Tech workers adopt invented marketing titles to brand their skills for employers
Evidence
“I’ve kind of self-branded myself as a digital anthropologist,” Ariel Waldman told me, “because a lot of what I do, and what I get paid to do, is [to] be actively involved in online interactions.” Waldman had worked in several different areas of the technology industry, and the term “digital anthropologist” captured well her job skills, giving her a distinctive but easily understood title with which to market herself to potential employers. Similarly, I met a man at a conference who called himself a “change agent,” which is similar to WordPress employee Marianne Masculino’s formal business title of “happiness engineer.” These terms use advertising and marketing terminology to describe aggressively a set of skills and tasks in a catchy and appealing way that is easily consumable by potential employers. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 467
Categorization
- CANDY: Titles like ‘happiness engineer’ and ‘change agent’ are perfect cocktail-party examples of self-branding language.
- DEFINE: Concrete examples operationalize the abstract self-branding concept for the field’s vocabulary.
- XREF: connects to: Self-branding lets workers claim aspirational job titles regardless of actual rank — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 468; Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 416; Self-branding treats the self as a salable commodity marketed to employers — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 418
Broader Connections
- Self-branding lets workers claim aspirational job titles regardless of actual rank
#expands(0.95) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 468 - Self-branding treats the self as a salable commodity marketed to employers
#expands(0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 418 - Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers
#corroborates(0.70) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 416