When did Job titles become so unfathomable?

[erikbloodaxe]

I'm old and remember when a job title informed anyone ( in that profession or not) of what they did. I've had to write DS's job title down and Google it (yes he explained but I was non the wiser ). So, in the interest of fun, will you say what your job title is and see if anyone can guess what you actually do (if you don't mind that is).

50 years ago, when I was a little kid, I remember my mother explaining to me that the change from 'garbage man' to 'sanitation engineer' wasn't going to improve the person's job description, just try to trick him into thinking he was getting a better deal..

We had a Director Automation Solutions and Services.

Which was shortened to Director, ASS.

No one noticed.

I noticed.

A lot of people mistakenly think you can only 'manage' people. Managers may be called this because they manage one (or more!) Of 3 things: people, budgets, or risk. So just because someone doesn't have a team of people who's work they are managing, doesn't mean they aren't a manager.

Worked in small family firm in the 80s - 15 people in factory, me doing Payroll and Purchase ledger in an office then another much older lady in another office doing Sales ledger,. Company didn't bother with job titles as there were basically the two brothers in charge as Managing Directors then the rest of us!

Older lady called herself 'Office Manageress' and didn't like it when one of the factory guys said 'Manageress of whom? you are the only one in this office!'

"For a while I was a universe designer."

You used to be god?? Why did you quit? Lack of opportunity for further career progression ?

Did it work? Did morale improve?

Why haven’t you told us what your sons incredibly confusing title?

The thing is, if you've never worked in a business/corporate environment, you may not know the difference between leadership and management (I don't) or programme manager, project manager etc (I don't really understand those either, in the sense that I haven't got a clue what the sorts of projects are that they might be managing or the differences between the job titles). I have spent most of my career working for multinational corporations but always in R&D where it has been fairly obvious - scientist, senior scientist, team leader, department manager, division director, site director etc.

I'm a recruiter, or at least I used to be. I am now a Talent Acquisition Specialist.... apparently.

The difference between a project manager and a programme manager is usually scale @EspeciallyDistracted

A project manager managers one or several projects, whereas a programme manager managers one or several programmes, and each programme comprises multiple projects or 'workflows'.

Often a project manager actively manages the project, keeping all the work happening to time, cost, scope - whereas a programme manager orchestrates it from the top, so they're less involved in the day-to-day running of the projects that comprise the programme.

Most companies have a reasonably understood hierarchy, ours is pretty standard...

Company Leadership - Chief X Officers (e.g. CEO, CTO, CMO) - usually about six people.

Functional Leadership - Senior Vice Presidents, Global Vice Presidents, and Vice Presidents (in descending order of seniority) for a particular function, e.g. Marketing.

A Senior Vice President is usually put into place to offer a person scope for promotion, or to manage Vice Presidents.

A Global Vice President means that the person has Global (rather than country or regional) jurisdiction.

We also have a 'rung' of General Manager, who is the site manager for a specific office, division, or country - often a General Manager can also be a Senior Vice President for their function.

Management Layers - Senior Director, Director, Senior Manager, Manager (in descending order of seniority).

Sometimes we get the odd 'Head of' who is often an individual contributor, and roughly equivalent to a Director, but without a team of their own.

Okay, I thought it was 'simple' until I wrote it down. It's not simple.

I have a job title which I think is fairly simple and self-explanatory (to me, anyway). What does get under my skin sometimes is people unfamiliar with the field I work in head-tilting and saying in a patronising way ‘but what do you actually do?’

I really don’t want to explain my 60-hour weeks to someone who is basically suggesting that I sit on my backside all day writing pointless emails because I am not a teacher, doctor, lawyer, work in retail or anything else which has an immediately-recognisable purpose.

Sorry, you may have hit a nerve there 😬

Oh god, the trouble I've gotten into and the meetings which have been required when I referred to a Clinical Lead as a Lead Clinician...

One job title I love is 'Director of Marginal Improvements' for the British Cycling team. I'm very good at marginal improvements

I'm a Healthcare Professional... I can only imagine the hand wringing, pomposity and red faced fury you've faced after that quite simple faux pas. You poor thing! Clinical Leads and Lead Clinicians are a law unto themselves when it comes to job title top trumps!

My actual title is really outing, but essentially I have one of those daft "Business Partner" titles that confuse people and completely erase the fact that I'm a qualified professional. Apparently having my registered title in my "job title" is confusing to those who need to know where I sit in the management and leadership structure - I report in to the C-Suite, everybody knows that, but "it must be clear where you sit Orangesox, everyone must know". I truly despair.

I am a Senior Statistician. #doeswhatitsaysonthetin

Project- a discrete piece of work with a defined objective, start and end date. So, for example, launching a new product, or ensuring that existing ones are brought into line with regulatory changes.
And yes, some people work the tills and answer the phones, and no, these aren’t projects. But some people in the grownup world do difficult things. Not as hard as teaching, obviously

Our Project Managers are responsible for one or more construction projects from start to end.

@Monkeybutt1 I used to be a Change Manager! Don’t envy you doing Problem, though…

Can't say mine as it's too outing.

Very strange, meaningless title which means I have to explain my job to whoever asks... so I just tell people I work in project management 🤷‍♀️

My job title is boring and very reflective of what I do - no guessing necessary (think ‘solicitor’ or similar)

however round these parts, the best local job title is a ‘saggar makers bottom knocker’

I’ll leave that one with you!

Erm, I wouldn't know that either.

I'm one of those "Head of" people who sits to one side a bit managing a particular aspect of the business but without line management responsibilities. I'm always getting asked "but what do you actually do", if I say my actual job title, I don't mind but it isn't a one line answer so I do sometimes just give my profession instead.

Having visited Ironbridge pottery museum recently I understand the latter. Imagine it used to be common in the potteries areas

I'm a civil-structural engineer...so I still have a job title that makes sense! I'm a civil engineer with structural expertise. Just as it says on the tin.

Don't get me started on people who fix boilers etc being called engineers. No disrespect - I sure as hell couldn't do their job - but they are not engineers.

I'm the Head of Community and I'm basically an ops manager

Should be quite easy to change it to Dr Engineer or similar - I think they are Herr Doctor in Germany.