How to Use a Vanity Title to Advance Your Career, From an Exec Coach

For professionals climbing the corporate ladder, perception matters. How you present yourself — both internally within your organization and externally to the world — can shape your influence and the opportunities that come your way.

I started my career in investment banking and, after getting my MBA, spent 15 years climbing the ladder at Nordstrom, Verizon, Yahoo, and European Wax Center. My last role was chief commercial officer before I left in 2024 and started coaching midlevel leaders to become senior executives as quickly as possible.

If you want influence and recognition, people must understand and respect your work. One powerful yet often overlooked way to enhance how people see you is to strategically refine how you refer to your job title by using a ‘vanity title.’

The power of a vanity title

A vanity title — a term used to describe a title that better reflects your actual impact and responsibilities than your official title — can be a game changer.

Instead of solely relying on the literal job title assigned by your employer, consider how you introduce yourself in professional settings, on LinkedIn, and on your résumé.

If your official title is “senior director of operations,” that may not immediately communicate your actual scope of influence. Instead, calling yourself the “head of operations” (if you are) or “executive leader of business operations” could provide more accurate visibility into your role.

Similarly, a “project lead” may functionally be managing a department’s biggest initiative and could instead refer to themselves as “head of strategic initiatives” or “head of XYZ project.”

The balance between honesty and strategic branding

This is not about inflating your title dishonestly; it’s about clarity and positioning. Overstating your authority or responsibilities can backfire and damage your credibility, but many corporate job titles are internal shorthand that don’t accurately reflect the work’s scale.

Rather than considering a vanity title an exaggeration of what you do, think of it as a more precise articulation of your role that helps others immediately understand your expertise and how they can work with you.

Internal and external impact

Within your organization, refining how you describe your role can help colleagues, leadership, and cross-functional teams understand your authority and decision-making power.

If you want to be considered for leadership opportunities and collaboration, your ability to communicate your role effectively can impact how you’re perceived in meetings, strategy discussions, and succession planning conversations.

Externally, this practice is even more important. Official job titles are often based on corporate structure and systems. On LinkedIn, recruiters and industry peers often scan job titles to assess someone’s relevance for a role or collaboration. If your title is ambiguous or misleadingly junior, you could be overlooked for opportunities matching your skill set and experience.

Consider how your title affects networking conversations. If you introduce yourself at a conference as a “senior specialist in client solutions ” rather than a “client strategy executive,” the latter may better prompt the right discussions and elevate your perceived level of influence.

How to choose the right vanity title

If you’re considering refining how you present your job title, follow these steps to ensure accuracy and effectiveness:

1. Assess your true responsibilities: Write down the core aspects of your role, including leadership responsibilities, strategic oversight, and cross-functional influence. This will help determine whether your given title fully reflects your contributions.
2. Compare with industry standards: Look at how professionals in similar roles at other companies describe themselves. If your title is company-specific jargon, find a more widely understood equivalent.
3. Seek alignment with your company’s culture: Some organizations are flexible with how employees present themselves on LinkedIn, while others prefer strict adherence to assigned titles. If necessary, talk with your manager about using a clearer, industry-recognized version.
4. Be ready to explain your role: If asked about your title, confidently articulate your responsibilities in a way that reinforces why you chose to describe yourself in a particular way. The more aligned it is with your real impact, the easier this will be.

The career benefits of refining your title

Adjusting how you refer to yourself professionally can have long-term benefits, such as:

• Increased visibility: A clearer, more senior-sounding title can help you surface in recruiter searches and professional networks.
• Stronger executive presence: The way you introduce yourself can command more respect and credibility in business interactions.
• Enhanced career mobility: A well-positioned title can help set the stage for a promotion or a job transition into an executive role.

Own your narrative

Your job title is a reflection of your professional brand. While you should never misrepresent your role, you have more control than you think over how you frame your expertise and contributions.

In one case, I coached a director to use a vanity title on LinkedIn to position himself to external recruiters in a way that accurately reflected his job duties. Then, I showed him how to demonstrate to his internal HR department that this should be his official job title.

Once that happened, I helped him ask for a compensation review, and he was given a raise commensurate with his updated title.

Thoughtfully refining your job title can help ensure that others see you as the leader you already are — and compensate you for it.

Andrea Wasserman is the founder and CEO of The Executive Express, where she coaches ambitious professionals to accelerate their careers based on everything she learned during her time as a serial Fortune 500 executive.