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?

Zofango congrats on your rapid rise. You write like a true millennial.

Anyway, I'm thinking of a project manager say in the building industry - they are the facilitator between the different trades etc. Keeps an eye on the budget, deals with conflicts between the, say, architects and engineers, produces the progress reports. It sounds similar to a scrum master.

DH is a project manager in the building industry and it's nothing like being a scrum master or doing Agile development.

My last job (prior to something of a career change) was in student recruitment. The problem is that while it's understood perfectly within the sector (higher education), people from outside the sector rarely had a clue that anyone even did my job, let alone what it was called.

Student recruitment is, in essence, getting enough good quality prospective undergraduates to apply to and then choose that university. We're the nice people that run open days and turn up to your child's sixth form to do talks (amongst many other things). If I said "student recruitment coordinator" to someone from outside higher education, they would either assume that I was either
a) a trainee recruitment coordinator
b) someone who recruited new graduates into grad schemes
... and they were surprised to learn that new undergraduates have to be actively sought out, rather than simply turning up by magic, like manna from heaven. Those same people often seemed surprised that open days had to be organised by someone, and that they didn't happen by happy coincidence, like a flashmob of academics and administrators who just happened to all come to work that Saturday).

In the end I changed my job title to 'school liaison coordinator'. People still didn't know what I did, but at least they didn't make assumptions!

BigBook, a Student Recruitment Co-ordinator in the context of higher education makes perfect sense to me once you have explained it. It is almost a cross between marketing and recruitment, coming down more heavily of marketing. Would it make more sense to put some element of marketing into your title?

Although I am a lawyer (and most people will immediately understand that), I work in pretty niche areas of law in the City that to this day my dh does not understand what I do or why there is a whole job built around it.

RosesAndFlowers, FinallyHere - I definitely have sympathy with you point but honestly, the job titles were incredibly opaque and the accompanying JDs were garbled messes. Nobody could do any 'quick googling' to work them out. They were simply too confusing and idiosyncratic.

Anyway, I don't work there any more thank god. I think their JDs were symtomatic of so many problems there. Too many cooks involved in every decision and all wanting input, a 'not in my jd' culture and shrinking resources - meaning that every adverised role was probably replacing three previous posts and therefore had to encapsulate everything.

^ sorry for typos - am on my phone

I’m a transponster...

Not really. Digital Marketing Director

I'm so old that I can remember when when people working in HR were called personnel officers.

I had to chuckle to myself today when I went to the council offices for a meeting and saw from the pics of head honchos that they now have a Director of Human Resources and Transformation.

I couldn't help myself, I just envisaged this woman turning wheelie bins into traffic wardens.

Well, I also think there is a lot of PC involved. A male wouldn't necessarily want to be called a seamstress but he isn't a tailor at his level. So what do you blanket term it?
Clothing alterations practitioner

I am an editorial assistant. I do indeed assist editors.

Director of Human Resources and Transformation.

Perhaps he's transforming good jobs into redundancy packages?

Someone I knew used be a 'Communications Executive'.

She worked in the post room.

Zofango congrats on your rapid rise. You write like a true millennial.

You write like a twat.

I know someone who is "head of creative thought".
I work with him but still don't have any clue what he does.

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

But why are some teachers called tutors? And sixth form college teachers are called lecturers, whereas sixth formers in school still have teachers.

"Project manager - what does that actually mean/do? It's worst culprit imo. can mean diff things depending on the industry"

Yep. I worked in an industry where it meant basic admin.

"My last job (prior to something of a career change) was in student recruitment. The problem is that while it's understood perfectly within the sector (higher education), people from outside the sector rarely had a clue that anyone even did my job, let alone what it was called. "

It seems perfectly obvious to me.

Hubby recently changed jobs. The HR lady that dealt with all the paperwork was called "Talent acquisition officer"
Friend who previously worked at this company was allowed to make up his own title. Guessing this lady did too.

My job title is rather grandly "Night Manager" in a nice hotel. This is hospitality speak for "skivvy". 50% of my job is cleaning, the rest is varied depending on what's going on, but well, I have no management duties at all because I report to the heads of department and general manager and take direction from them, I work alone and with the exception of common sense decisions, have relatively little input into planning anything. I don't know why it was changed from night porter to be honest, much more accurate description.

Oh god. DH works in IT and has seen the latest craze for Agile and Scrum. It’s the usual faddy repackaging of working where everyone gets massively excited by how revolutionary the ideas are and has to spend thousands on training courses to prove you’ve bought into it. It will move on to a new set of training courses soon. Maybe you’ll all have to be “Delilah enabled” and you can go on expensive training courses to become “arrangement facilitator”

Do the job descriptions / responsibilities outlined on the job application help people understand what they're applying for?

Haven't read full thread.

The industry I work in is so well known for it's silly made up job titles that there are even joke job title generators online: www.aaronweyenberg.com/uxgenerator/

@moose23ishungry
sometimes the job description is as unrelated as the name. really far from reality!

@Constantworkinprogress
unfortunately that not invented, recruiters at my old company were called the same. Cringe

I was a Data Manager, then a Clinical Trial Administrator to fit in with the Clinical Trial Co ordinators.

And now I have ‘senior’ at the start so my only gripe is that it now takes me twice as long to write my job title on anyfink official.

Not rtft but yes, definitely. My husband is a ‘new business developments project manager’ (he works for an IT company selling online training courses) and I’m an ‘early years professional’ (nursery worker with a degree).