

Job titles are a team anti-pattern - chrismdp
http://chrismdp.com/2012/09/job-titles-team-anti-pattern/

======
kellros
“We have two designers, two front-end developers, 2 back-end developers, and a
tester.”

I'd say there's a difference between a label and a job specification. If you
get to choose your own title, it's meaningless.

You tend to specialize in that which you do for your 8+ hours a day. I
personally wouldn't call someone a front-end developer unless they are very
specialized (to the degree that they understand the internals and are writing
custom controls for the stack).

This doesn't imply that someone can't be specialized in multiple fields - in
the end you are just fulfilling a specific role. I personally believe a team
works well when everyone is capable of doing most things (from doing front-end
dev, back-end dev to gathering requirements and communicating with the client)
and then having specializations.

~~~
chrismdp
True. A job title that isn't foisted on you isn't as bad, although it's a
label you're applying to yourself. A silly job title you make up is harmless.

The danger for people that do one thing for 8+ hours a day is that they
specialise too much. Their comfort zone will reduce to match exactly what
they're doing and they'll stop learning. A good team lead or PM will keep
switching their tasks around and keep stretching them.

