Making Your Job Look Difficult (So You Won’t Lose It)

In all my cherished years in and around the work force, I’ve learned that it’s getting more common to see individuals pretending that their jobs are much more difficult than they actually are. And yes, I’ve unfortunately been guilty of this one big time. We often get so wrapped up in reciting our job descriptions out of habit that we eventually transform them into glorious and challenging professions, when in fact they are usually not. We’re experts at explaining our jobs so elegantly and make our work sound like a finely tuned ballet requiring vast knowledge or rare skill sets. The truth is that most people who actually work difficult jobs are usually not taking time to rant about how complex the work is. Chances are that people who do have the extremely difficult jobs are the individuals who are actually working hard and not just talking about working hard. If you really think about the job you currently have, you’ll realize that many of the skills can be attained through basic training and experience (depending on how much you actually do). But on that note, I must say that I for one am I’m sick and tired of everyone telling me how difficult and important their jobs are. I can also live without the meaningless phrases peppered into career-related conversation, like “specialist”, “analyst”, “associate”, “specialist” or “database”. These words may sound good, but they don’t mean anything when you randomly throw them into a sentence, so save everyone the headache and tell them what it is you actually do.

Another facade we include in our work descriptions is the ever important job title itself. It seems like companies love pumping out phony job titles just to keep the management employed. My all time favorite is any work title that includes the word “analyst” at the end of it. You can add the phrase “analyst” to just about any job title and it will make it sound important or slightly legit.

“Oh look at me, I’m a “Business Systems Administrator Specialist Analyst“…..Now you must admit that sounds important!