Spiceworks Community Digest: Feeling entitled

Job titles in the IT world rarely capture the full spectrum of responsibilities, effort, and sheer resourcefulness required on a daily basis. Most professionals find themselves acting as everything from electricians to purchasing agents. The Spiceworks Community this reality by asking IT pros to create a truly fitting job title that goes beyond the official HR designation.

The reality of the IT professional

While titles like “System Administrator” and “IT Support Manager” sound neat on a resume, the community knows the reality involves wearing dozens of hats, often simultaneously.

• Ecrawf099: “Officially, it is ‘IT Support Manager.’ But like most of us here, if I were to include all of my duties, and any additional requests of me, the title would be too long to include in my email signature.”
• Chris Kelly: “My official title is ‘Software Developer & Reporting Analyst’. My actual role is both Software Developer and Do-Everything-IT-Admin (sysadmin, network, security, telephony, access control, cloud… et al.), and occasionally, handyman.”
• Bob_13: “I have a job title? I am not even sure what my official title is… I’m ‘IT, and the other duties as required’ but I do not know my current official title.”

What IT titles should actually be

The unofficial titles often highlight the core value IT provides: fixing the unfixable, making technology invisible, and managing the inevitable chaos.

• Aargau3: “The guy you call in because no one else knows how to fix it,” “Smarter than you,” and “Google Fu Master.”
• Ed Rubin: “My official title is System Administrator. My unofficial title is Lord High Fixer, except when I have to offboard people when I put on the Lord High Executioner hat.”
• theitguy107: “Our old office manager used to call the site collection administrators the ‘SharePoint King,’ so I think I’ll claim that as one of my titles!”

Titles are arbitrary most of the time

While titles are crucial for career progression, they’re really only truly important when looking for your next gig. However, the “unofficial” titles of IT are a true testament to the fact that modern IT requires a Swiss Army Knife of skills.

If you could legally change your title right now to reflect your actual skills, what would it be? Join the conversation on the Community!