What's with our reliance on job titles?

When you talk about your job - whether you're talking to your friends or family, strangers at a Chamber of Commerce social gathering, or even a job interview - you don't tell people you're a Burger Flipper at Burgers R US or Head Honcho of the Business Development Division at Burgers R Us. The first thing you describe is what you do, not what your job title is.  Job titles are nothing more than a useless bit of information that means nothing except to the stranger who really doesn't care what else you have to say, but needs something to make judgments about you.

I know you'll say that's what we have job descriptions for - to further describe what the person does. That's fine and dandy until you (you acting in the role of a potential employer) realize what talent you might be overlooking because you don't have time to read those descriptions. Burger Flippers may not be qualified to take on the role of Head Honcho, but that doesn't mean they lack the education and/or real life experience to know what changes would increase sales for Burgers R Us. They may have ideas Head Honcho hasn't thought about.  And their experience, education, and ideas might qualify them for an entry level position in the Business Development Division if not the Head Honcho position.

Of course that brings the flip side of my argument. Head Honchos may never seek a job as Burger Flippers, but perhaps they should. Why? Taking on a job for a month as Burger Flipper would give them real life experience to take back to the  Business Development Division, ideas that would make Burgers R Us bigger, stronger, and more profitable.

Bottom line: we have job titles everyone reads and stereotypes, and we have job descriptions we understand on a generalized and biased level, but we don't bother to read on an individual level.  The result is we end up with overqualified people in some positions and underqualified people in other positions. 

Burger Flipper and Head Honcho have reached their peak at Burgers R Us and start looking for new jobs, perhaps even within the same company. This is where job titles hinder job seekers. Job titles hinder the entry level through middle level employees with more impact than your upper management and professional levels, but it's a hindrance that shouldn't be there regardless of the level.  Before either have entered the interview room, the interviewers already have formed their ideas what each can do and what their qualifications are. 

When the Burger Flipper or Head Honcho writes a résumé, signs up on a job board, or becomes a member of professional social media platforms like LinkedIn, the first thing the job seeker is asked to do is categorize his/her life's experience in neat little job titles. That job title is then used not to advance the individual's career, but to find a similar job the applicant is seeking to leave or grow beyond.

 

Potential talent wasted.

In this high tech world where we categorize as much as possible and then we willingly peruse the categories to make our hiring tasks easier, we have sacrificed valuable individuality for less-than-valuable conformity to expected labels. Burger Flippers, if they  work hard and apply themselves, may some day work their way up to shift manager. The Head Honchos, if they keep their nose to the grindstone, may work their way up to International Business Developer.

Funny thing is Head Honcho realizes the promotion brought on ten times the work pressure and headaches for one-and-a-half times the pay and the prestige of a new job title.  The Burger Flipper realizes the promotion to shift manager brought on ten times the work pressure and headaches for a nominal raise and prestige of a new job title.  Deep down, both know they didn't realize their full potential because everyone looked at their job title, not them as individuals.  There were other job titles they would've rather have taken their job skills, education level, and experience to, but every venue's insistence on relying on job titles to pigeon-hole them made a cross-career move highly unlikely, if not next to impossible, even within the same company.

I could complicate the debate further by introducing the concept of socioeconomic bias, but that might be for another argument.  In the meantime, I'd be happy if human resource departments, job boards, and professional social networks did away with job titles altogether.  That's not going to happen, but maybe someone smarter than I could morph those job titles into something more meaningful, a title less likely to be misused or subject to our own biases. 

As machines (robots and AI software) are poised to takeover a third or more of our workforce, maybe it's time to start looking at people as individuals and not as job titles.  It's a lot harder for machines to take over individuals than it is for them to takeover job titles.

TL;DR folks:

If you found this article too long to read, then job titles are a necessity for you. 

For your listening pleasure:
Being George Carlin, R-rated for language and sexual suggestion

Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks