Do Treasury Job Titles Matter?

Does your job title matter? I'd love to tell you it doesn't. I'd love to tell you it's all about the work, the responsibility, the projects, the opportunity. But the truth is, job titles do matter to people, probably more than they should sometimes. Let me give you an example. I was working with a client recently recruiting a senior treasury analyst role. Internally, thinking made complete sense, and I agree with them. It was an individual contributor role, no direct reports, no people management. So they said, Mike Richards, this is not a Treasury Manager, this is Senior Treasury Analyst. I understood where they were coming from, but then I actually looked at the role in detail. Role itself reports to Group Treasurer, big projects, major exposure, wow, real responsibility. So I can see the internal logic, I said, but I'm going to go out to people and say, you're a Senior Treasury Analyst, do you want to go to another Senior Treasury Analyst job? They're like, no. People aren't just going to move same to same because it doesn't look good. So it reminded me another search I was working on, another large multinational, perfect candidate. This guy, he ticked every box. Job itself was perfect for him—better money, better exposure, working directly for the global treasurer, everything he wanted. One problem. He said, Mike, love the job. I'm like, yes, I just hate this. I said, what? He said, internally the role was called Treasury Practitioner. 'Which totally sounds like a step backwards because it does.' He said, 'What's everyone else going to think?' I said, 'So what do I do?' 'Don't worry, we're going to manage this internally and externally. Internally, they call you whatever they want.' 'Okay.' 'Externally, we'll make sure people understand what you actually do.' So I said, 'Here's what we're going to do. You're going to go in, you can do the job, earn people's trust, build your credibility, but then At a later stage, 3 months' time, when you want to update yourself on LinkedIn, we're going to turn your LinkedIn notifications off. Is that really? Yeah, turn them off. So we caught up in 3 months, loving the job, doing more than he expected, lots more exposure to the Global Treasurer. He's like, Mike, this is great. I said, okay, so now we're going to start to update your LinkedIn profile. Not making anything up, just making sure his profile reflected what he was actually doing. So we switched it off and we updated some of his responsibilities. A few months later, the same again. As his responsibilities were growing, we changed his job title. He was, by then, actually a Senior Treasury Manager. Then we did the same another 6 months later, Head of Risk Management. Eventually, externally, the title caught up with the job. That was one of the key things. So the key thing he was worried about was who was going to notice. Well, we can tell you nobody noticed because no one was monitoring his LinkedIn notifications. No one was looking at his LinkedIn profile all the time. He was doing the job. He had the responsibility. He had the exposure—projects, career. And please say he's still there today, progressing brilliantly. And what started by looking at a smaller title has turned out to be one of the best career decisions he ever made. So yeah, job titles do matter, but don't obsess about them. It can be a great title with a rubbish job. Yuck. I'd rather have a really good role, brilliant role, fantastic exposure, great leader, learning all the time. Your title will catch up over time, so don't chase the title. Think about where the role can take you. And if you want to have a conversation, as always, Michelle, another cup of tea and chat Treasury careers. No thanks.