The emergence of organic fruits, veggies and spirits has started a new bar trend. Bartenders are on the search for the freshest ingredients for their drink creations. And since bartenders are now combing farmer’s markets and specialty stores for absolutely perfect ingredients, there’s also a trend to change their job title to “bar chefs.” Versus the traditional term – bartender.
This got me thinking…how important are job titles? I can see both sides to this one:
Titles are important. I had a boss who said once you’re a director of ‘whatever’, you wear the executive label forever. The idea being, that title should help with future job opportunities. It sounds very superficial but I have to admit, once I became a director, certain things were just a given in my skill set. So that being said, will “bar chefs” take more pride in their work and maybe do a better job with the fancy new title? I wonder…
Titles aren’t important. It’s about the work. Customers don’t care what your job title is as long as you take care of them. Case in point, we only ask for a ‘supervisor’ when our needs aren’t being met. Otherwise, we really don’t seem to care who we’re dealing with. Will customers care if you are a bartender or a bar chef? Or do they just want the drink?
Seems to me that corporate job titles like Head of Magic might be eye-catching on a business card and a great conversation piece but they aren’t very practical and don’t help sell what you do. And don’t even get me started on people who have inflated Vice President titles and aren’t even close to doing VP level work.
I’m thinking job titles should be practical descriptors of the work a person does. What’s your take on this? What role does the job title play in organizational development? And how about recruiting? Let’s get some conversation started…
P.S. No worries…I’m not changing the blog to HR Bar Chef anytime in the near future…HA!
Image courtesy of isante_magazine.
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ReviewSNAP says
I think you hit the nail on the head on this one. Titles can be important for future jobs, but not for your current job. Another good point you made is that companies are starting to hand out VP titles like candy. A company I was at previously is a large company with about 60,000 employees worldwide and it almost seemed as if their goal was to have all 60,000 of those employees be a VP of some sort by 2010. Every quarter they would send out a company newsletter and announce the new VP’s and there would be about 50 new Associate VP’s, 20 VP’s and 5 Senior VP’s and the majority of those people definitely weren’t doing VP work whatsoever. Good post!
adowling says
My title is HR Administrator; I refer to myself as either a Generalist (fits my skill set) or the HR Ninja (because its far more fun).
I think job titles depend a lot on the compay you are working for and how large they are as well as the culture. I was called a HR Manager at my former place of employment but in reality I was just a Generalist; I didnt manage anyone.
Inflated job titles do make it hard to judge a resume by its cover. I think it requires those doing recruiting to dig a little deeper during conversations to determine if the person is actually VP, Director, or Manager material.
D-hr says
I just want a darn good drink and I don’t care who makes it. Personally, I think job titles can send the wrong message and can be misinterpreted so perhaps they should be as generic as possible. For example, Bar Chef to me would mean some person frying up burgers in a greasy corner grill area of a bar. A Bartender would be someone dishing up the alcoholic (or non as the case may be) beverages Besides working in HR I also have a part-time job as a hair dresser. Now cosmetology is an area with a wide array of titles. The meaning of the title usually depends on the type of salon and the market they want to attract. It all gets down to trends I think. What’s trendy at the time will be what some people may want to model their job titles after.
Mike Kohn says
I’m more inclined to agree with the “not important” side of it for the reason that you said – it’s about the work that you’re doing. I was promoted at one point from HR Coordinator to HR Representative – my boss (the HR Manager) and I are the only ones that actually knew what the difference between them were (which, for the record, was going from a non-exempt to an exempt position…but my level of responsibility remained exactly the same). And as a side note…lol @adowling – I want my company to adopt the title HR Ninja for me so I can officially call myself that!
If someone told me they were a “Bar Chef”, I would give them a blank look and ask for a clarification. I do understand that it adds a little bit of intrigue and can instill more pride in the same way that “Administrative Assistant” is much better than “Secretary” or “Clerk”, but if what someone calls himself or herself doesn’t actually explain what they do, then what’s the point in having it at all?
In my organization, we have problems with job titles and job roles. Your role is the function that you’re actually filling while the title refers to “VP” or “Shareholder” and there is nothing tying the two together. It makes things difficult for us sometimes, especially because employees don’t understand that these are two separate tracks to climb.
TheHRPrincess says
I think titles can be misleading…there’s no consistency! I know HR Managers at some companies who have much bigger jobs and manage more people than some HR Directors. I think fun titles are catchy, but maybe not always appropriate…depends on the business. I personally have never been big on titles.
I refer to myself as The HR Princess because many years ago I got a call from a corporate VP who asked me about the Plant GM I worked for, “Does he think that’s his little kingdom?!?” and I said, “Yes, he does, and i’m the HR Princess.” It certainly was well remembered. Those were the days of Camelot…LOL
Lance Haun says
I think titles are important for some external customers but it always goes back to what a person does and what makes sense. My guidance has always been to think about the duties and nail those down. With those duties in mind, think about a time when you’ve interacted as a customer or client with a person with similar duties.
I always think about all of the “VP’s” I’ve talked to at big consulting firms and how its meaning can be diluted by gradual title shifts in certain industries. That’s an obvious downside to this approach though I do still think it is the best.
Elias says
As a recruiter, I have to be careful of titles. It is too easy for recruiters to skip over someone’s resume for a programming job, for example, if the candidate’s title was “Software Development Manager”. Maybe they only managed one other developer, and were still very hands-on.
So when you apply for a job, it’s important to make sure your title doesn’t get you ruled out on the initial screening of your resume. Sometimes it is as easy as making your title “Software Development Manager / Software Developer”, in my last example.
hr bartender says
I think it’s really interesting to read everyone’s take on job titles and the need to fully understand what a person actually does. If titles have so little face value, I wonder if we could dispense with them completely. Hmmm…maybe another post in the works…