On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 10:20:25PM -0500, Jorge Amodio said:
I'd say that probably around here for those like me that have been in operations/engineering management positions we don't give a squat about what title your biz card says you have, your actions and performance speak by themselves.
There are no kings around here so titles most of the time are worthless.
By asking what title may impress others is sort of a -1 to start.
But you are wrong. Titles do speak and impress just not how you might expect. Having a 'jokey' title signifies to other equally free-to-operate-within-the-org people that you have the necessary freedom to act outside the standard procedures when required. If you get away with "chief evangelist" (as Mike Shaver had for a while at mozilla), not to mention his other card which was "international incident" (possibly referring to a crypto export situation?), you obviously have some independent (freedom from?) authority and autonomy. I managed to have Grizzled Internet Prospector on my card for a while at my previous firm. It was as accurate as anything else I could put and indicated to my peers that I was actually, well, an owner, eschewing a stuffy "CEO" or "COO" title. (I had other sub companies with stuffy titles on them in case someone outside the clued area needed to be placated.) Another friend had "minister of fear" as his title at a network security firm. At an exodus sponsored event which featured both Sun's XML accelerator platform (?) and Bruce Schneier (the main attraction), he was originally banned due to his joke title. The local industry slapped back through the clued peoples' oldboys-n-girls network, and they backpedalled and he was admitted at the last minute. It bit the exodus event organizer in the ass hard, and had her eating crow for him in front of 30 of his peers at the event, and handing over a free signed copy of Schneier's book. He really gained notoriety and street cred from the situation, as silly as it was. Besting the established order is worth something in most circles, still. (Google anyone?) She obviously didnt understand the new business rules in effect: the jokey title signified that titles didnt matter, reputation and ability did. Being able to have a joke title indicates you dont need a real one. And so they're important in a reverse-psychology kind of way :) /kc (grizzled tube plumber)
Cheers Jorge
On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 10:14 PM, Steve Bertrand <steve@ibctech.ca> wrote:
Hi all,
This is perhaps a rather silly question, but one that I'd like to have answered.
I'm young in the game, and over the years I've imagined numerous job titles that should go on my business card. They went from cool, to high-priority, to plain unimaginable.
Now, after 10 years, I reflect back on what I've done, and what I do now. To me, if a business is loose-knit with no clear job descriptions or titles (ie. too small to have CXO etc), I feel that a business card should reflect what one feels is the primary job responsibility, or what they do the most (or love the most).
For instance, I like to present myself as a 'network engineer'. I have never taken formal education, don't hold any certifications (well, since 2001), and can't necessarily prove my worth.
How does the ops community feel about using this designation? Is it intrusive or offensive to those who hold real engineering degrees? I'm content with 'network manager', given that I still do perform (in my sleep) numerous system tasks and have to sometimes deal with front-line helpdesk stuff.
Instead of acting like I'm trying to sell myself out, I'll leave out what I actually do and ask those who sig themselves with 'network engineer' what they do day-to-day to acquire that title, and if they feel comfortable with having it.
Steve
-- Ken Chase - ken@heavycomputing.ca - +1 416 897 6284 - Toronto CANADA Heavy Computing - Clued bandwidth, colocation and managed linux VPS @151 Front St. W.