Which is the better job title?

[TopHatFox]

I am scheduled for an internship with the local Chamber of Commerce for the next few months. I negotiated from a "Summer Intern" title to "Summer Projects Manager" or "Summer Programs Coordinator."

Obviously the actual work I do is more important, but if I were to mention these in an interview, which of these two titles sound better to you? For context, I am seeking to work as a financial adviser, asset manager, or in some sort of corporate management after school for a few years.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I'm not an expert on this but "Summer Projects Manager" has "project manager" in the name. Project manager is a position that is often well paid with decision making and personnel management responsibilities. "Programs coordinator" doesn't sound like anything to me, but I might just not be familiar with it.

[inchicago]

In all the places I have worked, a project manager would be higher than a coordinator. The coordinator usually works under the manager. I think you would be much better off getting a project manager title. Be sure you actually have projects that you can say you have overseen or managed people doing the work of the projects so you can discuss these with your next employer. So many people I have interviewed say they were a project manager, and they weren't. They were simply doing administrative work, which means they were an administrator. I think the project manager title gets thrown around too easily these days.

[BRUTE]

brute is not sure there is any difference. nobody brute knows has ever cared for their titles.

[ducknalddon]

Nobody worth their salt is going to believe you were in a serious project management role during an intern-ship. Best to be as honest as possible.

[jacob]

I see that title inflation is alive and well. This will only fool the resume computers. The human response will be either *nudge nudge wink wink* or a more sardonic "What kind of budget were you responsible for managing in dollars?"

My favourite example of title inflation is why there are so many so-called "vice presidents" on the sell-side in finance. It turns out that only "executives" can sign deals, so VP when it comes to financial services essentially means "salesperson"(*). My second most favourite is "Visiting assistant research professor" where "visiting" is code for "non-salaried" and "research professor" being somewhat of an oxymoron and essentially means "scientist".

(*) For example, 1/3 of Goldman Sachs' workforce consists of "vice presidents". That's a lot of vice presidents!

[TopHatFox]

Nobody worth their salt is going to believe you were in a serious project management role during an intern-ship. Best to be as honest as possible.

I agree, honesty is key. I will be co-creating and managing a networking event around golf with the 500 businesses we serve. This means everything from insurance, poster-making, calling people, sales, administration, etc. Sounds like a project to manage to me!

[JL13]

Be sure you actually have projects that you can say you have overseen or managed people doing the work of the projects so you can discuss these with your next employer.

+1

Your resume should really be an outline for what you will talk about in an interview. A resume is to an interview what a table of contents is to a book. Don't put anything on there you don't want to dive into in the interview.

[JamesR]

I will be co-creating and managing a networking event around golf with the 500 businesses we serve. This means everything from insurance, poster-making, calling people, sales, administration, etc.

That sounds like coordination by far. It can't really be called project management. Your boss or their boss could be the project manager that is managing a larger project and has delegated the coordination of an event that is related to the main project.