学文网People are so hung-up on titles here,” bemoaned a top headhunter recently. I was trying to engage her on the opportunities India was throwing up for the skilled and the talented, and her comment took me by surprise.“I genuinely think the country is throwing up interesting work profiles,” she said. “I know suitable candidates for such jobs too, but they often back out when they hear the designations they will get.”
The curious thing is that these ‘interesting work profiles’, that many look down on, often come with handsome financial gains as well. Yet few will accept a designation that includes ‘business head’ or‘manager’ if the current employer— or even the competitor — offers a‘vice president’ title. Many have a big mental block about designations that don’t sound fancy enough. Nor can they be blamed entirely; the few who do take on jobs they enjoy doing, but come with mundane designations, are constantly ribbed about it by their families and friends.
So how should executives look at designations? Is there a strategy to be followed?
Sure there is. Most good headhunters agree that if employees are not careful, fancy designations can turn out to be traps for them, preventing them from realising their full potential. If the job profile that goes with the designation does not offer any learning opportunities, or leave scope for career advancement, the job tittle is no help. Often, people at senior levels end up designating themselves out of the market — assume a candidate will not want a role with a relatively humble title.
Today, smaller companies are getting savvy as well. They realise they need to make an effort to retain talent and thus tend to pack interesting roles into certain profiles that would be unimaginable in larger companies. Hence, the interplay between large and small organisations is changing the dynamics on the recruitment front.
“I often get bright people coming to me for strategic roles in smaller firms,” says Gauri Padmanabhan, Partner in human resources firm, Heidrick & Struggles. Sometimes the motive is a comeback bid by those whose attempt at entrepreneurship has backfired. But sometimes people also choose smaller companies as they want to work in an environment where they can make a difference.
The opposite works as well, when the change in title is determined by the move from a smaller outfit to a bigger firm. “A vice president of a smaller company often gets a larger mandate in a global firm as a unit head, though his designation does not always reflect so,” says Padmanabhan.
Talent managers caution that candidates should think about these matters. The race to get ahead, and peer pressure often blind people to the fact that obsessing about designations can lead to a career impasse. However, do not let anyone fool you into making a lateral shift that also takes you away from the actual action you were hoping for.
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