Carter Hopkins
Interview Tips
Sales
Not at every company. But enough of them that the title became an unreliable signal. It became a starting point for a conversation rather than a filter for one.
The same set of responsibilities now shows up under five different titles, depending on the company and what they were willing to offer that candidate to get them to take the job.
We watched this play out across 1,400+ searches in 2025.
A candidate comes in with an impressive title.
Director of Enterprise Sales.
Head of Revenue.
VP of Commercial.
On paper, it looks impressive. Then the conversation starts, and something feels off.
The scope wasn't there. The ownership wasn't there. The title was real, but the experience behind it wasn't what it implied.
If you're still screening candidates primarily by title, you're working with a broken compass.
Signal #7 in the Pursuit Sales & GTM Talent Index | 2025
Titles lost meaning. Context took over.
Over the past few years, titles drifted upstream across the industry.
The same role with the same responsibilities, quota, and team size started showing up under very different titles depending on the company.
"Director" at one org looked like "manager" at another. "Enterprise" appeared in titles attached to mid-market books of business. "Head of" became a way to elevate individual contributors without changing compensation or scope.
This happened for a few reasons.
Startups used elevated titles to attract talent they couldn't pay market rate for. Candidates negotiated for them. Managers gave them because they were easy and free. Over time, the meaning eroded.
By 2025, title inflation wasn't an edge case. It became the norm.
How did this shift hiring conversations?
Smart hiring teams adjusted.
The leaders we worked with stopped leading with title-to-title comparisons and started asking different questions entirely. Questions aimed at understanding the context rather than guaranteed buzzwords.
What did you actually build?
Who did you recruit, develop, and retain?
What did the territory look like when you took it over versus when you left?
The goal became finding the best performer for the work, regardless of what their job title on LinkedIn says. Teams that prioritized context over titles were the ones that avoided bad hires in 2025.
Why are candidates elevating titles?
It's worth understanding the other side of this, because it directly affects your hiring process.
Sales reps understood that elevated titles opened doors. A Director title secures a first conversation that a Senior Manager title might not. A "VP" in the subject line of a LinkedIn message gets a different response.
This strategy isn't inherently dishonest. Titles are often legitimately inflated by the company, not the candidate. But it means that the intake filter you're relying on is working with compromised data.
High volume of "qualified" applicants on paper is not the same as a strong candidate pool. In 2025, many teams learned this the hard way after investing weeks in candidates who looked right on paper but struggled in the interview process or role.
A few things we saw work for the teams that navigated this well:
1. Define the role by outcomes, not credentials. Before posting a title, get clear on what this person needs to have done. Instead of "7+ years of enterprise sales experience," try "has owned a full sales cycle in a complex, stakeholder environment and closed deals above $X." Specificity filters better than any title screen.
2. Build context-driven interview questions. Get candidates telling stories, not reciting resumes. Ask them to walk you through a deal from start to finish. Ask what broke in their territory and what they did about it. Top talent will have stories to tell. Title-inflated candidates won’t have context for them.
3. Don't let a strong title shortcut your process. We've seen companies do this. A director-level candidate walks in, and the process compresses because everyone assumes they’re the perfect fit. It rarely is. The title got them in the room. Their actual experience has to win the role.
The best hire we can help you make isn't the one with the most impressive resume header. It's the one who has actually done the work your role requires and can prove it.
These insights are drawn directly from 1,400+ real searches in our Pursuit Sales & GTM Talent Index | 2025. Not just opinions or headlines, but real hiring behavior.
