Fake Titles...

I was recently going through my contact list on Linkedin ( My Profile )and was struck by the innane and fake titles that exist. This has nothing on individual people but just the fact that most industries are using titles which essentially tell you nothing. There must be atleast 20-25 permutations of 'Consultants', another 10 odd analysts, 5-6 associates and for a network comprising primarily of engineers only 2 senior software engineers and one Senior Java Developer - titles that tell you something about what the person actually does on a day to day basis rather than just a bunch of words strung together to sound good and important to boost someone's ego.

This reminds of a chat I had with AD 2-3 years back. We were discussing designations and she said that growing up she thought the stupidest designation was a General Manager - What does it say? So you do nothing specific rather you just manage and that too just, you know, generally?

Naive that I was I scoffed at this and thought that she didn't know what she was talking about and that GM was a BIG post. But now I look back and can't stop a smirk. Do I really want to 'generally, you know, manage'?

And oh yeah, I am an Assistant Manager. So I help in, you know, managing...