As the employment market always changes, enriches with new vacancies and evolves, different companies tend to «play» with job titles and change them whatever they like. Choosing a career path, have you ever seen a position title of «Hacker-in-Residence»? Do you want to be a «Chief Troublemaker» or maybe you lean towards choosing the career of «Fashion Evangelist»? Yes, such vacancies exist. But what`s the point of it all? Why do firms alter the way a job is called? Let`s dug deeper into the subject of creative job titles and get all ducks in the row.
Fit in company`s culture
The culture a certain organization is a vital element to consider. This culture consists of various behavioral patterns, particular usage of wording, common choice of outfit and lots of other characteristics. For instance, in the steakhouse Davio`s you can deal with some banned words. Steve DiFillippo, CEO of this chain of steakhouses, considers the word «employee» to be a little outdated. Instead of it, he offers to utilize the term «inner guest». In such way, he influences the whole perception of a certain job and highlights the importance of each worker. One more example here is company GSOFT, where it`s prohibited to say «human resources». Therefore, you`ll have to use another wording, which is seen as less impersonal by the owners of this firm of Montreal, that is, «harmonizing collective action».
Moreover, the difference between job function and job title is being destroyed by giving the job position a novel name, make it sound in a new way. For example, when you`re working as a «marketing rockstar» you feel that all the work you do is valuable and deserves a star in the very title of your position. If your job is a shop assistant it`s not exciting. This wording only displays your function but depicts nothing of who you are and why you are a vital element of the whole company. On the other hand, when you`re a «retail jedi», you`re special, your work matters.
Attract top employees
One more reason organizations tend to change titles of job vacancies is in the desire of hiring managers to attract employee with a creative way of thinking. What`s that? Let`s say that you want to apply for a job of, IT specialist. So you browse the web, send your resume everywhere, spend hours on Indeed in order to find a great workplace. Afterwards, you get a message with invitation to interview, which says «IT ninja position open». When you reply to such email, a recruiting person understands that you`re smart and innovative, as you`ve got what the vacancy is about. You`ve used your creativity to describe yourself in the most promotive light to actually get the ninja job. Moreover, it makes you think about your role and understand what value you can add to the company with such an odd positioning.
Get involved in corporate branding
These days it`s a matter of a trend to use office language and corporate job titles in order to control and affect the image of the brand and, consequently, the representation of the whole organization. Such practice is a widespread activity among tech jobs, where the trend to change the understanding of certain work processes and role of a particular worker is rather conspicuous. For instance, we can refer to Apple corporation, where it`s forbidden to say «bug» or «crash», as the connotation of these terms is negative and leads to the decrease of the encouragement of workers to find solutions to the problem. Meantime, Apple`s employees are offered to say «not responding», which is an acceptable phrase, as it only states the current state of a certain task. A professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, Dan Cable, states that banning is a form of self-branding of the firm. It influences inner workers of the corporation and sends a message to the external audience.
Contrastingly, when you name a job that can be dangerous (like «Pneumatic device and machine optimizer», which stand for factory worker position) in a new way you may just see an exciting title, but get confused with the meaning of this position. As a brand consultant, Lisa Merriam states that the change of the jargon can lead to the cool titles of the jobs that don`t age.
Overall, it`s your personal choice what title to choose for your job, but one thing is for sure, - millennials will follow the latest fashion and older workers will stick to the established patterns.
