To think 'administrator' is a vague job title

[Custardcream14]

Does anyone else think administrator is a vague job title? I know many and they range from school leavers working for NMW in shops/small businesses doing basic tasks to highly educated people who have very important and professional roles.

Their roles are poles apart but yet they have the job same job title, why?

I'm an Administrator. My colleague and I do all the admin. I would usually say something to put it in context eg school/museum/financial services Administrator.

It is a vague job title, but then again so are titles such as 'Civil Servant' etc, even 'Manager' is vague when it comes to context (managing one person, managing 300 people, managing an office, managing a shop, all very different jobs, all carrying the title of Manager).

I am an administrator but my full job title is 'Operational Support Administrator' which is just as vague to anyone working outside of my industry.

Most job titles only really make full sense within context and within the correct industry.

As you've already identified, the term covers a very wide range and it's appropriate. Administrators' day jobs in a council department may bear no relation to those in the secret service.

I'm thinking of 'cleaner' as well... could relate to the lady who comes in to do your housework and at the other end of the scale, a highly experienced professional killer and/or 'fixer' who specialises in wet work..

I thought Administrator was just the new word for secretary

Yes it's vague but then many office based job titles are vague - if they were specific then they would probably be several sentences long!

No, lawyer.

For example in universities people in finance, hr, recruitment, student support, procurement etc. can all be generically called administrators.

True about cleaner and manager too, hadn't thought of those.

But it is just a generic title, no one actually holds this job title precisely. You get office administrators, IT admin, HR admin and so on.

Because each job has its own job description and a title is just that, a title.

You can't really sum up in a word or two an entire job.

Lawyer is very general term. It tells me nothing about what you do. You could be a barrister or a solicitor and then there's you speciality and whether out are working in house for an organisation or in chambers or a firm.

My job title is 'Admin Support' which is about a million miles from the job I actually do and has no reflection of the tasks I have to carry out daily or the level of responsibility I have.

Civil Servant is not a vague title, it has a specific meaning. Civil Servants are those who are employed by the Crown, excluding those employed by the Monarch herself.

So not including local government workers, other public workers, etc.

I can't really see the problem?

The type of "administration" undertaken will be pretty clear as there is usually another part to the job title, and the person specification will outline the tasks you will be doing.

If you are already working in an administrator role then the people you work with will know what bit you work in and who with and what you get involved in (more or less depending on if they work directly with you).

So in terms of either job seeking or actually working I can't see an issue.

Lawyer PAs are what replaced secretaries I guess, as far as you can now that most people do their own typing , but PA roles are wide ranging, and can have an awful lot of responsibility and be very high paid.

Not a problem, it just is a little confusing where the actual administration line is drawn - if you think about an awful lot of jobs could be described as administration.

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