[124559] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Finding content in your job title
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Justin Horstman)
Fri Apr 2 12:26:02 2010
From: Justin Horstman <jhorstman@adknowledge.com>
To: Jimi Thompson <jimi.thompson@gmail.com>, Jorge Amodio
<jmamodio@gmail.com>, Jeroen van Aart <jeroen@mompl.net>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 11:25:12 -0500
In-Reply-To: <C7DB6745.67C2%jimi.thompson@gmail.com>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Jimi Thompson [mailto:jimi.thompson@gmail.com]=20
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2010 9:20 AM
To: Jorge Amodio; Jeroen van Aart
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Finding content in your job title
On 3/31/10 8:14 PM, "Jorge Amodio" <jmamodio@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I agree with the misuse of the term "Engineer" in IT. I think it=20
>> should only be used for the "official" protected title of civil=20
>> engineer. Which I believe is a very respectable job. Sad but true, in=20
>> IT too many people have some form of engineer in their job title but are=
almost totally clueless.
>=20
> [ X-Operational_Content =3D 0 ]
>=20
> Can't resist.
>=20
> When I read your message it brought back to my memory a nice guy that=20
> used to work for me eons ago, very clever, smart and hands-on, he had=20
> a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology.
>=20
> One day, we had some sort of outage and I found him in the "computer=20
> room" sitting in front of one of the racks with some routing gear, I=20
> still have that image in my memory he looked like he was doing some=20
> sort of group therapy with the routers, I couldn't resist and told him=20
> "Hey Joey, Freud won't help you, get your butt off of the chair and=20
> follow the default procedure, power cycle the damn beast".
>=20
> There were also several folks with various degrees in Physics, experts=20
> on blowing up stuff.
>=20
> Again, IMHO, in this field a title may help or may provide others a=20
> relative idea where you fit in a large organization, or help the HR=20
> folks know how much to put on your paycheck or what kind of=20
> benefits/perks go associated with that level, but I still believe that=20
> substance is more important.
>=20
> Regards
> Jorge
> COOK
> Chief Old Operations Knucklehead
>=20
>HAH! My self chosen job title is Chief Pest, Annoyer of Developers, and D=
estroyer of Misconceptions. All in all, it's fairly accurate. Among other=
things I manage a team of developers, I often have to disabuse management =
of some silly idea or other, and > frequently have to play gladfly to enabl=
e change. =20
When I call a company and ask for an accountant, I get the companies accoun=
tant, when I ask for an account manager, that's what I get. That's what tit=
les are, and that's why they are important. I know the type of person I nee=
d to talk to, but I don't know who it is I need to talk to. Its why standar=
dization in titles is good, when I go digging through my pile of business c=
ards looking for the Network Engineer/Architect at company X, I'll probably=
not notice a custom/weird title. It does not define you, it does not make =
you any less or more important, it does however answer the question of "Who=
is responsible for..." which I believe to be extremely valuable.
Then again, I might be weird.
~J
