Why do some people on LinkedIn put vague titles such as “Investment Banking” instead of “Investment Banking Analyst” or “Private Equity Investing” instead of “Associate/Vice President”?
Does being vague in job titles help in recruiting - I.e. appealing more to headhunters on LinkedIn?
Likewise, for those who do not put graduation years?
Appreciate any insights!! :)
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In my experience it’s often either to simplify when your background is complex (eg you had a couple promotions and moved from DCM to ECM to M&A) or it’s to hide something you’d rather not emphasize (maybe your first job out of college was selling insurance for Northwestern Mutual before you lucked into a finance role and you don’t want to highlight the two years between graduation and starting in finance)
If you don’t indicate your specific title “analyst/associate/VP”, would it make it harder for headhunters to consider you?
A lot of sourcing associates in PE remove titles (“investor”) and grad year, so the CEO of the company they’re emailing doesn’t (immediately) know it’s 24 year old kid bugging them to sell their business.
In banking, not putting your group usually means you’re in a banking-ish role (e.g. Activsm, fundraising).
We have a senior banker who was a Director at a smaller, more middle-market bank, but really, really wanted to step up to our group, so he came in as a Vice President. So it was essentially a demotion from a position standpoint but a major promotion from a bank/group perspective. Anyways, on his title on LinkedIn now, he just writes investment banking and the vertical he works in rather than his title to hide that fact.
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