Need help - What should my future job title be?
I've spent the last couple of years in digital marketing agencies as I wanted to learn about how users get to sites (digital marketing, seo, ppc, affiliate marketing, banners, emails etc etc etc)
Now I want to move back into serious web design and I find I am having a hard time actually figuring out what somebody like me is called.
The reason why I want to find a job title is because I want to start applying for jobs at bigger sites like yahoo, msn, virgin media etc where I can really get involved and stay involved with the projects.
I want to come up with concepts models, user journeys and either design/develop myself or manage a team of designers and frontend developers with the option to get hands on.
Here are my learnings on job titles which has led me to write this post:
Digital/Interactive Art Director = ideas/concepts only and mainly related to marketing.
Digtal creative = Junior digital art director.
Web designer = Make concepts work effectively digital artworker.
Interactive designer = Flash designer who doesn't care about usability.
Design manager/ Head of digital design = digital trafficker.
Information designer - now this has been a mine field of anything from web designer to senior information architect.
I have been wondering with it is more of an Information Architect role I should look for but I don't want to let go of the responsibility of design/development.
what do I do? help!
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I had a similar problem recently - needed to come up with a new job title that conveyed everything I'm involved in, over and above basic web development.
Some of the more common terms used for web jobs include:
- Web developer
- Web publisher
- Web editor
- Web coordinator
- Web project officer
- Web architect
- Web content manager
- Web administrator
- Web services manager
But none of these really covered it all so I went for a combination (can't reveal what that is just now - not yet official).
Sounds like your interests lean towards user experience, so you could work that into a title? It's indicative of quite a broad remit.
James Coltham - Local gov web manager by day, web and accessibility blogger at lunchtime, freelancer by night. Tweets at @prettysimple.
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hmm user experience, sounds much like IA to me, I probably also need to rethink my portfolio which ofcourse focuses on the work i have done in the past most of which is design /development.
User Experience Designer perhaps?
Interactive User Experience Manager?
Digital User Experience Director?
hmm
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| fransgaard wrote: |
| I want to come up with concepts models, user journeys and either design/develop myself or manage a team of designers and frontend developers with the option to get hands on. |
| James wrote: |
| [*]Web architect |
Johan De Silva / Portfolio
Last edited by Johan007 on 17 Jun 2009 08:44 am; edited 2 times in total
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| Quote: |
| There is no such role like this in large companies because the bigger the company the more specialised your skills need to be. |
Yes, I believe you are right. I guess I need to sit down and figure out what direction I want to go from here, I must admit IA looks very interesting, but it would mean leaving design and development behind which I have done day in and day out for the last decade.... scary thought
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How about just "Web Consultant"?Accessify Forum Administrator ~ Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
"Everything I say is not meant to be set in stone" - Van Morrison
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oh no, not web consultant. Sounds like a sales guy.
I think I'll start up my own compnay/freelancing until I figure out excatly where to go from here. Thanks for your help guys
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| fransgaard wrote: |
| oh no, not web consultant. Sounds like a sales guy.
I think I'll start up my own compnay/freelancing until I figure out excatly where to go from here. Thanks for your help guys |
That's what I did, haven't had a job title for years. Maybe there is no job title that fits what you do, as it covers such a wide area of skills. Which is why I suggested web consultant, as it needs to be a word that is not specific to any one area of web work. "Web Guy" would be another one! None of them sounds right that I can think of, with consultant being the best of a bad bunch.
Personally I like "consultant" the best and it doesn't say anything about sales to me. To me, it says something like "experienced professional".
Accessify Forum Administrator ~ Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
"Everything I say is not meant to be set in stone" - Van Morrison
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| Quote: |
| t says something like "experienced professional". |
might be right, or "one-man digital army"... that has a nice ring to it
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| fransgaard wrote: |
| might be right, or "one-man digital army"... that has a nice ring to it |
Even better!
Accessify Forum Administrator ~ Nigel Peck / MIS Web Design
"Everything I say is not meant to be set in stone" - Van Morrison
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I did a lot of work in recruitement and you wouldnt believe the job titles people give to themsleves....
how about Online traffic manager and site enforcer lol!
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At my work, someone like you would be called an EA, "Experience Architect"
My offical title is Interface Developer, but when I say that nobody knows what I mean so I just say web designer. Although I dont design, I develop...
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In What I Do, I call myself a "Website Designer" with friends and family or a "Front-End Developer" with colleagues. They call me...all sorts of things which I can't mention here. 
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"Experience Architect" I thought that was just a fancy word for information architect
But yea maybe you're right
Robert Fransgaard -
Creative Director and Senior UX Consultant | User Experience and Rapid Design Visualisation team at Capgemini UK
www.fransgaard.com/blog
www.twitter.com/fransgaard
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| Linda wrote: |
| My offical title is Interface Developer, but when I say that nobody knows what I mean so I just say web designer. Although I dont design, I develop... |
Actually we are all Front End Developers here and some people like to also do Interface Design (Wireframes), some people Web design (Graphical Photoshop work) and some to program.
Johan De Silva / Portfolio
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