To embellish my CV and job title?

[SapphosRock]

Not a huge whopper, but saying I was a head of department in my last role when I was in fact a senior manager.

The job I was doing was equivalent to being a head of dept and everything I could speak about in an interview would illustrate that.

I feel like I'm missing out on interviews.

Or would employers think I'm untrustworthy if they found out?

Embellishing... Not unreasonable, definitely embellish! Lying... Wouldn't do it personally.

I would, I doubt they'd even question it. My previous role was Director of Finance however in my CV I just used Finance manager. Never got pulled up even though my proper title was in my reference.

Won't they ask for a reference from your last employer? In which case it'll become obvious if you've lied about your job title.

You should be able to speak about your duties and responsibilities in your previous role to demonstrate how it qualifies you for your new one without lying about your job title.

And yes if you're discovered to have lied on an application you will appear untrustworthy to employers and it could cost you the job

I mean in my eyes a senior manager who has overall oversight in a department IS a head of department. I guess the reference might not quite match up on titles but in my view it’s close enough that I wouldn’t care.

I previously was "something something director" and in a different role a "senior something something manager" - in both roles I headed up an entire department. I didn't change the job title but on the first line underneath I have "headed up x department with y number of staff, responsible for xyz".

I recently started a new job and EVERYTHING was checked. Personally I wouldn’t embellish the job title but would detail your responsibilities which showed you were in effect a head of dept.

Change it
Job titles are stupid most of the time. references should really just be time employed.

Don't change your job title, you'll be found out. Do describe your job so it demonstrates your seniority.

Depends if things are checked. They aren’t in our large organisation

It de[ends where you are applying. We have every single detail in every CV checked by an agency - I had to sack a poor lady who had changed one tiny (inconsequential) mark from school on her CV, it was awful.

I have tended to use phrases like "working at board level" (factually true) when my job title "Financial controller" didn't really do the role justice.
I have also used "Head of Finance" when I was the most senior person in the function. Again factually true, but the job title was something like "Finance Specialist 5" (an american co)

Your most recent employers will provide your reference. Most are question and answer but your job title is pretty standard. Find a way in your application of explaining how your current job title does not necessarily reflect the what your potential employers may expect- job titles are pretty subjective between many employers. I work in the public sector as a social worker but my level of seniority has different titles depending on the the local authority. Just make sure it is very clear in your application and not buried in the main person spec bit.

Put the real job title but next to it, and also in bold if you are using bold, put “heading up x department”

Lying? Don’t do it OP

I once interviewed someone who had worked directly with me, I had been her line manager, a few years ago. She had lied on her CV about her job title when she worked for me.

I wasn't involved in sifting the applications so I saw her CV just before the interview. My own role had changed and unknown to her she was actually interviewing to work directly with me again. I said nothing about it during the interview and if I hadn't known, she might have got the job, but I was spectacularly irritated that she had the gall to completely change her job title to make it sound completely different. What was really weird was they there was no reason to do so to get the job and she was applying to return to the same organisation. It just meant I assumed she was overstating everything else she said as well.

would employers think I'm untrustworthy if they found out?

Of course they will.

The previous job title is of far less importance to an employer, than your personal integrity.