The Problem with Job Titles

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Many people take pride in their job titles, but this video challenges that idea. The speaker explains that job titles don’t always reflect a person’s real skills or value. In smaller or growing companies, titles are often made up or mean something only within that team. What truly matters, he says, are your actual abilities, what you contribute, and how well you fit in with your company’s culture.

Watch the video about the problem with job titles and why they shouldn’t matter.

Vocabulary Questions

  1. What does “boutique team” mean in the sentence, “Small kinds of boutique teams make up job titles that don’t make sense.”? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does “make up” mean in the sentence, “They would make up job titles; things that didn’t even make sense.”? Use it in a sentence.
  3. What does the term “bucketing” mean in the sentence, “I think job titles have become a naming scheme for bucketing.”? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you think job titles are important when applying for a new job? Why or why not?
  2. What do you think matters more, a person’s title or their actual skills?
  3. Have you ever had a job where your title didn’t match what you really did?
  4. How do job titles affect the way people see themselves or others at work?
  5. If you could create your own job title, what would it be and why?
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2 replies on “The Problem with Job Titles”

Discussions Q,s:

1. I think they are important because it means that workers’ rights are being defended collectively instead of individually, which obviously allows substantive bargaining power.

2. In my opinion, a specific kind of skill should be determined by the title although there must be some range of flexibility for selecting the most adequate.

3. Yes, I have. There’s a moment of indefinite duration, before being promoted, that you have already acquired the necessary skills for your new upgrading, but you are still working within a more basic category.

4. Job titles establish some kind of hierarchy out of the regular ranked system of authority. Different bucketing implies different responsibilities and different wages. In practical terms, this means that those who hold higher levels of responsibility need to exert some kind of management, whether officially recognized or not, over other workers.
Such incongruity between what’s officially established and its practical reality can trigger some tensions within job relationships.

5. My title would be called, MAU, meaning master of the universe. My job would be to kick the asses of some politicians and oligarchs of the world (and of the whole universe, if necessary).

Great job with your writing practice!

Take a look at some words you can better use:

There’s a moment of indefinite duration, before being promoted, that you have already acquired the necessary skills for your new upgrading, but you are still working within a more basic category.

It’s a moment of indefinite duration, before being promoted, where you have already acquired the necessary skills for your new role, but you are still working within your current position.

Until your next post.

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