125. Conventional Titles


Recently, I was hanging out in the job market. It's a market I hadn't visited in 16 years. It looks and feels like a lot has changed!

One of the most interesting things is that people seem to be able to make up their own job titles with no repercussions: you can be a sensei, master, guru (basically anything Bruce Lee would have been called)  expert, commander, chief and many more!

I don't know exactly the amount of self esteem one needs to unironically and seriously call themselves something as superlative as a "thought leader", I only know it's at least twice as much as I currently have.

I actually don't have a problem with being called any of that, it's just that calling yourself those things seems a bit presumptuous. I've been called a guru before, but I would never, ever, call me that. In my profession, one of the biggest tenets is to "lead with humility". You quickly become an oxymoron if you title yourself a guru.

There's no problem with calling yourself quirky titles in your own job with your own people, either. I find that kind of cool and team building.

Words like "advocate" can be problematic to me as well. I don't feel I have the right to call myself a _____ advocate. Only who I'm advocating for should grant me that title. Then I can blush and wave them away half-heartedly while saying "oh, shucks".

If you disagree let me have it in the comments! Opinions are like hyperbolic job titles, everyone can have one.

Extra Panel:




If you don't know what a fizzgig is, you need to check out the Dark Crystal and the Netflix prequel. My wife and I are all growned up (on a very generous scale) and we loved every minute of it. Adam Samberg was a gift from the heavens in the prequel and Simon Pegg nailed his role.

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