What's the most ridiculous job title at a startup?
I am not talking about jokes
28 comments
Any title that incorporates Ninja, Rockstar, Pirate, Guru, etc. Also Full Stack is so misused it's becoming a joke.
"Guru" really made my eyes rolled over. Now it's "Full Stack" I guess
Is full stack that bad? You're the third or fourth person I've seen complain about it in the last few days.
Unlike ninja, it actually is a descriptive term, is it not?
Unlike ninja, it actually is a descriptive term, is it not?
If you tell us what your stack is I suppose.
My personal best was "Release Messiah". To this day I still cringe.
This made my day. Thank you :)
Strangeberry had titles like Chief Hackberry, Chief Wiseberry, Chief Smartberry before Tivo bought them in 2004.
CEO. Any C-level title, really.
To me those titles imply a lot more structure than 3-5 employees who got enough venture capital to sustain business for about a year. Maybe I'm crazy, though.
To me those titles imply a lot more structure than 3-5 employees who got enough venture capital to sustain business for about a year. Maybe I'm crazy, though.
It gets you in the door with other businesses. That's why people call themselves CEO/CFO/etc. It's a designation of authority rather than qualification.
It also helps to establish some early rolls. Some with more expectations than others. We sat with one investor and they assumed that the CEO should be the one pitching for example.
Not to mention, if you are going to quit your job to build a company you don't get excited and call yourself a junior engineer. Or full stack guru.
Not to mention, if you are going to quit your job to build a company you don't get excited and call yourself a junior engineer. Or full stack guru.
An entire row of "directors", none of whom have more than six direct reports and no managers below them? Where I come from, those are called "leads".
"Happiness Hero" in the recent Buffer salary breakdown made me cringe. Customer service is an important role at a startup, but I couldn't tell another person that job title and not feel like a joke.
There's no way of knowing this, but I'd be willing to bet that it's deterred potential hires in the past.
There's no way of knowing this, but I'd be willing to bet that it's deterred potential hires in the past.
I seriously doubt the cheesy title has deterred anyone from applying. They pay somewhere in the region of over $65K for "customer support".
Probably 5-10 times more than what a service-person doing a very similar job in outsourced India earns.
Probably 5-10 times more than what a service-person doing a very similar job in outsourced India earns.
There is a local startup where literally every single employee from the CEO, to a developer, to someone in marketing has the same job title: brander. Imagine being a developer and having to put "brander" as your previous job title.
When I read GURU, I automatically add "scam" to it. It is biased of course, yet my past experience made me very wary of "gurus".
Everybody at the Nerdery is "co-president"
http://nerdery.com/copresident
...but it comes from a good place in memorandum of the tragic loss of one of the co-founders of the company.
http://nerdery.com/copresident
...but it comes from a good place in memorandum of the tragic loss of one of the co-founders of the company.
I recently moved to MN and came across the nerdery and the story behind it. It's pretty moving and doesn't deserve to be on this thread. Especially considering they have actual title and CEO goes with it.
I worked at a startup with a star-themed name that made an internal CRM called Astronomy. Then, they hired someone to manage it and their title was Astronomer, when it should have been something like Sales Associate.
Years ago, while working at a VC firm (in the office pool) my wife got to pick her own title. I convinced her briefly to go with business cards with the title: Floccinaucinihilipilificatrix
Web Spinner was one that a company I worked at used to label Web developers. Personally, I don't want the word "spinner" associated with me in any way, even if I was a DJ.
I actually saw "Scaling Sherpa" once. Clever, but lame.
Chief Innovation Officer always struck me as odd. Sort of says 1 person heads up innovation. Chief Techie
Startup titles should be jobs, not titles. Sales, Marketing, Development, QA.
Startup titles should be jobs, not titles. Sales, Marketing, Development, QA.
One company I knew had a "Director of Clever" and "Director of Delight" or something similar. They're out of business now. Nice guys though.
"Customer Happiness Hacker/Intern/Person".
It think title "brander" is the most ridiculous
Anything relating to culture. If you think you can control your company's culture from the top down, then you don't understand what culture is.
Under Secretary to the Sub-Committee on A/B Testing
this link might be relevant http://www.bullshitjob.com/title/
CEO 1 and CEO 2
"Evangelist". Nothing quite as pride-instilling as being compared to a preachy religious fanatic.
"Research Specialist" and all I'd do was to Google stuff.
COO, particularly if the company has fewer than 10 employees.
Perhaps Social Media Facilitator ?
Dream Manager. dead serious.
Chief Scientist
Founder