Another "Give me a Title" thread
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IT Specialist isn't that bad. Although IT Generalist would be dramatically more accurate. But for some reason, Specialist is often the term for Generalists in IT settings.
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We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
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@hobbit666 said:
We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
lmao I'm not sure how titles are viewed in the UK, but I would aim for something with Admin rather than Specialist/Technician/Generalist. You are doing the work of both, but having a SysAdmin title will look better on a CV than a Specialist in my opinion.
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@hobbit666 said:
We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
lmao Those don't apply from the description. Those are very specific titles and everyone is doing work far outside of the scope of those titles.
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@Kelly said:
@hobbit666 said:
We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
lmao I'm not sure how titles are viewed in the UK, but I would aim for something with Admin rather than Specialist/Technician/Generalist. You are doing the work of both, but having a SysAdmin title will look better on a CV than a Specialist in my opinion.
Better if your goal is to get a different job as a system admin AND they don't get upset that you had a false title for your last job or don't catch on. But if your goal is to stay on the generalist path, a specialist title doesn’t really help.
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Throw "Senior" somewhere in the title or a higher number like IT Specialist 2 to show some seniority. Always looks good on a resume.
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@quicky2g said:
Throw "Senior" somewhere in the title or a higher number like IT Specialist 2 to show some seniority. Always looks good on a resume.
I always feel like numbers make them look lower. I'm used to five level scales. So 2 is like junior, 1 is entry level or intern, 3 is mid, 4 is senior, etc. Number seem REALLY weird to have on a CV as they mean nothing specific.
Senior is good. Or lead. Or principal.
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The problem with numbers is that usually only entry level positions have numbers. Like helpdesk going from "0" to "3" but once you hit a generalist job or admin or engineer I've never seen those numbers used, ever. So if I see a number, no matter how high it is, I always assume entry level. Sure a 3 might mean you are "nearly ready to graduate to a midlevel job, but the assumption is that you are just in a range within the entry level position.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@quicky2g said:
Throw "Senior" somewhere in the title or a higher number like IT Specialist 2 to show some seniority. Always looks good on a resume.
I always feel like numbers make them look lower. I'm used to five level scales. So 2 is like junior, 1 is entry level or intern, 3 is mid, 4 is senior, etc. Number seem REALLY weird to have on a CV as they mean nothing specific.
Senior is good. Or lead. Or principal.
I haven't heard of too many places with five level scales. We have engineer 1 & 2 then architect. I think Dice lists out 3 or 4 levels but never seen 5.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@hobbit666 said:
We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
lmao I'm not sure how titles are viewed in the UK, but I would aim for something with Admin rather than Specialist/Technician/Generalist. You are doing the work of both, but having a SysAdmin title will look better on a CV than a Specialist in my opinion.
Better if your goal is to get a different job as a system admin AND they don't get upset that you had a false title for your last job or don't catch on. But if your goal is to stay on the generalist path, a specialist title doesn’t really help.
I'm not sure how that is a false title. Some of his tasks are Systems Administration level tasks.
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@quicky2g said:
I haven't heard of too many places with five level scales. We have engineer 1 & 2 then architect. I think Dice lists out 3 or 4 levels but never seen 5.
Dice doesn't tend to hire higher end jobs, which would explain that
I was at CitiGroup. We used a five point scale. But no one called them numbers, we weren't entry level. It was Junior, Standard, Senior, Lead and Specialist and then Chief. They would match 1 - 5. We had 0 level interns too. So actually a six point scale. Only the 0 was sub six figures. Juniors started around $105K a decade ago. Only two Level 5s in any department and only the Admin department could get to five, engineering topped out at 4 since they never had the business critical needs of the admin department.
Only one 4 per department. 5s were shared globally so only two needed (one Solaris, one Linux.) 3s were common, 2s were everywhere, nearly every 3 had a 1 to support them.
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@Kelly said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
@hobbit666 said:
We were looking at System/Network Admins, but yeah I do like the IT Specialist as it's says we are good at all of it
lmao I'm not sure how titles are viewed in the UK, but I would aim for something with Admin rather than Specialist/Technician/Generalist. You are doing the work of both, but having a SysAdmin title will look better on a CV than a Specialist in my opinion.
Better if your goal is to get a different job as a system admin AND they don't get upset that you had a false title for your last job or don't catch on. But if your goal is to stay on the generalist path, a specialist title doesn’t really help.
I'm not sure how that is a false title. Some of his tasks are Systems Administration level tasks.
Because ONLY some of his tasks are. A system admin is a full time title. Generalist titles are for mixed duties where nothing is 90%+ of your time.
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Just like if you work in an auto shop and 50% of the time you are a gopher, 20% a secretary, 10% work the front cashier and 20% fix cars, you can't put your title as "Mechanic." But you can say that you have worked as a mechanic.
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This is SMB. An IT department of 4. You never have a full time Sys/Net Admin in those kinds of places unless you're an MSP.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Just like if you work in an auto shop and 50% of the time you are a gopher, 20% a secretary, 10% work the front cashier and 20% fix cars, you can't put your title as "Mechanic." But you can say that you have worked as a mechanic.
This isn't a very good example. Those are four entirely unrelated professions, not a gradation of tasks within a single profession.
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@Kelly said:
This is SMB. An IT department of 4. You never have a full time Sys/Net Admin in those kinds of places unless you're an MSP.
Right, so don't use the titles from the enterprise that are very specific to job duties when they don't apply. Use SMB titles instead. That's my whole point. You never get either of those titles in an SMB.
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@Kelly said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Just like if you work in an auto shop and 50% of the time you are a gopher, 20% a secretary, 10% work the front cashier and 20% fix cars, you can't put your title as "Mechanic." But you can say that you have worked as a mechanic.
This isn't a very good example. Those are four entirely unrelated professions, not a gradation of tasks within a single profession.
It's a very good example because system, network, admin and engineer are NOT graduated levels within one profession either. They are very different tasks and/or task types.
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A systems person: works on operating systems, specifically servers. Specialties within systems would be Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, etc.
A network person: works on networking gear like routings and switches. Specialties within networking would be Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, etc.
An admin: runs operational systems. They manage the live running systems. They are focused on availability and need an operational mindset.
An engineer: designs and builds systems for operations. They don't manage running systems but provide them to admins. They are focused on productivity and need a design mindset.
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@scottalanmiller said:
A systems person: works on operating systems, specifically servers. Specialties within systems would be Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, FreeBSD, etc.
A network person: works on networking gear like routings and switches. Specialties within networking would be Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, etc.
An admin: runs operational systems. They manage the live running systems. They are focused on availability and need an operational mindset.
An engineer: designs and builds systems for operations. They don't manage running systems but provide them to admins. They are focused on productivity and need a design mindset.
Unless you work for a consulting company like I do and they give you a big title and make you do a bunch of everything lol.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Kelly said:
This is SMB. An IT department of 4. You never have a full time Sys/Net Admin in those kinds of places unless you're an MSP.
Right, so don't use the titles from the enterprise that are very specific to job duties when they don't apply. Use SMB titles instead. That's my whole point. You never get either of those titles in an SMB.
You have very narrow and specific definitions of words that don't always reflect a working reality. You are technically correct, but functionally wrong. I'm not sure we can work through this on a forum.
