To think job titles have become very complicated

[user1485342611]

I was watching an old episode of a quiz from the 1980s and when the contestants were asked what they did for a living I understood immediately what their jobs were: an electrician, a librarian, a nurse and an chef.

Nowadays, on programmes like Location or Eggheads I haven't a clue half the time what the participants do: 'A customer service analyst', 'a retail designer', 'a systems co-ordinator'.

Nope. No idea. What do you actually do?

AIBU to wish we could do away with these silly job titles?

Times change, jobs change. Older people in the 80s probably found the same about new job titles then too

I agree, some people need flattering title, it's getting ridiculous. It does make them look rather silly

You're definitely right in my industry. In my last three jobs I've had three different titles - no words in common - but did exactly the same thing. My three bosses, also doing the same thing, have had totally different titles.

I recently had to write summaries of about 25 different positions in the industry (construction). I had to google half of them because I had no clue what they did.

I heard one person on tv other day describe themselves as something bizzare.
Turned out they were a window cleaner.

It does make me wonder though some jobs have so few people apply maybe it's because they don't actually know what the job is?

I used to work some where that handed out flashy job titles like you wouldn't believe. I swear if we'd had a tea lady she would have been "director of hot beverage operations" and a post room boy would be " written communications processing operative".

DS was a Conversion Optimiser Analyst. I had to have that one explained to me.

I worked at subway for two weeks and my job title was Sandwich Artist

Customer Experience Server

I.e. Waitress.

It does make me wonder though some jobs have so few people apply maybe it's because they don't actually know what the job is?

^^

With bells on.

Other side of the coin, I'm job hunting and can look at anything from Office Manager to Project Coordinator.

My first job after leaving university in 1985 was officially titled "operational courier". I was a van-driver.

I had to change my job title on LinkedIn as it made no sense to anyone outside of the company I worked in. I kept getting approached about completely irrelevant vacancies because it sounded like something completely different.

A lot of these roles werent around in the 80s because technology has advanced since then

I once worked for a company where everyone was a "manager" except for the actual managers who were called directors. Directors were called Executives

I look at some jobs and think ‘wtf does that mean?! Can I apply for that?’

The further blurb makes clear it is fully applicable to me. I’m 29.

Yanbu

Meh. Lots of jobs didn't exist back then due to technology differences.

I struggle with working out what my job title is.

I build websites
Manage digital marketing for a magazine
Design print marketing materials
Design products such as tea towels and mugs
Design food labels
And sometimes I do some good old fashioned IT project management

Welcome people's thoughts.

@semster - Online Digital Operations Manager

My job title has four words in. My job is akin to herding cats on fire. This is not reflected in my job title.

@Semster ' Jack -of-all-'I-Trades' (or Jill, obvs😉)

I'm a teacher...no ambiguity there!

I have a technical job (and job title) that didn't exist in the 80s or 90s, because the technology didn't exist.

Times change, requirements change, language changes. You don't see a lot of ads for maltmen or coopers in the situations vacant columns these days.

Yep, my job didn't exist 20 years ago. There's an entire digital industry with jobs that didn't exist. Hence relatively opaque job titles

@semster you've actually hit the nail on the head. Job roles are so varied and people are expected to perform such a wide range of tasks these days it can be quite difficult to think of a job title that accurately describes role. I used to have such a complicated job title that when people asked what I did they got the title and a a description!

My employer re-orgs so often that I've changed my job title on LinkedIn to something generic at the cost of understating the scope of my role. I just can't be bothered to update it every other week.

My current title is five words long. I had to look it up to be on the safe side as we might have re-orged. We haven't for a change. What it actually means: "middle manager". Doesn't sound half as fancy, though.

Mine is Business Support Officer = administrator!

I have got a cringe worthy job title, I actually hate saying it I am moving jobs soon (promotion yay) and the title is still quite pretentious but a bit more self explanatory.