A friend shared this interesting article shared in comment. An experiment was carried out for posting a Sales position on a Singapore-based job board on three different occasions.
Occasion # Job title Applications received
1 Sales Officer 10
2 Sales Executive 30
3 Account Manager 100
Sales Officer, Sales Executive, and Account Manager - 3 titles do the same thing: building, maintaining, and servicing customers'/clients' accounts. The salary is the same for all titles. The application response varies, however.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was working as HR in a European MNC, some job positions adopted job titles given by global HR. For Admi/Support roles, the titles were Service Admin Support, or similar. Some employees asked why was there no 'Executive' at the end of the title.
In Europe, more than often, Executive refers to the title which is of high-level office (C-suites).
This had caused some unhappiness and it was one of the smaller reasons why some employees left to join another company with a similar role with an "Executive" in the title.
I was searching for "Functional" supervisors for a European MNC. The qualification requirement was a diploma. The title looked small but the salary was equivalent to an engineer, or higher. They have adopted HQ's practice by using supervisors for jobs that require vocational certificates (or diplomas), and engineers for degree holders.
I spoke to potential candidates who were diploma holders. Some walked away because they felt that the title was not attractive though the pay was good.
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a subjective perception. Personally, I would not want to have a big title when the scope does not match it.
May I leave you a question: For a Receptionist, do you think which title is best: Receptionist, Front Desk Executive, or Front Office Manager? The scope is: Receiving visitors, directing calls, mail distribution, etc.
