Remember when it was a big deal...?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

When you used to want to be referred to as your job title, with "senior" or "chief" or "lead" stuck in front of it? How that for some reason made a difference? Sometimes there was even a promotion to a "senior" whatever you were, and that was a BIG deal...

I was just watching some CNBC (hey, ya gotta get your humor somewhere) and was noticing that everyone is a "senior <something or other>", which reminds me of the Daily Shows routine of making everyone a 'senior' something.

I was just thinking, if I went back to work (ACK!), I couldnt care less if I was a senior anything. Business cards could just say "Wagemonkey".

 

[mickeyd]

Thanks so much for your update.

Sincerely,

mickeyd
Chief Senior Lead poster

 

[maddythebeagle]

I guess that it is better than being an "advanced senior" or is that a curmudgeon.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

sorry, never fell for it. never bowed to that ego trip. not at work or in real life either. didn't matter if it was the so-called(-by-others) "president" of the company. it's first name only. i call my gp, allergist & dds by their first names. loved the initial reaction. i tried to call my mom by her first name when i was a kid. but she put me back into place by calling me sonny whenever i did. she's been mom ever since.

 

[Nords]

A senior never remembers the difference in rank, and a junior never forgets it.

It got old real fast.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

The only reason I wanted to be a senior tech was for the raise. Call me whatever you want; just pay me more.

 

[Martha]

When I became president of our firm, a couple staff members gave me a crown and a magic wand. I kinda liked that. Still try to use the magic wand, but it doesn't seem to work.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

As long as they didnt take you to the throne...

Regarding that magic wand, I was wondering why my car kept levitating in the driveway. Cut it out.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

In 1991, then Hughes Corp was recruiting me and I turned the job down because I wanted to be called; "Senior Scientist".  The next step up was Chief Scientist and there was only one of them per division.

Money was great but I wanted "Senior".

Later my own company changed all of us to Project Engineer and you got Level 69 or some such.  BUMMER>

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Martha,
your posts are magic, so maybe it just works in mysterious ways.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats done it.

Hey OAP, keep your magic wand away from the lady. She has a home vasectomy kit.

 

[justin]

My official title is "Engineering Intern". Real spiffy. The title unquestionably inspires tons of confidence in clients when I email them and my signature line proudly announces that I'm just an intern... Maybe one day if I work really hard I'll become a Chief Engineering Intern or Senior Engineering Intern. I wonder if those new titles will come with a raise?

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the best most could do in my old company was become a this or that sort of specialist at this or that level. didn't matter much. salary & benefits didn't go as much by junior/senior, as by seniority. so you might think you're my boss, but i'm paid better, i work less, and i've got two weeks more vacation time than you. you'd like this done when?

 

[justin]

My wife is a Senior Operations Analyst at megacorp investment bank. The only thing "senior" about her position is that is pays $6000/yr more than the regular operations analysts. Of course, this is the kind of firm where a couple of her coworkers are Assistant Vice Presidents : . I'm guessing somewhere around 15% of the company consists of Assistant Vice Presidents. I believe "Assistant Vice President" means "you're salaried now, we don't pay you for overtime any longer, bitch, but your ass still belongs to us 24/7".

 

[HFWR]

Master bater...

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i could have gotten another $6k if i was willing to give up sandbox cottage, my home in south florida, which was appreciating at about 30% a day (it seemed) and then move so they could take atlanta city taxes out of that extra $6k & out of my then current salary. for a while there seemed like the house was making more than i was. so i figured i should stay. i have renamed it senior sandbox cottage.

 

[Jane_Doe]

I was on the phone today with a woman who let me know her title was "Finance Director", and also that if I couldn't get up with her, I could speak with so and so who is the Deputy Finance Director! Hard not to laugh! :

Who thinks these things up? I wonder if the Deputy carries a gun (with a bullet in her top pocket like Barney Fife?!) ........

Have a good day ......

Jane
(Still in the working world)

 

[Jane_Doe]

Oh, forgot to add this.........


Back when I worked for "other" people (self-employed for 20 plus years now) there was a business owner I worked with who would sign his IRS forms, etc. with the title of "King" --- I always liked that and have given the moniker to my DH at times! Sometimes we sit around and think up job titles - it's pretty funny since we do everything - janitors to CEO to whatever comes up next.

Jane

 

[Sheryl]

Through Rotary I've meet some guys from Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley... they are ALL Vice Presidents! I think that title must be the bottom rung of the F. A. ladder.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yep, everyone in a bank or financial institution is a vice president.

I was pretty impressed with my cold calling skills in my first sales job when I called on my first bank. Hit a VP right off the bat and got him to agree to see me. That lasted until I called my boss and told him I'd hooked a VP so maybe I should bring him (aka "my dad") with me on the call. He said "when you get to your third guy with the word "Chief" in front of his title, call me again".

 

[laurence]

Read this thread, then got an email from a coworker buddy of mine. He fixes the President's laptop and gets netmeeting running for conference calls, programs the blackberry that type of thing, BTW, this is the business unit president, not the company president - my work is really bad about titles. Saw his new signature at the bottom - "Sr. Management Systems Analyst"! Too funny!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

All y'all are going to laugh every time you see someone stick that "Sr." in there.

I smirked every time CNBC stuck another talking head on the tube. Every one of them was a "Senior" something.

Later when I watch the daily show and they have a piece on turkish prisons, I'll get to see "Sr. Turkish Prison Analyst"...and its going to be old and busted...

 

[chrisdut]

Justin:
A couple of our younger guys started using the suffix E.I.T. after their name. Clients would find out that it meant engineer-in-training and get pissed at me since we would invoice them "for some kid to learn on their job". I got sick and tired of explaining that our employee has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and passed an exam to earn this title. I finally told our guys to either stop using the title or I would forward the pissed off client to them to explain. So far they all have quit using the title. You would think our profession could come up with something less demeaning than "engineering intern" or "engineer-in-training".

 

[laurence]

Wow, the opposite problem from what most of us experience. That's like the misconception that an assistant professor at a university is some flunky.

 

[2B]

The whole engineering title game can get daunting. I work at a company with lots of engineers and no one has the word engineer in their title. If you are a PE you can list that "discretely" but you must also specify the state(s) you are licensed in.

Before this job, I was working for a government contractor and everyone was an engineer. This included a high school graduate, a biology major and several others I was sure never took a math class after 9th grade. I'm sure the "engineer" title was used to try to get a higher fee for our services.

One thing you can count on in Texas is that the use of "engineer" in your title or business name will get you scrutinized and hammered if you violate the Texas Engineering Practice Act.