What's your title?

Fun thread!  So my current title is "Director of IT".  My responsibilities are split into thirds really:

• IT:  all general internal IT type things (like hardware management), Office 365 stuff, working with our IT vendors and so forth
• Website:  handle all technical questions, do some custom functionality work, serve as TNEW guru for all questions (though not the content editor) and working with our Website vendors and so forth
• Tessitura:  handle all technical questions, do a lot of custom functionality work, full SQL querying, procedure writing, updates, etc..., oversee the user group meetings and organization use of the software, troubleshoot issues with performance builds (though not building them myself) and so forth.

Basically, when it comes to the three areas above, I am the advisor and director of how it all works, but I do not build individual things myself.  I will help with a promo code issue, I do not build promo codes myself.  I will help with issues putting text and graphics on our custom website, but I am not the one building a new web page myself.  I do a little more hands on with the actual computer IT stuff because people always like to ask for help when "this is not working".

My duties have shifted a little over the years, but that is more or less what they have been for about the past 7 or 8 years.  In that time, my titles have been "Patron Services & Database Coordinator", "Business Intelligence Administrator", "Business Intelligence Manage" and now finally "Director of IT".  I have also been accused of being an "IT Genius" at times, and when I held the BIA title, I was told that I sounded like I had scary powers.  All the fun!

I assume all of us here are aware of this, but, since it occurred to me as I wrote this out, most importantly to this conversation, make sure your organization knows what it expects out of you, what you expect out of it, that the pay matches the expectations, and that your responsibilities are appropriately doable for the amount of time you expect to work in any given week.  There are different ways to lay out all of this stuff; two people with the same titles might have VERY different duties (one builds ALL the season's performance, the other never builds a single one), and none is the correct one.  But overworked gurus end up being just as useless in the end, and underpaid gurus start getting annoyed at those they are helping when it might not be their fault.  Constant communication with coworkers and superiors about all of this is incredibly helpful in maintaining a good working environment and work-life balance.  As someone who has undergone a number of internal reorganizations and has fought for and gotten some changes for himself, communication is key.  Do not try to complain in a negative fashion about how much work you have, but instead highlight just how much you are doing in a positive notion on all of your successes.  Then we will not care as much about our exact title but that we are doing great work.  But as titles can often be tied to pay and compensation studies, these are important things also not to forget.  Glad to see the participation and variety here!

John A. Moskal II

Fun thread!  So my current title is "Director of IT".  My responsibilities are split into thirds really:

• IT:  all general internal IT type things (like hardware management), Office 365 stuff, working with our IT vendors and so forth
• Website:  handle all technical questions, do some custom functionality work, serve as TNEW guru for all questions (though not the content editor) and working with our Website vendors and so forth
• Tessitura:  handle all technical questions, do a lot of custom functionality work, full SQL querying, procedure writing, updates, etc..., oversee the user group meetings and organization use of the software, troubleshoot issues with performance builds (though not building them myself) and so forth.

Basically, when it comes to the three areas above, I am the advisor and director of how it all works, but I do not build individual things myself.  I will help with a promo code issue, I do not build promo codes myself.  I will help with issues putting text and graphics on our custom website, but I am not the one building a new web page myself.  I do a little more hands on with the actual computer IT stuff because people always like to ask for help when "this is not working".

My duties have shifted a little over the years, but that is more or less what they have been for about the past 7 or 8 years.  In that time, my titles have been "Patron Services & Database Coordinator", "Business Intelligence Administrator", "Business Intelligence Manage" and now finally "Director of IT".  I have also been accused of being an "IT Genius" at times, and when I held the BIA title, I was told that I sounded like I had scary powers.  All the fun!

I assume all of us here are aware of this, but, since it occurred to me as I wrote this out, most importantly to this conversation, make sure your organization knows what it expects out of you, what you expect out of it, that the pay matches the expectations, and that your responsibilities are appropriately doable for the amount of time you expect to work in any given week.  There are different ways to lay out all of this stuff; two people with the same titles might have VERY different duties (one builds ALL the season's performance, the other never builds a single one), and none is the correct one.  But overworked gurus end up being just as useless in the end, and underpaid gurus start getting annoyed at those they are helping when it might not be their fault.  Constant communication with coworkers and superiors about all of this is incredibly helpful in maintaining a good working environment and work-life balance.  As someone who has undergone a number of internal reorganizations and has fought for and gotten some changes for himself, communication is key.  Do not try to complain in a negative fashion about how much work you have, but instead highlight just how much you are doing in a positive notion on all of your successes.  Then we will not care as much about our exact title but that we are doing great work.  But as titles can often be tied to pay and compensation studies, these are important things also not to forget.  Glad to see the participation and variety here!

John A. Moskal II

Thanks for this, John! You hit the nail on the head. The reason we're trying to change my title is to get my pay grade changed. I honestly don't really care what it is, but we're trying to get it to reflect the full scope of what I do so I can be compensated appropriately.