The newly created richest man, Elon Musk, has a new post that fits his wealth. Although his empire spans several industries, he relinquishes his CEO at only one of the companies and chooses the title “Technoking” from the electric car manufacturer Tesla.
To Musk, the duties of a Technoking do not look different from those of a traditional CEO, as the industrial billionaire will see that the previous task of his position remains intact, according to the Wall Street Journal. Tesla’s former chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, will also make a similar redundant leap and change its official name to Tesla’s Master of Coin. (His work is not expected to change).
Musk and Kirkhorn gave themselves stupid words because they are powerful men who call the shots, but apart from a few clickable headlines and laughter from Musk’s army of acolytes, the titles themselves mean nothing. And oddly enough, this is true of most job titles.
‘Technoking’ gives a small lesson to the rest of us, regardless of our occupation: job titles rarely, if ever, explain your work. Since you will not soon be waving a business card with some disrespectful, conversational title when talking to someone about your job or even conducting a job interview, it is better to emphasize what you are doing do.
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Titles do not mean the same thing in different organizations
Being a senior vice president of sales at a faceless corporation does not mean that your responsibilities will accurately reflect the duties of one SVP to another.
What you do to live is a fairly inevitable topic of conversation. If this is something you really want to talk about, you will need to go into detail and not just offer a three word answer like ‘I’m a lawyer’. Everyone has a vague idea of what a lawyer entails, but the real details of a career always differ from person to person, even if they have technically the same job on paper.
Be more imaginative in your explanations
Of course, you do not have to imitate as a pseudo LinkedIn influencer who spits out corporate jargon, but feel free to explain what you do with a little more color and panache. Because bhas many dull titles lie at least some kind of purpose. Of course, we work to pay the bills and keep our heads above water, but sometimes there is something worth sharing in the conversation that sets out the broader purpose of your work.
As Gene Marks wrote in Entrepreneur in 2018, job titles are basically meaningless and are commonly used to reinforce one’s ego:
What do you say when people ask you what you do? Are you a “small business owner?” An Entrepreneur? A “CEO?” Do not believe it. You are not one of those things. These are just titles that have been put together to make people feel more important. This is not what you really do.
Instead, consider going into more detail about what you are doing. You do not have to write a speech, but if you are an immigration lawyer, consider saying, “I help undocumented people consult legal resources so they can reunite with their families,” or if you are a computer programmer, you can say “I help build software that is the basis for popular programs and websites. Your title is implicit in the summary you present. Whether you are a senior web designer or not does not really make a difference to the person you are talking to.
Make a more interesting conversation
Failure to elaborate on what you are doing take the conversation dead end; or worse, you run the best risk of pushing yourself to the best and sound pretentious at worst. You are unlikely to use the title “Technoking” or the highest emperor of accounts payable soon time but luckily you have more to talk about outside of your title, anyway.