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Hey, I'm also a CEO!
I spotted a new trend recently around the South African interwebs when people write short bio's (of themselves, even). It's probably not that new but it's the first time that I really notice it.
In earlier times, people would have been very proud to call themselves "entrepreneurs"; these days, if you own your own company, you call yourself a "CEO". So what if you're the only person in the company and you don't actually manage anybody else than yourself...
Also, in previous years, if you were the person writing the software, you were just a "developer". You would have been very proud if the "CEO" introduces you as a "software engineer". These days, you have been "upgraded" to a "CTO", even though you might be the only person in the entire company that has the faintest idea of how anything technical works.
Technically speaking, due to the way I work, I'm registered with the tax office as a company, even though I've got no further employees. Does that now make me a CEO as well?
As a matter of fact, this also makes me the CTO as well as the CFO. Hey, the titles are heaping up! I must be one important mofo!!
It's like the maid that just became the domestic manageress.
Bling, bling! Pimping up the job titles, I say!
Copyright © 2004-2009 Charl van Niekerk. All articles are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 South Africa licence, unless where otherwise stated.
7 Comments
Comment by
Dave on Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:01:00 PM
Lol! I've noticed this trend as well. It's funny because although I employ some people I haven't changed my job title in years - Marketing Geek works well for me, and gives people a good idea of what I do.
Interestingly though, conference organizers tend not to like my "lowly" title and I often get asked if I wouldn't rather be called "Director" or something equivalent.
Besides that, CEO - Chief Executive Officer - denotes a militaristic, top-down leadership style, and a rigidly hierarchical organization structure, which is probably not true of most startups in our space. Methinks this is an impediment to clear communication.
Comment by
Charl van Niekerk on Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:08:00 PM
Yeah you hit the nail right on the spot! People that need to find big titles in order to sound important are just trying to hide their own issues. I don't really see them as confident and strong leaders.
Comment by
Joke van Niekerk on Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:34:00 PM
In the good old days the ranks of the people working for the government were determined by the size of their offices, tables and carpets. It was, therefore, very easy to see the seniority of who you were dealing with. The size of your office and quality of your furniture still seems to matter in many businesses. Working from home really gives us very big offices, a private kitchen, a private bathroom and even a private garage. Size of the carpet does not matter with wall-to-wall carpets. Wow, who needs a title under these circumstances!To top it all you can change roles during the day - when someone important phones you can be the CEO, when a creditor phones you can act as if you are the secretary whose boss is in a meeting, and when you're done with your day you can go and wash the dishes under your home manager's cap, just to keep you humble!
Comment by
Jacques Marneweck on Friday, May 23, 2008 8:45:00 PM
Chief Strategy Officer. Chief Executive Officer. Chief Financial Officer. Chief Scientist. Okay I sound like a Wimpy advert.
Another thing to remember is that people feel important when they have some larney title with their name. Got that title on your business card? On your office door? On your cubical wall?
Comment by
Charl van Niekerk on Saturday, May 24, 2008 1:23:00 PM
Exactly Jacques, exactly. And the funny thing is that it only fools stupid people. Smart people see right through it. :)
Comment by
FeistyFemale on Friday, June 13, 2008 1:42:00 PM
I am an "Ideas Magician" - essentially this means I do everything from sweeping floors, making coffee, doing admin, doing budgets, carrying boxes, networking, advertising, PR, crises management, product/campaign design right up to corporate strategy...
A title is just too limiting to describe all of that! Right?
Comment by
Charl van Niekerk on Friday, June 13, 2008 1:55:00 PM
LOL! My job as a "software engineer" also means I do a lot more than engineering software so I think that counts for a lot of us, but at least we do what we do without pretensions. :)
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