As recruiters face more and more competition when it comes to hiring the best candidates, companies are resorting to desperate, and sometimes very interesting, measures to attract the attention of job-seekers. Creative, and in some cases, wacky job titles are being used to advertise open roles. Moreover, this practice is becoming increasingly popular. The most famous use of an innovative title is probably Apple’s ‘Genius’, which is code for ‘service technician’. While receptionists were once receptionists, they are now ‘Directors of First Impressions’, and those who used to be known as project managers are now sometimes known as ‘Project Meanies’. Some of the more zany titles include ‘Accounting Ninja’, ‘Storyteller’ and ‘Ethical Hacker’, whilst more commonplace creative titles include the increasingly popular Account Managers’ in place of salespeople.
Companies tend to choose playful job titles in the hope that they will appeal to fun, fresh and youthful talent. Writing for Forbes, Josh Linkner says, “…we’re in a creative economy, your people are your differentiation – if you want them to think outside the box, why should they have an “in the box” title?”
Ed Nathanson, founder of Red Pill Talent agrees, commenting: “I believe there’s a real need to be creative and ‘stand out from the pack’ in today’s hiring climate. If handled correctly, the external message these kinds of titles and job descriptions sends will be meaningful to the entire broader audience interested in your company, signalling that your organisation is different from the norm.”
As well as having the potential to improve company branding, it also gives firms the opportunity to present their company’s culture in a way that is representative but also inventive and original. The method could improve employee engagement by reigniting the passion of existing workers and possibly encouraging people to follow this lead and be more creative.
Despite this being a popular phenomenon among big companies like Ebay and AOL, there can be drawbacks for the employees. Having a title like ‘Programming Wizard’, ‘Reception Rockstar’ or ‘Master of Disaster’ could result in recruiters taking you less seriously than someone who has a traditional job title. Whether it is liked or disliked by the recruiter really depends on their preference and humour – and in cases where such creativity goes unappreciated, it could damage your job prospects. “The silliest I ever saw was Chief Playtime Officer,” says Alan Guinn, CEO of the Guinn Consultancy Group. “I’m sorry, but if you have a business that you want to be taken seriously, you don’t hire someone as a Chief Playtime Officer for $100K a year. It sounds like a kindergarten monitor.”
There is also the danger that the job title is unclear and leaves hiring managers guessing what the role involves. ‘Ambassador of Buzz’, ‘Light Bender’, ‘Twisted Brother’ or ‘Unicorn’ are cases in point. Recruiters have lots of applications to get through, which means they have a limited amount of time to spend on each one. The best applications are those that exploit this opportunity by ensuring their CVs are unambiguous, well-defined and comprehensible.
Crucially, today’s computerised method of recruitment does not necessarily allow for creative job titles. Heather Huhman, founder of Come Recommended explains, “Applicant Tracking Systems are automatic sorters used by many large companies—and more and more so, even SMBs—that pick out keywords, including position titles, in resumes. The systems look for keywords that correspond with the open position. So, if your resume doesn’t have the applicable keywords—which likely won’t include ‘Word Herder’ or ‘Sales Ninja’—the system will discard the resume, and it’ll never be read by a human.”
Clearly there are advantages and disadvantages to being creative with position titles, and one should understand that being innovative in this case is a potentially risky move. There are reasons why tradition tends to last, and using traditional job titles is a convention that is widely followed because for many it works. Nevertheless, times and perceptions do change, and there is a case for more creative job titles in certain situations.
Here are some more interesting job titles used by real companies today:
• Chief Troublemaker
• Master Handshaker
• Chief Fun Officer
• Happiness Advocate
• Customer Connection Technician
• Social Media Trailblazer
• Customer Engagement Ninja
• Chief Cheerleader
• Chief Celebrations Officer
