NAV Industry - Job Titles

JDVyska

I'm working on some business planning and thinking about Job Titles. I've had mostly boring sounding ones, like "Consultant", "Engineer" or the yawn-inspiring "Senior Software Engineer".

I was curious if there are folks out there who broke from the hum-drum with more unusual titles and how customers (and leads) reacted to them when handed a business card.

kapil4dynamics

U can be creative by using 'Solution Architect', 'System Analyst' etc. After all at the end of day job is gonna be same unless if u r not a dedicated PM or a Sales Person. As far as customer is concerned it depends on individual, some customers are quite aware of difference in all jazzy designations.

matttrax

I've always been a fan of "xxxx Architect". To me, at least, it promotes the idea that you are building / designing something from the ground up. Architects know many things...not just development, not just functionality, not just project management. They can do lots of things...know what to do and when to do it.

As was said, though, it's just a title. You can be a "Senion Dynamics NAV Solution Architect" all day every day, but if you can't understand a customer's needs then no title will change that.

DenSter

I used to be big on titles and having my title on my business card, because I used to think that this would make things clear for the customer. Then, as I saw people get promoted to these fancy titles, and I made it a point to remove the title from my business card.

I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this, but I always laugh when NAV people (or any software person for that matter) call themselves 'architect', I think it is probably the most ridiculous title in the NAV business. I am all for using building analogies in explaining the process, but to call software people 'architects' is taking that a bit too far in my opinion. In my opinion the title 'architect' should be a protected title, just like 'doctor'.

JDVyska

To be honest, I'm with some of the folks that prefer not to have a title on the card, email sig, or wherever. Titles generally fail to capture the real answer to "What do you do?" - if you have to explain your "Senior System Analyst" with an essay, it has failed as a title. But, having a card that says something like:

(Project Mgr:)
"Jeremy Vyska
I make your NAV project stay on track"

or

(Developer)
"Jeremy Vyska
I can make NAV do nearly anything you need through code"

That doesn't come across as really professional either.


But, on the other hand, I know that in our industry, we have folks who are great developers, but would not (or could not) handle a sales demo to save their life. Some folks are masters of implementation and project management, but code makes them go cross-eyed. So, how do you differentiate those roles to the client? "Customer facing" job titles could come in handy there.


I'm considering going with creative titles that verge on the line of "Clearer than 'System Implementor', but not as professional", and then having team bio's as both part of my website and press-sheets we hand to clients anyway, to give them a better idea of the experience of the team serving them. Thus, titles aren't as important, but just helpful reminders of what part of the team they are.


(One friend has cautioned me that creative may be nice while they're working for me, it might be difficult for people who leave to explain to their next employer. My reply to that was "Maybe, but in explaining, they'll talk themselves up in how they did their job, which makes for an easy jumping off point to talk from. Also, they may get people calling them to talk about the title on their resume just because they want to know more. Lastly, why should I consider repercussions if someone's leaving? They did do the work, regardless of what we call it.")