Is Your Job Title Helping Your Relaunch, or Holding You Back?

Photo by Marten Newhall @laughayette on Unsplash

TLDR: You can call yourself whatever you want. 

A client who wanted to make a career change once asked me how I got my title, career coach and communications strategist.

I laughed and told her the truth.  “I made it up.” 

When I first pivoted from communications into coaching, it felt important to me to rebrand myself as a “career coach,” so that people could quickly understand what I was doing.

But I soon realized that my 20 years of professional experience as a writer, communications director and strategist is actually super relevant to career coaching. I help clients shape their professional narratives and tell their stories, so I chose the title “career coach and communications strategist.”

Lately, I’ve evolved to call myself a career coach and strategist, because my work with clients usually blend coaching with strategies on personal branding, networking, interviewing and service-based entrepreneurship, to name a few.  

You don’t need anyone’s permission to change your LinkedIn headline, your personal email signature, or your social media bio into a title that more authentically reflects who you are or where you want to be. It doesn’t have to be the official job title that HR gave you (but it can be).

Do what works for you. There are no career police who will tell you to stop calling yourself an artist even though you have a corporate design job.

There are actually strategic reasons to give yourself a new title, on LinkedIn at least. If you’re open to new opportunities, writing your headline and other sections of your profile to more closely match jobs you want makes it easier for recruiters to find you. In fact, not doing so can keep you stuck by only matching you with jobs that are similar to your current one. This still happens to me because I have so many years of communications experience on my profile.

Updating your title is an easy first step toward redefining your professional identity. Why not check in with yours today? 

If you’re considering your own career relaunch, don’t do it alone! Book a free 30-minute consult to see if private coaching is for you.