Latest / Career Coaching with Fexingo: Professional Coaches, Career Counselors, and Guidance for Workers / The Strategic Art of the Internal Job Description
Transcript
- Lucas: We tend to think of a job description as a legal document, something locked in when you sign the offer letter. But if you look at how companies like Adobe or Salesforce manage their internal talent pipelines right now, those documents are actually living negotiation frameworks. Luna: Exactly, and most people never update theirs after the first year. They let the role drift until they're doing work that doesn't match their title or pay grade. Lucas: Right. The problem isn't just that the work changes. It's that employees don't proactively rewrite their own scope to reflect the new reality. They wait for a performance review to argue for a raise, only to realize six months later that their responsibilities have already expanded into a completely different job. Luna: So instead of waiting for a crisis, you're suggesting we treat our job description as a quarterly business plan for ourselves? Lucas: Precisely. I want to talk about the specific mechanics of a role redescription. This isn't about complaining that you're doing too much. It's about aligning your output with market value before the next budget cycle closes in September twenty twenty six. Luna: That sounds risky though. How do you frame an expansion of duties without sounding like you're demanding more work for free? Lucas: You frame it around risk mitigation and revenue protection. When you take on a new responsibility, you're solving a problem the company didn't have a formal owner for. You need to document that ownership shift clearly. Let me give you a concrete example from a senior product manager I spoke with last month. Luna: Okay, lay it out. What did she change? Lucas: Her official title was still Product Manager, Level Two. But for the past eight months, she had been leading a cross-functional team on a new AI integration project. That work required technical oversight, stakeholder management, and P&L accountability. Her old job description only mentioned feature development and user research. Luna: So her actual daily tasks were totally misaligned with her written contract. Lucas: Completely. She drafted a new version of her job description that highlighted three core pillars: product strategy, technical architecture review, and commercial outcomes. She brought this to her director not as a request, but as a calibration exercise. She said, 'I want to make sure my deliverables match my compensation band.' Luna: That is a brilliant framing. It makes it about fairness rather than greed. Lucas: It forces the conversation into objective territory. Most managers hate these conversations because they feel personal. But when you present a documented gap between your title and your actual impact, it becomes an HR issue. And HR loves clarity. Luna: But what if the company doesn't have a higher level open? Can she really just redefine herself into a Senior role? Lucas: Not instantly. But she creates the precedent. By having that updated document on file, she establishes that she is operating at a higher level. If there's no opening today, she has built a case that makes her the obvious choice when one opens up in Q four. She stops being a candidate who happens to be available, and starts being a incumbent who is underutilized. Luna: That changes the power dynamic entirely. Instead of begging for a seat at the table, she owns the table. Lucas: Exactly. Now, let's get into the weeds of how to write this. The biggest mistake I see is listing tasks. People write 'managed social media' or 'coded backend APIs.' That is operational language. It describes labor, not value. Luna: So we need outcome-based language. Like 'increased conversion by fifteen percent' instead of 'ran marketing campaigns.' Lucas: Yes, but go deeper. Look at the verbs. Operational roles use words like 'supported,' 'assisted,' 'handled,' or 'managed.' Strategic roles use words like 'architected,' 'negotiated,' 'optimized,' or 'directed.' If you look at the job description for a Director versus a Manager, the difference is almost entirely in the verb hierarchy. Luna: So the first step is auditing your current verbs against your desired level. Lucas: Step one is audit. Step two is identification of the gap. Find the three areas where you are currently doing work that belongs to the next level up. Maybe you're mentoring juniors, which is usually a lead function. Maybe you're presenting to the board, which is usually executive level. Maybe you're setting the quarterly roadmap instead of just executing it. Luna: Those are the invisible taxes again. Doing the higher level work without the higher level recognition. Lucas: Right. And here is the critical part. You don't just send this document via email. You schedule a dedicated meeting. Call it a 'Role Calibration Session.' This signals that you view your employment as a strategic partnership, not just a transactional exchange of hours for dollars. Luna: Does this work in smaller companies where titles are fluid? Or is this mostly a corporate play? Lucas: It works even better in smaller companies. In startups, roles evolve rapidly. If you don't anchor your scope to a written standard, founders will keep adding random tasks until you're overwhelmed. A clear job description protects your time. It says, 'This is what I signed up for. This new request falls outside that scope. Do we need to renegotiate?' It gives you permission to push back. Luna: I love that. It turns the job description into a boundary tool, not just a resume builder. Lucas: Exactly. Boundaries create respect. Now, let's talk about the financial side. When you present this redescription, what are you asking for? Usually, it's either a title correction or a salary adjustment. Sometimes both. Luna: And equity plays a huge part here. If you're moving into a strategic role, your vesting schedule should probably reflect that increased responsibility. Lucas: Right. If you're taking on P&L ownership or managing a budget, your risk profile has changed. Your compensation package needs to reflect that risk. Don't just ask for a base salary bump. Ask for equity refreshers. Equity aligns you with the long term health of the company, which is exactly what these new strategic roles require. Luna: So the narrative is: 'I am assuming more risk and delivering more value; therefore, my upside participation must increase.' Lucas: Perfect summary. But here is where people stumble. They get nervous about the reaction. They worry their manager will say, 'Well, you've always done this.' Or worse, 'If you're doing this extra work, maybe you don't need the raise.' Luna: That second response is terrifying. How do you counter that? Lucas: You hold the line on market rates. You say, 'I understand I've been comfortable in this capacity, but the market rate for someone performing these specific functions at this level is significantly higher. I want to stay here, but I need the compensation to match the role I'm actually playing.' Luna: That removes the emotion. It's not about what you deserve personally. It's about what the market dictates for the function. Lucas: Exactly. It depersonalizes the negotiation. You aren't asking for a favor. You're correcting a pricing error. And if they refuse to correct the price, you have two choices. You can continue to operate at a loss, effectively subsidizing the company with unpaid strategic labor. Or you start looking externally. Luna: Which brings us back to the internal job search. If you can't fix the role internally, you have to leave. But leaving with a clear, documented history of expanded scope makes you incredibly attractive to other employers. Lucas: Yes. Your resume becomes a story of progressive responsibility. You don't have to explain why you left. You just show them the trajectory. 'I started as a junior analyst. Within two years, I redefined my role to include data engineering and team leadership. I delivered X result.' That is a compelling narrative. Luna: It turns the employee from a passive recipient of tasks into an active architect of their career. Lucas: That is the shift we need to encourage. Most workers are passive. They wait for permission. Permission is rare. Ownership is common. Take ownership of your scope. Document it. Present it. Negotiate it. Luna: It feels like a lot of work upfront, but it prevents so much frustration down the road. Lucas: It saves you from the mid-life career crisis where you realize five years have passed and you're still doing entry-level work. Fix the foundation early. The structure holds up much better. Luna: Before we wrap up, does this apply to freelancers and contractors too? Their contracts are usually fixed scope. Lucas: Absolutely. Freelancers often suffer from scope creep because they're afraid to say no. But a well-defined statement of work acts as a shield. When a client asks for something outside the SOW, you point to the document. 'That's outside our agreed scope. We can add it as a change order, or we can swap it for something else.' It professionalizes the relationship immediately. Luna: So whether you're W two or W nine, the principle is the same. Define the box, then negotiate what happens when you grow beyond it. Lucas: Exactly. You control the container. If you don't, everyone else will fill it with whatever fits them, not you. Luna: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Listener support keeps this network ad-free and allows us to dig into these specifics every single day. Lucas: We appreciate the help. It lets us keep producing deep dives like this one without compromise. Luna: Yeah, it really matters. So, getting back to the role itself, what's the very first sentence you'd put in a redescription draft? Lucas: Start with the outcome. 'The purpose of this role is to drive through.' Everything else supports that. If a task doesn't support that sentence, cut it or delegate it. Luna: Simple, direct, and impossible to ignore. I think that's the key. Clarity is power. Lucas: Clarity is leverage. And leverage is what gets you promoted.