What's in a Title?

there really is no definate heirarchy of positions in the IT world (in my expierience at least). There are the familiar titles which most people hold and there are off the wall titles that are literal tongue twisters. It depends on the organization basically. For instance, the companies I've worked for use the typical positions while other people I know create their own titles depending on their skillset and time with the organization. There is no real standard that I've encountered.

I agree with the previous thread - there are are two many different "titles" - Net Admin, Net Engineer, Sr Systems Engineer -- and they may or may not designate expertise (although the people who have them will tell you they do). My experience in IT has been that unless you have someone at the technical level designated as the "technical lead" and EVERYONE recogizes that he or she is the interface between management and the workers - confusion will reign supreme because "if no one is king or queen - then everyone is." I don't know if you are in a position to influence this change - but if you are, I would certainly recommend it.

The IT places I have worked where no one was clearly in charge were "messy" places to work - and the places where it was clear who was the tech lead - were good places to work.

Hope this helps

Dave

By all accounts, I'm a Sr. NT Systems Administrator. I've been in the industry well over 10 years and have worked with NT since it was beta version 3.0. However, my titles have ranged from Support Technician, Sr. Systems Analyst (sometimes with a number designator such as 3 or 4), Computer Scientist, Senior Member Technical Staff, Computer Specialist, and Network Administrator. Titles vary by company and/or business sector. I maintain that it's a tactic to confuse us so we don't really knowwhat we are or what we should be paid. :)