Spoiler alert. This post is not about story titles!

In the corporate world, I’ve never been someone who really focuses on a position title. Very often they seem meaningless – look at the banks for example, every third person seems to have a title which includes “Vice President.”

I was reminded of this as I scrolled through LinkedIn earlier this week (Yes, I admit it, but we’re into week three of shelter-in-place” and it’s far too early to begin happy hour). Anyway, as I scrolled down, I saw a post from an executive at a Fortune 500 company and his title was listed as Chief Experience Officer.

How do you get a job like that? In the accompanying picture, the executive looked to be at least ten years younger than I am. Does that make me better qualified because I have more life experience? What are the qualifications for a Chief Experience Officer? How do you get on that career track?

Similarly, I saw a separate post congratulating someone for being at a company for several years. The position was described as Chief Solutions Officer. I can almost get that one, but in reality aren’t all executives “Solutions Officers?” Whether it’s existing operational solutions, new business solutions, or strategic solutions.

Maybe as I said earlier, that because I’ve never really focused on job titles, I’ve missed a shift in the position-naming culture and the world has passed me by. Or maybe these corporations are ahead of us all and are re-positioning for the post-Covid world.

Or maybe I should stay away from LinkedIn!