Morality of Keeping Previous Job Titles

Dr. Decency

So I have a hypothetical situation I'd love to hear some opinions on from people here. Say you were working at a company in the games industry, and you were given a temporary title, say a temporary lead type title. Ok, so maybe you take this temporary title and run a little wild with it and put it in your signature at your favorite videogame themed forum, and you know, so what if you happened to forget to put the "temporary" part in there right?

So ok, you take that situation and then like...say you lose that title all together and get "demoted" back down to a regular artist...do you think it is morally objectionable to keep that...inflated...title that you no longer even hold?

Discuss.

MoP

I'd always go with what your ACTUAL current title is. Could be from anything as nebulous as "artist" to "lead environment artist" or whatever.

Anyway, why advertise your company and title on a forum? It's not like many people will care... and the ones who do, probably know who you work for already.

spacemonkey

learn your lesson, swallow your pride and post the truth.. it will only serve you better in the end.

Ferg

who cares? If I had a choice, my business cards would say "planet smasher" instead of "artist"

If someone did do that, and they were exposed publicly for committing signature fraud, I'd probably just roll my eyes. Sounds like something "some people" would do... honestly though if you're not a hack this shouldn't even be an issue, and if you are a hack, most people will be able to tell by your artwork, and your official "title" wouldn't matter much then anyhow.

Gav

No kidding. I think this title thing is pretty relative anyway...and in some cases arbitrary. For a chunk of my career I was the only artist in the entire company. I guess effectively that made me a lead artist...or even THE art team. That was for lower end games though, I don't call myself "Lead" now because I nowhere near that level. In my opinion though, if you're "that" wrapped up about a title, or are that concerned about what people on Polycount think of your place in a company, you probably shouldn't be put in a lead position anyways. Anyways, yeah, what Mr.SpaceVonMonkey said...go with the truth. If you're concerned about your online reputation, let your folio speak for you.

WORD
Gav

Edit> My business card - Gavin Goulden - Potential Lunch Winner

Tully

I would tend to change the signature altogether to something incredibly amusing that doesn't happen to include any title for a while. Then you could put it back with your actual title later and maybe nobody will have noticed. That way you can just say you decided to change it without dishonesty or arousing suspicions of demotion.

In any case, I wouldn't keep the false title there. What if somebody were interested in your art, looked into your situation and found it wasn't quite true? That'd *really* suck.

greenj2

I'd ditch it, particularly if you planned on including it on your resume for future job applications. It's not uncommon for potential employers to call your old company for a reference, even if you didn't list anyone there as a referee. Getting called out on something like that could really damage your rep.

John Warner

my business card says

"existential post-modern deconstructionist who renounces primal patriarchal dominator heirarchies"

i give it to people when i want to show them how much smarter I am than they are.

Eric Chadwick

Be honest. And don't think of it as a demotion. Managing other artists is nowhere near as fun as actually being an artist. I've gone from AD to just plain A and back again, no biggie.

rawkstar

lol i know exactly who you mean, BUT .... does anyone give a shit? i mean surely you give a shit enough to make a profile and type up stuff, but seriously does it really matter what the guy has in his signature, who cares?

the_podman

I've met "art directors" that couldn't direct mild suburban traffic. It's funny sometimes a title sounds pretty important and then you realize one of the lower "grunts" is doing all the work.

Xenobond

Seriously, don't think anyone cares but you.
I usually have signatures display turned off anyway on most boards (if they have that option, that is).

Daz

Why feel the need to go *out of your way* to splash your title and who you work for on a public message board anyway unless you have a specific need to?
There's some good reasons why not to If you stop and think about it, and many companies would actually rather you didn't.
With some of the bigger companies, you might even technically be breaking a rule of your employment contract in representing them online without their consent.

TWilson

whoooo cares.

http://www.showbizspy.com/2008/02/29/dinner-impossible-chef-fired-by-the-food-network/

The tough-talking British chef who cooked up a story about designing Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding cake has been fired from his US TV show.

After it was discovered that Dinner Impossible star Irvine lied about his credentials — including having designed Diana’s wedding cake — Food Network bosses investigated the situation.

Rick Stirling

How many hypothetical people will notice if you change the hypothetical signature anyway? Not many people actually read the signatures.

When I was at Runecraft there were a lot of people who were lead on specific projects, and that stayed as their title even when they were no longer a lead. When signing in each morning there were as many lead artists (and coders) as there were grunts.

Armanguy

cant wait to be a grunt :P

Justin Meisse

I don't think I'm completely followin the EA rulz for forums, I technically have to change my name to EA|Justin or something like that and I can't say stuff like "Blizzard employees are doo-doo heads" or "conan wears frilly pink undies under his loin cloth".

Dr. Decency

rawkstar "lol i know exactly who you mean, BUT .... does anyone give a shit?"

Perhaps it is merely a point of contention amongst some people. I'm a little disappointed myself that no change has come from this nor commentary from the offending party...

Dr. Decency says "For Shame."

JordanW

Meh, it would sound like you're posting on here to get someone who's already a member to change their title on the board. I think you'll notice that most people don't really care what someone's title is in their signature on some web-board. To be honest it doesn't really matter a lot. Someone can have the title of grand artist but it their work sucks then what does it prove? I do think it's a bit weird if someone holds onto a title like that but I also think it's kinda lame of someone to care about it so much that they go posting anonymously on boards to try and call someone out on it

Mark Dygert

Honestly, I don't know that many people that track careers that closely, especially on a message board. Only explain it if people ask, and most won't. Most people assume that even if you take a step down, its because the current path has reached a dead end and in order to keep moving forward sometimes you need to back track.

I took a pay cut to get into the industry, but its taking me places I couldn't have otherwise gone.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I've gone just about as far as I can go where I'm at, I'm still very happy with what I'm doing tho. But if I was to want to move forward I would have to take a side step or maybe back track. If I was to take the next step where I'm at it would be doing a lot more of something I view as a distraction.

I have a knack for managing people, making schedules and delegating tasks. All things that keep me from doing what I like to do, put on the headphones and make art. I end up in micro management positions when employers find out I can do those things. So far every employer expects me to jump for joy when they give me a token raise and some "added responsibility". I'll do it, its in my DNA to do it well. But I'm all too happy to dump it and get back to doing what I love.

killingpeople

drag 'em through the mud like the swine he is!

Cory Robinson
Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment
Ultra-Supreme Factotum of Game Art Bodaciousness

hawken

my official title on my cards is talentless hack.

hey, it's a conversation starter

most people automatically assume I'm an English teacher

and... conan wears undies? this thread is fucked