SEO Rock Star? Dream Alchemist? Nick Williams looks at some ridiculous job titles.

The rise of the internet has meant that hundreds and thousands of people now have job roles that didn’t even exist a couple of decades ago. It’s weird to think about what people would be doing as jobs if the digital world didn’t exist. Before websites there were no web designers and before social media, there were no social media executives. 

Although most people can tell you what the role of an online marketing manager or a digital graphic designer involves, we have noticed over the past couple of years that people seem to be creating more and more digital roles, some of which the majority of people won’t even have heard of. For example, we have come across people with the words 'ninja', 'wizard', 'warrior', and even 'badass' in their job titles. Whilst it’s great that people are clearly passionate about their digital jobs, introduce yourself as a ‘creative wizard’ or a ‘conversation architect’ and you are going to leave people flummoxed as to what you actually do. 

Below we thought we would take a look at some of the weird and wacky digital roles that you probably didn’t even know existed.

Dream Alchemist

First up we have the weird and wonderful 'dream alchemist,' a creative type, who spends their days thinking up ideas for brands. No, unfortunately they don’t have the power to turn dreams into a reality as the job title suggests. We’ll speak in hushed tones as we don’t want to upset the ‘dream alchemists’ out there, but they are really just creative directors or lead designers with over-the-top job titles.

Digital Overlord

A digital overlord sounds like a character from World of WarCraft or one of those other online fantasy worlds doesn’t it? Unfortunately it’s not quite as exciting as that. A digital overlord is actually just a rather weird and wonderful name for a website manager. Whilst they have the power to change a website’s content and make it look rather fancy, they don’t actually have any magical powers – sorry to disappoint.

Director of Storytelling

This has to be one of the most amusing job titles we have come across. What exactly is a director of storytelling? Are they in charge of kids’ story time across the nation? No unfortunately that job role doesn’t exist. A director of storytelling is basically a marketing director. It is their job to ensure that a brand’s story and values are illustrated to customers in a way that will make them want to buy their products and services. It’s quite an important job really, not that the title ‘director of storytelling’ would have you believing so.

Social Media Producer

We’ve heard of record producers and film producers but now apparently we have social media producers too. A Social Media Producer is basically a fancy title for a Social Media Executive. It is their job to manage companies' Facebook and Twitter accounts, creating content and engaging with users. The content they create has to be shareable and of value to their target audience. They can’t just write any old gobbledegook on Twitter. 

Conversion Rate Optimiser

We don’t know about you, but to us, the title ‘Conversion Rate Optimiser’ makes it sound like the person is in charge of converting exchange rates at the optimal time. This is in fact completely wrong. It is the job of a conversion rate optimiser to make changes and tweaks to websites in order to convert customers. A conversion may be getting them to sign up to a newsletter or getting them to make a purchase from an ecommerce store. 

SEO Rock Star

Have you come across an individual with the word 'rock star' in their job title? Contrary to popular belief, it is nothing to do with music. A rock star is basically someone who is the very best at what they do. An SEO rock star, well that’s an SEO expert who clearly thinks they are the best at getting websites to rank higher on search engines. Whether they are in fact the best is of course debatable. A good SEO expert doesn’t need the word 'rock star' in their job title to make people want to work with them. They’ll have hard evidence of their skills and experience to do that.

Conclusion

So what is the point of these weird and wonderful digital job titles? Are they just a bit of fun or do people actually use them to land job roles and clients? The answer will depend on whom you ask. Some companies (most likely small start-ups that admire individuality) will love the uniqueness of seeing a wacky job title like 'SEO Ninja' on a CV, whereas others will simply have a quick laugh before popping it into the 'no' pile.

Whether you like creative digital role titles or not, there’s no denying that they certainly inject a little fun and lightheartedness into the workplace.

Nick Williams works for Acuity Training, who provide hands-on professional training from their two UK offices. Nick works as an assistant on a number of courses including the intermediate and advanced Excel training courses.