What's in a name.

The BBC has a lengthy history of utilising staff like tissue paper. Presenters and reporters come and go with alarming regularity. In a very competitive industry it has long been the practice to employ freelances as a means to reducing costs. There will always be a hardcore of staff reporters and journalists, who form the backbone to any schedule; what particularly irks me is the glorious titles that now seem to be handed out like confetti. My understanding is that the role of Senior Political / Sports / Health / Education / Crime / Local Government Editor has always been a permanent position. We now appear to have a situation where everyone is a Senior Correspondent / Reporter / Analyst or Editor of something (strange how there don't appear to be any junior members on any of these teams, if teams is what they are). It would seem a new face emerges almost every week in each of these roles. Either these journalists have incredibly short careers or they must share the roles in rotation. I can't believe they can all reach burn out before they turn 30; being shipped off to some regional backwater from where they can supplement their income through ghost writing D-list celebrity memoirs.

Seeing so many job titles being banded about willy-nilly has prompted me to look at the company for which I work. We similarly are inundated with numerous Managers, Specialists, Analysts, Consultants, Assistants, Engineers, Professionals, Controllers, Co-ordinators, Designers, Technicians and Architects. I don't suppose we are any different from any other medium-sized company. There is ultimately a management hierarchy within the company but most of the 'Business Development Analysts' and 'Senior Implementation Consultants' are in reality fulfilling the same role. I am not sure where this curious desire to pigeon-hole people stems from but it seems a curiously outdated concept in an age where employees are required to wear a great many hats. Perhaps in an ideal world we could all focus on our chosen skills but necessity demands that we all undertake a variety of duties from time to time which often have very little in common with our designated role.

Whenever I have turned up at a customer site my arrival has usually been announced as “Is anyone expecting the IT man?”, “The Computer guy's in reception” or "That man's 'ere again to fix the computers". I have never met a customer who has gone into raptures because he has come to face to face with a 'Senior Network Telephony Design Consultant' instead of some plain old 'Engineer'.

Personally, I stick to the generic title of 'Network Engineer' which broadly outlines the work that I undertake, though occasionally I will, in conversation, describe my role as a 'Consultant' purely on the premise that a lot of people choose to lump anything related with IT under one umbrella and expect you to deal with every aspect of it. This is often the easiest way to explain that different companies may be responsible for providing differing services to customers, we may be supporting the network hardware while another company may deal with issues relating to the pcs and other office equipment. No matter how well-intentioned you may be as an individual it is important to be aware of the repercussions of stepping beyond your company's remit.

The public are a great leveller and basically we all are categorised generically, whether we be “IT guys”, “plumbers”, “doctors”, “gardeners”, “mechanics”, “policemen” or “journalists”. The bottom-line is “If your job title is too long to fit on your business card then you are either in the wrong job or you are taking yourself too seriously”.