Overinflated Job Title or Complete Gibberish? Can You Tell The Difference?

• Overinflated job titles are often euphemisms for less-appealing jobs and an audacious means of attracting more candidates to a particular position.
• In some industries, gimmicky job titles have become the norm — leading to a culture of inflated titles across the board. 
• On the plus side, an overinflated title can be a beneficial marketing tool and a quick way to boost recruitment and retain talent.

Overinflated job titles are not novel, but they are making a conspicuous comeback. Back in 2017, a study from Business in the Community’s  Future Proof Campaign revealed that two-thirds (66%) of young people who appraised company vacancies did not understand the role they were applying for. Many of these misunderstandings arose from job titles based on technical “business speak.” The current trend, however, extends beyond business jargon to include gimmicky, often comical titles.

Meaningless and Misleading

Many overinflated job titles are meaningless and simply devised to make certain occupations sound a lot more prestigious than they are. In the current jobs market where competition for employees is fierce, it is not surprising that businesses are resorting to the use of “creative” techniques to attract candidates. 

However, there is a slightly more serious side to this practice in that sometimes a pretentious job title can be misleading. Business in the Community’s report on misleading job titles led to a social media campaign asking businesses to take action and encouraging young people to share examples of the most jargon-filled job advertisements they had noticed (using the hashtag JargonFreeJobs on Twitter).

When businesses advertise positions with overinflated titles, it can backfire ­if potential recruits are dissuaded from applying for a role they cannot fully understand.  This is often the case when a lot of technical jargon is used — for example, a Customer Experience Enhancement Consultant. At first glance, one might consider this job title to be a position for someone with a great deal of experience (consultant) in understanding customer behavior (Experience Enhancement). It could even be directed toward someone with experience in marketing or even organizational psychology. It is, in fact, a title that was used to attract a shop assistant.

Allwork.Space explored the current trend for overinflated titles and decided it would be fun to generate some of our own gimmicky job titles using a nonsense word generator. See if you can differentiate between fake titles and those that genuinely exist in the labor market (the answers can be found at the end of this article):

1. Electromagnetic Wrangler Extraordinaire
2. Senior Expartention Officer  
3. Vice-President of Retric  
4. Paranoid-in-Chief
5. Head of Odation  
6. Chief Configuator
7. King of Signals
8. Ralidaction Manager 
9. Director of Kerning
10. Software Ninjaneer

Further examples of overinflated titles

There are dozens of gimmicky, jargon-filled titles — here are just a few of those that stood out:

Customer Happiness Officer: This title sounds like the person is responsible for ensuring customer satisfaction, but in reality, they may only be responsible for answering customer inquiries or complaints.

Director of First Impressions: It sounds like a high-level executive position, but it is often used as a euphemism for a receptionist or administrative assistant.

Growth Hacker: This title is often used in the tech industry and implies someone responsible for driving rapid growth, but it can actually refer to an employee who is focused on marketing and customer acquisition.

Brand Evangelist: This title gives the impression of a promotional role (brand promotion), but it can refer to someone responsible for social media management and other promotional activities.

Rockstar/Ninja/Guru: Often used in the tech industry to describe someone exceptionally skilled, but sounds gimmicky and rather unprofessional. 

*Answers to titles quiz: Job titles 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 are all fake — generated using a nonsense word generator. Job titles 1, 4, 7, 9, and 10 are genuine and relate to positions currently occupied:

Electromagnetic Wrangler Extraordinaire — An IT professional; Paranoid-in-Chief — Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo; King of Signals — A general IT operator; Director of Kerning — a graphic designer; Software Ninjaneer — a software developer.