
Inflation in job titles reaching Weimar levels - j_baker
http://www.economist.com/node/16423358
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joe_the_user
Now wait a second, _Weimar levels_ of title inflation would be where I would
be called "planetary dictator" on the third month of a temp assignment... At
the end of Weimar inflation, Wikipedia claims a single gold Mark had reached a
value of a billion paper marks.

Perhaps Economist Headline inflation has reached Weimar levels, though.

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buro9
How long until the word founder means something else? That's at least the one
I trust most.

"Founder of the Stationary Cupboard"

I quite liked being a dev and then a senior for years. I felt it meant
something that everyone understood the difference between a junior dev, a dev
and a senior dev. I also felt that I understood what I needed to know, have
experience of and be skilled in to progress through the dev levels. And it was
nothing to do with job titles, and everything to do with learning and applying
that learning.

I liked that I could take something like the programmer competency matrix (
[http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-
content/uploads/Programmer%20co...](http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-
content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%20matrix.htm) ) and know where I fit
into the grand scheme of things and why I didn't yet deserve a job title
beyond my experience and knowledge at that time.

IMHO, a slim hierarchy of clearly titled and well understood job titles can be
a very good motivator and guide to someone wanting to master their profession.
Inflated titles hardly motivate people to improve themselves.

~~~
gaius
These days there are no "junior" devs and you become "senior" with one year's
experience.

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frisco
Did they really reference "ninja" developers as an example of title inflation?
That must be what it's like to be completely on the outside of tech community
in-jokes.

~~~
j_baker
Someone should key recruiters in on that in-joke.

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mikemol
I don't think it matters, really. As the article notes, it leads to cynicism
about title changes and promotions, but job title prestige isn't (and probably
have never been) a good way to evaluate employee and/or role value.

It used to be that it wasn't the company's president you wanted to satisfy,
but his secretary--yet which held more prestige?

~~~
lsc
I'm with you. Giving someone a grand title is free; If a ridiculous title
makes an employee even a little bit happier, who am I to deny him that small
boon?

~~~
gaius
Why assign any meaning to any word then?

C'mon. You're a programmer. You should be used to unambiguous use of
language...

~~~
lsc
with regards to titles, the ship has sailed a long time ago. It's like calling
a product or service "cloud" - it can mean almost anything.

The thing is, some words and phrases have a very specific meaning. Say, xen-
based virtual private server, and you have a pretty good idea what you are
getting. Other words have a very nebulous meaning. say "cloud service" and you
might as well say "solution" for all the information it conveys. It's folly to
insist on a tight definition of a word once the rest of the industry has
decided it's meaningless.

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Timothee
One problem with that that didn't seem to get mentioned in the article is that
it's an arms race. If your company doesn't play, you have a resume that might
give you a less-fancy name for the same position as your friend's. Sure titles
and resumes are not the whole thing when being hired, but everything else
being equal, you always have "well that second guy does have experience as
manager" when it doesn't mean he actually managed anybody.

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notahacker
The sooner everybody's a VP, the sooner we judge them on their actual
competence rather than assumed level of seniority.

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brc
I could never present my business card with a straight face if it had a
ridiculous title.

In fact I just went to a school reunion and answered most peoples questions
with 'software developer', But maybe that's because it shuts 99% of the
population up.

~~~
billswift
Straight faces are seriously overrated. Smiling brightens everyone's day, if a
ridiculous title helps you smile, more power to it. (I just finished typing my
handwritten notes from _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ into my
computer, so this sort of stuff is on my mind right now.)

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mahmud
This was sad:

 _The number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title
vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in
2005-09_

~~~
gaius
If you've ever worked in banking, then anyone who's been there for a few years
will be a VP. The original rationale was, as a banker you could be managing
the same amount of cash as a VP in another company would have in their budget.
Even that was pretty flimsy, but it's long been totally out of hand.

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Maven911
reminds me of student clubs where everyone was a VP

~~~
ephermata
My friend and I ran a chess club in high school. We really just wanted to play
chess, but made everyone who joined a "Director." Why not? Plus, It was a bit
of a joke reaction to the high pressure competition we saw in other extra
curricular activities.

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erikstarck
I'm not surprised. I find it very difficult to explain what I do. Tried to
summarize it on my LinkedIn-profile as "Opportunity Cloud Builder" but, yeah,
it's quite corny. :)

~~~
gaius
No-one wants to be a "programmer" anymore, kids all call themselves "Certified
Enterprise Java Solutions Architect" or something. Architects? I call 'em
"Visio resources", and I can draw fluffy clouds myself...

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nostrademons
Impressive. They managed to self-Godwin in the subtitle.

~~~
ataggart
Not really. The Weimar Republic's hyperinflation preceded (and contributed to)
the rise of the Nazis.

~~~
nostrademons
Right, it's the "and contributed to" part that I'm referencing. Godwin's Law
is "...a comparison involving Hitler or Nazis..." Usually once you reference
the Weimar Republic, people immediately think of the rise of the Nazis ten
years later. It's an implicit comparison, even if the words are never
mentioned.

