicate that one lacks the abilities to claim all of those titles.

Level-specific Misrepresentation

Level-specific misrepresentation is most pernicious and also seems the most dangerous for an individual to attempt. Imagine an explicit leveling system within a company; for example, a “Senior” label represents more maturity in a field than a “Mid” label, and a “Director” title owns more responsibility than a “Manager” or “Team Lead.” Each of these levels denotes a specific amount of progression that one has either achieved or has not with respect to that company. Any misrepresentation across these predefined levels belongs in this category. My initial impression was that competent people would not risk this type of misrepresentation as it could potentially upend their careers. Sadly, after conversations with others and collecting many data points, I’ve realized this isn’t just a rare tactic deployed by fringe actors but a more commonplace strategy in the hope of jumping levels more quickly.

A more humorous type of level-specific misrepresentation, where a person claims a level of competence, but the qualification itself isn’t part of any actual title. “Full-Stack” is the most prominent example; this is not tethered to any specific level but often comes off as “I just know more, ya know?” When a misleading label is displayed that is not specific to a real title at most companies, the value is cheap, and therefore, less problematic than direct misrepresentation across actual levels.

Why do people misrepresent?

While I’m not a psychiatrist, I did brainstorm some potential reasons why I believe this phenomenon occurs.

The relevant experience takes years to develop, while mistitling takes seconds.

Picture this for a moment: I’ve just finished running a marathon. All I had to do was toss on some running gear, go online to print off a race number, pin it to my tank top, douse myself in water, snap a selfie, and share it anywhere and everywhere as proof that I have achieved this task. If all I was hoping for were cheap attention, this strategy would be magnitudes faster than actually training to run a marathon. Of course, I won’t personally gain any athletic skill but does that even matter? This shortcut is also present when mistitling as developing raw talent takes practice and is time-consuming; if the main goal is not to learn or improve but to make others believe I have achieved something, why not mistitle?

Nobody will know the difference.

If you happen to work for a company where you own the sole knowledge over some area, you will rarely get good questions to confirm that expertise. While this is likely present across many fields within smaller companies, such as startups, it also thrives at large, long-standing companies getting their feet wet within newly popular spaces, such as data science. Posts on professional networking sites have constantly ridiculed this inability for companies to assess their needs; “looking for someone with 10+ years of Tensorflow experience” is one example. In these scenarios, if an individual comes forward at one of these companies with a lofty title and the slightest amount of knowledge, it has a high chance of catapulting them to a higher level than they had previously seen. If nobody can assess expertise, why not mistitle?

A previous employer may have had lower expectations for what it meant to be in a particular role or level.

The justification is simply an extension of their last position. These inconsistencies across companies are hard to reconcile with; most people would struggle with what feels like a demotion. Title fabrication is a more accessible coping mechanism than realizing that their skill set might not be as deep as they initially imagined. If you’ve already held the title before, why not mistitle?

Any developed mistrust from coworkers or direct reports is hidden.

People loathe confrontation, mainly because they feel that there might be some form of retaliation, and sadly, in many cases, that is a valid fear. To make matters worse, calling someone out for title misrepresentation always feels deeply personal. It is the equivalent of actively seeing someone commit a petty crime and then trying to accuse them of it; the suspect will likely launch into some form of self-defense. At least, in this case, the witness and the criminal are often decoupled; they do not share any relationship. In workplaces, this is often the opposite, creating an additional layer of difficulty. If an employee were to start having qualms about a coworker’s inaccurate titling, or even worse, a manager’s titling, retaliation becomes a genuine concern. It is easier to hold that feedback inside and gossip about it to others than to risk any repercussion. Sadly, this is a lose-lose scenario for both parties, as trust continues to degrade while the underlying reason remains hidden. If the false perception is that nobody is bothered, why not mistitle?

Everyone else is doing it.

Unfortunately, all of the previously listed reasons provide a negative feedback loop for the system. Once someone starts to mistitle, others will notice this action and recognize that the reward outweighs the repercussions and join in. This virality continues, consuming individuals one by one until everyone is part of this movement going nowhere (and everywhere at the same time). If this is inevitable, why not mistitle?

They have fooled themselves into believing it.

For the most part, all of the previous speculations were rooted in some form of conscious misrepresentation. Yet, I have failed to mention an entirely different category; someone who actively believes their false title is correct, then technically misrepresentation is unknown. A completely separate issue is present in this case; an extreme lack of humility, which is often incompatible with many companies’ values.

What should we do about it?

The High Road

One could directly address the situation. A few times in the past, I have taken this path, giving feedback to individuals about how mistitling hurts their perception, especially with me. In honesty, this hasn’t had much of an effect and somehow gets flipped into a flaw of my character for calling it out. Perhaps the feedback needs to hit a critical mass before someone actively considers demoting their misrepresented title. If multiple individuals were to bring the issue to light, it might appear that the benefits no longer outweigh the cost. Unfortunately, due to the problems listed above, it is hard to find people who will stand up to these perpetrators; after all, even the slightest amount of retaliation is likely to outweigh any potential benefit.

The Low Road

While I still take both roads, I have come to embrace the low road more through time. Instead of using an accurate title myself, I try to come up with a ridiculous statement to express myself, focusing on humility. My goal is not to give myself some lofty title but to actively poke fun at my shortcomings while parodying other silly title irregularities. For instance, no one whose primary goal was to boost perception would title themselves “half-stack”, so the existence of “full-stack” is meme-worthy in itself. If the high road seems like it could cause friction between you and a coworker or boss, feel free to follow me into the dark with a ludicrous demotion of your current title.

Final Thoughts

It isn’t just the narcissists who are mislabeling themselves anymore. It is a movement that parallels the overwhelming amount of disinformation present in the world today. If we don’t take steps to hold people accountable, then titles will start to lose their meaning. Are you going to help bring this problem to light or add to it? It’s your decision; you can do anything you set your mind to, after all.

NOTE: I have approached dozens of people about title misrepresentation during my career, so if you believe I wrote this specifically for you, you aren’t alone. Also, shame on you — seriously.

All images in this post were created by the author.