
Incomprehensible job titles are an elitist affectation - happy-go-lucky
https://theconversation.com/calling-all-time-ninjas-lets-put-a-stop-to-ludicrous-job-titles-79544
======
pluma
> Yet a nationally representative study of 1,000 British adults, with which I
> assisted, found that 75% of British adults thought “scrum master” was a fake
> job title, or didn’t know for sure if it was real.

I think this bit misses the point. "Scrum master" is pretty descriptive and
explicit _if you are the least bit familiar with Scrum methodology_. Unlike
the other examples which are intentionally obscure and playful, this one is
only obscure if you're unfamiliar with the specific industry.

I'm fairly certain there are perfectly legitimate job titles in other
industries "75% of British adults" aren't familiar with. That's okay, they
don't have to be.

If it was "75% of British technical project managers", I would be far more
concerned. A job opening for a "Scrum master" likely isn't an entry level
position for someone with no prior knowledge of Scrum -- and if that career
path is interesting to you, you'll likely already know what Scrum is.

~~~
sho
To be fair, I'm in tech, have known actual "scrum masters", and still don't
think it's a real job title.

~~~
negativ0
yeah, i still dont understand, in my company we have 2 scrum masters, and the
only thing i can see they do is sending 2 emails a week and coding like
juniors.

~~~
mpfundstein
They shouldnt code at all and instead be busy with coaching your team and the
enterprise in practicing proper scrum

~~~
honestoHeminway
else they be never true scottsman.

------
bdcravens
Is it ironic that the author is _Sir_ Cary Cooper, who received knighthood at
a birthday celebration for the Queen? It's an honor, but with so many knights
running around, hasn't that title become a bit ludicrous itself?

~~~
chrisseaton
> who received knighthood at a birthday celebration for the Queen

The Birthday Honours aren't given at a birthday celebration for the Queen. You
make it sound like they're handed out at her birthday party!

The 'birthday' part of the name just means that they are the summer version of
the bi-annual honours ceremonies, the other being the new year. The Queen's
official birthday is a general set of official events held in the summer. It's
not even anywhere near her actual birthday.

------
Hasknewbie
I for one do like job adverts looking for a 'guru' or 'ninja'. They are a good
early indicator that the company is either immature enough to publish such
ads, or using a cynical ploy looking to attract younger/flexible recruits less
likely to make 'grown-up' demands.

------
aluhut
> So when a pet supplies company advertises for a “time ninja” instead of a
> human resources administrator or office clerk, we need to ask why.

Why not question "human resources" too? I wonder what came first. This term or
the way HR handles people as faceless commodities.

~~~
WalterBright
If there's a "Human Resources" department, shouldn't there be an "Inhuman
Resources" label instead of "IT"?

------
tvanantwerp
I am Director of IT at my workplace.

I don't actually direct anyone--I'm the only technical employee. I got the
title when my boss told me he was having business cards printed and wanted to
know what title I wanted. It was just the first thing that came to mind. Some
titles can be very descriptive, and others are just random noise.

------
dfan
My first job was doing programming / game design / writing / composing / audio
design at a startup computer game company in the 1990s. No one really had a
title. When we finally decided that we should really have business cards, I
got mine printed with the job title of Chaplain.

~~~
honestoHeminway
Oh, father be with us in our hour of need, for we are going gold. Please
forgive us our soon released Alpha, for we forgive our brethrens early Alphas
released at full price. Amen.

------
Negitivefrags
Can we stop with the self-aggrandizing CxO titles while we are at it?

I've had someone introduce themselves as a CTO of a company that has 4 people.
How many other technical officers are there for you to be the chief of them?

It sounds ridiculous.

~~~
matthewmacleod
I get what you mean, in that CxO titles sound silly. But I'm not sure what the
alternative is, really - particularly when you're talking about a startup
that's hopefully going to be growing a bit.

It seems when you want to talk about your team, you really want to say 'This
person does the business stuff, this person does the technical stuff, this
person does the marketing stuff, this person helps with the technical stuff…".
Something like CTO is a convenient shorthand for 'person in charge of
technical things'.

~~~
Negitivefrags
Technical Director is a better term. (In fact, it's the job title I use).

It says you are in charge of tech without implying anything about the size of
your company.

~~~
rjsw
It also makes it clear that you are a director of the company, a CxO might not
be a member of the board.

~~~
matthewmacleod
I would be wary of that one though; I've been 'technical director' in the past
without being 'director'.

------
slyall
Any industry will have weird sounding titles. The different is that in IT some
have only existed for a few years so they havn't had time to work their way
into general public culture. A quick scan of my local jobs boards finds the
following exotic titles:

    
    
      * Gib stopper  
      * Manual Materials Handler- Sample Crushing  
      * Hammerhand
      * Class 2 Civil Driver
      * Shot Firer
      * Kaiawhina
      * Precaster
      * Dogman
      * Assistant Greenkeeper
      * Concrete placer
      * Estimator

~~~
pilsetnieks
What is your estimation of when the titles of Guru, Rockstar and Ninja will
work their way in popular culture, and the responsibilities will be well
understood at least within the industry?

------
WalterBright
In the 1970s, my first job was an electronics assembly technician. Going to my
first tech conference, I asked that the conference badge job title was
"Gnome".

Given the incredulous reaction of the badge maker, I was at least the first
he'd ever seen. It wasn't long before the rest of the staff at the company
became "Wizards" and "Gnomes" as well.

Now I just put "Nerd" as my job title, and nobody raises an eyebrow.

~~~
bdcravens
My title is "Director of Technology" in a small company but I tend to
introduce myself as "chief nerd" as I think that speaks better to what I
really do day-to-day.

------
empath75
Full-stack Engineer is a perfectly descriptive job title.

This is my favorite stupid job title, though:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shing)

~~~
spectre
Self proclaimed "Thought Leader" and "Digital Prophet" sounds rather
egomaniacal. I just assume anyone with titles like that is trying to sell
synergy and snake oil.

~~~
honestoHeminway
Cold-Fusion Acupuncturists & Proctologist

------
OliverJones
Bah. This is the English news org writing this. In the English-dominated age
of sailing ships, specialist sailors had all sorts of jargon-laden job
descriptions. So did weavers. The English thrived on high tech for centuries.
You'd think they'd embrace this kind of obscurity.

Just because some journo doesn't understand "scrum master" doesn't make it a
bad job title. (Whether scrum is a good way to do things is not a question
this journo raised.)

Now, let's talk about "Chief Experience Officer" and "Chief People Officer."
WTF? Title inflation, anybody?

In startups, the executives should aLL be "Chief Maintenance Officer" meaning
we'll clean the toilet when it needs it as well as raise money and convince
prospects to become customers.

------
lb1lf
Back before we were bought up by $Multinational_corp, my job title read
General Purpose Geek; after a couple of practical jokes in the office which
were attributed to me, my boss added 'and master of shenanigans' in the
employee database.

When we were being integrated in the company that bought us, some HR
apparatchik called me and asked whether geekery or shenanigans was my primary
role; compound titles didn't cut it.

They then realized based on my pay grade that I would be a senior engineer at
the very least, and my first business cards after the merger read 'Master of
advanced shenanigans'.

Then some sod spotted the title and adjusted it to the more corporate-sounding
advanced project engineer. Sigh.

------
motet_a
IMHO, even "developer" is a stupid job title which shoud be replaced by a more
descriptive one like "computer programmer" or "software engineer".

~~~
Agathos
Computer programmer is fine. Software engineer... I think the argument about
what qualifies you as a real engineer comes up every other day on HN.

~~~
cdegroot
I tend to stick with the (intent of the) law here. I'm not an engineer, not in
any jurisdiction I worked in.

------
k__
Recruiters also constantly write about how they are searching for "The best
...".

I mean, know many people who are better developers than me, so I'm certainly
not the best. I'm always thinking "Then why write me??"

Sometimes they are hiring for a global corp and I kinda can understand that
biggest players need the best people and also can pay the best people.

But when some recruiter comes and talks about how he searches the best talent
for a job in some no-name company, I can't help but chuckle.

I worked for a few startups and the hiring managers always said two things "I
need good people, but there aren't any on the marked!" and "I interviewed
someone who was really great, but too expensive."

------
mirekrusin
...patiently waiting for a job title with emoji.

~~~
dredmorbius
Would you prefer being chief :smile: officer, chief :frown: officer, or chief
of :tears: ?

~~~
Lanthanide
I'll take Chief :eggplant: Officer.

(Previously known as Chief Restructuring Officer)

------
martimarkov
I find it quite the offensive take on tech jobs.

Arguing that "scrum master" should have a more general name is one of the
stupidest things I've read. It's based on a methodology and has a specific
meaning. Asking 1000 random people what pi is might result in them defining
the food so we might as well change the name of either one. If you don't know
what scrum master is you should not be applying for it anyway.

There is no problem with tech job titles. If anything it's a solution. If you
don't want to work for a company as a ninja then the environment is probably
not the right fit.

------
dredmorbius
Oddly enough, a few things come into play:

1\. It's hard to describe what you do, to someone who doesn't understand what
you do.

2\. This isn't a new problem.

3\. There are actually _fewer_ official U.S. Census occupation codes today
(545 as of the 2000 census) than in 1920 (587). Much of _that_ explosion had
to do with railroads.

I did some research on this a few years back.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupat...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3832wx/occupation_classifications_growth_and_change_over/)

The Iron Horse gave us such classifications as:

* Baggagemen and freight agents

* Motormen

* Switchmen, flagmen, and yardmen

* Express, post, telegraph, and telephone, selected occupations

* Express messengers

* Inspectors

Or we could turn, as _The Conversation_ hails from Britain, to the UK Census
classifications of 1851, 1861, and 1871, for: joiner, beermaker, gamekeeper
(this sounds suspiciously SV, probably growth-hacking on the side), worsted
manufacturer (but no "bested manufacturer"), hose manufacturer ("laying
pipe..."), hawker, huckster, jockey, straw hat and bonnet maker (don't confuse
your boots and bonnets), protestant dissenting minister, ropermaker (in
cahoots with the hoseist, we surmise), staymaker (someone who stickifies the
gamekeepers gamified websites, obviously), currier (but no ives), wine and
spirit merchant (good, not evil, spirts, one hopes), boilermaker, Chelsea
pensioner, commercial traveller (ads delivery and reach?), and weaver not
otherwise described.

And, ah, yes, to the pedants, I'm aware of the original contexts of these
descriptions.

The point is that, _especially_ at times of dynamic change and specialisation,
new distinctions become important.

Overblown? In cases, yes. The value of jobs titles is both for _internal_ and
_external_ communications and comparison, as with most protocols.

"Astro" Teller, by the way, is the grandson of a gentleman who's known for a
few particularly bright points in mid-20th century history, of which there's
some residual glow.

Speaking of which, my favourite jobs title remains that from the 1880 U.S.
Census classification, #309, "Gentleman".

------
Jugurtha
> _Plonking the word ‘guru’ or ‘rockstar’ into a job description just confuses
> things, writes Sir Cary Cooper._

If that _Sir_ doesn't see the irony in that sentence..

------
muninn_
Yeah I cringe at a lot of the job titles I've been seeing, everything from
"chief innovation officer or chief resiliency officer" to "big data
consultant" (yes I know what this is I just don't like the buzzword) and it
drives me kinda batty. On the other hand, I've been seeing a couple of
companies employ people in "apprentice" and "journeyman" titles positions, and
I like those.

------
arethuza
My wife was an _advocate 's devil_ while training to go to the bar - the
advocates that trained her being her _devil masters_.

So who has silly titles?

~~~
watwut
Your wife is clear winner. I kind of like those titles.

------
mopoke
Maybe, just maybe, it's a reaction to all that's wrong with job titles -
[https://stackstreet.com/4-problems-with-job-
titles/](https://stackstreet.com/4-problems-with-job-titles/)

------
TazeTSchnitzel
If I am ever employed to manage a data centre, I want to be Cloud Master.

------
soneca
All of this discussion could be just a rant on a HN comment and that's it. Not
worth a serious article in my opinion.

