Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.
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But anyways, I am not saying I want or should have a project manager title. So I'm not arguing for it. Just trying to understand the article, but is starting to look like Scott described a bit above.
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@Obsolesce said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
So you don't fully manage IT projects from start to finish according to that definition? I do that every day. Full planning and execution of IT related projects...
Planning and execution of the PROJECT, not the actual doing of it. No, none of us do that. It's rare, and unneeded. You are confusing the idea of doing the work, versus being a manager of the project process.
Example... building a new server.
The PM work of managing the project is like 60 seconds of work. The tech labour might be a day or two.
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There are two pieces with the PM thing...
- We don't do that many projects unless you are considering things like "resetting a password" to be a tiny little project.
- We don't spend any significant time managing the project versus doing the work of the project.
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I never understood why some have the engineer title. I guess times have changed but that used to mean one very specific thing and it had nothing to do with computers. Now programmers, network people, and just plain managers will have that title. It doesn't make any sense to me especially being so broad now.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
Planning and execution of the PROJECT, not the actual doing of it.
Ah, there it is. That's where the disconnect was. That's totally correct and I completely overlooked that.
So yeah, wtf is that person talking about then?
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@Obsolesce said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
Planning and execution of the PROJECT, not the actual doing of it.
Ah, there it is. That's where the disconnect was. That's totally correct and I completely overlooked that.
So yeah, wtf is that person talking about then?
LOL, yeah.
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@jmoore said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
I never understood why some have the engineer title. I guess times have changed but that used to mean one very specific thing and it had nothing to do with computers.
And that one specific thing is what? I bet you can't get people to agree - there was never just a single kind of engineer.
As someone with a traditional engineering background, I can tell you that it was never just one thing or very clear.
And while it predated computers (by millennia), it also predated arches, screws, and other basics that almost every traditional engineer uses today. Engineers work with and on what exists at the time, so even engineering in the classical sense would mean computers too if applied today. The term hasn't changed, the tools of the trade have.
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a person who is trained in or follows as a profession a branch of engineering is the bit that applies to what we are discussing.
Software and systems are two branches of engineering. Along with things like civil, chemical, ceramic, mechanical, electrical, computer, manufacturing, manufacturing systems, industrial, petroleum, and so forth.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
a person who is trained in or follows as a profession a branch of engineering is the bit that applies to what we are discussing.
Software and systems are two branches of engineering. Along with things like civil, chemical, ceramic, mechanical, electrical, computer, manufacturing, manufacturing systems, industrial, petroleum, and so forth.
We're all engineers while we drive a car, technically, according to #4.
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@Obsolesce said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
We're all engineers while we drive a car, technically, according to #4.
That's correct. But not the same kind of engineer
That's engineer like we say "train engineer".
In Spanish it is "conductor". Which we also use for trains. But can be applied to cars or BigWheels or whatever.
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@JaredBusch said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
BigWheels or whatever.
Child engineer.
Junior Engineer. -
@Obsolesce said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@JaredBusch said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
BigWheels or whatever.
Child engineer.
Be PC dude, they are called Juniors.
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@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@Obsolesce said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@JaredBusch said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
BigWheels or whatever.
Child engineer.
Be PC dude, they are called Juniors.
Fixed.
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And for the interns...
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I'm actually dealing with this right now. I was asked by my boss to come up with a better job title for myself since I am basically a system administrator, network administrator, server administrator, IT manager, among other things.
I think job titles are a good thing simply as a starting point descriptor of what a person's job role is. It shouldn't determine pay as much as all the line items that are listed in your actual job description. Of course, there are issues with a job title if you are someone with a ton of roles -- things that would be multiple roles at a bigger company, for example.
That said, I've landed on IT Administrator since it seems to encompass everything and sounds better than "IT Generalist".
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@dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
I'm actually dealing with this right now. I was asked by my boss to come up with a better job title for myself since I am basically a system administrator, network administrator, server administrator, IT manager, among other things.
I think job titles are a good thing simply as a starting point descriptor of what a person's job role is. It shouldn't determine pay as much as all the line items that are listed in your actual job description.
That said, I've landed on IT Administrator since it seems to encompass everything and sounds better than "IT Generalist".
Are you actually a manager? as in you have direct reports that you manage?
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@dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
That said, I've landed on IT Administrator since it seems to encompass everything and sounds better than "IT Generalist".
That's pretty good. It's generic but gets the point across. Generalist is linguistically better because, for example, you likely do some engineering somewhere, not exclusively administration (engineers build, administrators operate.) But it's so general that people get it.
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@Dashrender said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
@dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.:
I'm actually dealing with this right now. I was asked by my boss to come up with a better job title for myself since I am basically a system administrator, network administrator, server administrator, IT manager, among other things.
I think job titles are a good thing simply as a starting point descriptor of what a person's job role is. It shouldn't determine pay as much as all the line items that are listed in your actual job description.
That said, I've landed on IT Administrator since it seems to encompass everything and sounds better than "IT Generalist".
Are you actually a manager? as in you have direct reports that you manage?
What kind of reports are you referring to? I manage various things in IT, like some reports, vendors, some credit card statements & things..
