THE LIMITATIONS OF A JOB TITLE FOR A SWISS ARMY KNIFE

I am going through an interesting phase in my life. For the first time in a long time I am actively on the job market, seeking a new position now that I have relocated back to the UK.

For the last 12 years I have been doing the same job, but in this job, and all of the roles I have filled since I started working 30 years ago, I have done many things and worn many hats, so to speak. Most of the companies that I have worked for have been small to mid-sized, and in this, there is more fluidity in one's roles and responsibilities. And I have always enjoyed this.

I am someone that is more than likely blessed with ADHD, and no I don't mean that ironically. I honestly love the frenetic pace and beautiful creativity with which my mind works, and I have thankfully learned how to work with this wild stallion to optimize my productive output. Some people struggle as I did earlier in life, but now, thanks for understanding myself better, I am now able to harness this into a superpower.

All of my roles in the past have been sales based, and back when I was young, in between running away from saber-toothed tigers and discovering fire, there were a lot fewer job titles being bandied around. This has now changed and each position has been fractured into specializations, creating many varied and interesting job titles.

This new world is great for the 'butter knives' of the world, those people that are able to slot into one position and that is all that they do, compartmentalized into the HR Recruitment handbook definition of roles and responsibilities, but for the Swiss Army Knives, well for us it is a 'not so bright' new world.

What makes me a 'Swiss Army Knife'? Well, I am someone who is 60% right brain and 40% left brain, with an IQ that, when tested all those years ago, placed me somewhere between gifted and genius, and this has allowed me to do those things that I connect to passionately, relatively well. If I am 'switched on' by a topic, a project, or a position, I give it 110% and I typically do well at them. I also LOVE learning new things, and the ability to learn and get good at someone truly is the spice of life for me.

Having worked in smaller companies I have been able to tackle the roles and responsibilities that the position expected, but I have also been involved in supplementary and complementary tasks, allowing me to build up a solid amount of experience across different working titles. Yes, I was doing all of the roles of 'Ye Olde Salesman' but in the 21st century the things I would do cover the tasks handled by three separate job titles, namely Business Development, Sales, and Account Management.

Further to the above three job titles, I was able to put to use my artistic and graphic design skills, and created sales and marketing support materials, including brochures, flyers, presentations, websites, and even books. I would sit with the owners/managers and clients and create the tools and platforms that add value to the salesperson's work. Nowadays this is a great chunk of the work being done by a 'Sales Enablement Manager'.

As if this wasn't enough of a resume filler, I was born with another 'affliction', and one often linked to people with ADHD, which is the obsessive desire to create someone from nothing. I have, over the past few decades, started, run, lost, and succeeded as a part-time or full-time entrepreneur, and this has given me years of experience that would simply make a business card listing all of my potential job titles ridiculous.

As an entrepreneur one must be a stock controller, a bookkeeper, a buyer, a salesperson, a manager, HR, account manager, graphic designer, production, logistics, debt collector, cleaning service, and much, much more.

So what does a person do when they have done everything from act in Hollywood blockbusters alongside A-list actors to DJing headline slots at big name clubs. From writing and publish their own book to having their own radio shows from Top 30 to business & finance. When a person can do a lot of roles VERY well, and a few others well enough to be able to add value, how the hell is a person with my level of experience and amount of skills supposed to apply for a job?

To make matters worse, the new digital post-Covid world has reduced a job candidate from a human being down to words on a resume. In the 'good old days' a recruiter would have personally connected with a candidate to understand who the person IS, not just what they have done. Those people who are Swiss Army Knives with a WORLD of experience, able to do far more than words on a page can describe, are now expected to apply for a job with no more than a 3-page document. Trying to sum up my skills and experience into a 3 page document just doesn't make sense.

When the recruitment drive is all about specific job titles with minimal information provided to 'increase efficiency', anyone can see how this would benefit the 'butter knives' but the world would be all the poorer for those Swiss Army Knives whose value is being missed.