The most overrated job title in Corporate America

[Davids]

"AVP" or "Assistant Vice President" It is such an overrated job title. It really has no meaning. It is just a job title that looks good on a business card or LinkedIn profile. There are some companies where yes getting to an AVP level does mean something but in most companies (especially financial) it is really a token job title that has no meaning, many instances it is someone who is client facing so you slap that job title on so the customer you are speaking thinks you are important. I say this as someone who has an AVP job title "Assistant Vice President - Senior Financial Analyst" It really means nothing.

I am sure there are others you can think of but this is my rant.

[jmusic]

Maybe it's really "Assistant TO the Vice President." 

[FIreDrill]

Maybe it's really "Assistant TO the Vice President."

Haha! Yesss :)

[mohawkbrah]

Maybe it's really "Assistant TO the Vice President."

do you like beets?


i like beets...

[forummm]

There are so many of these. I think most CEOs are overrated. Some semi-worthless and highly overpaid guy at my office has the title "strategic coordinator". He sets up meetings.

[Kriegsspiel]

Lean Six Sigma... Black Belt. Black belt? Equating a position that mainly clicks around in Visio diagramming software to a martial arts master.

[pbkmaine]

Lean Six Sigma... Black Belt. Black belt? Equating a position that mainly clicks around in Visio diagramming software to a martial arts master.

A friend of mine, who was so proud of this title, got very upset with me when I thought it was hilarious. I kept asking if they had brown and purple belts, too.

[Retired To Win]

I think the same is true for bank vice-presidents.  You can find one lurking behind every potted plant in a bank.

[Fastfwd]

I think the same is true for bank vice-presidents.  You can find one lurking behind every potted plant in a bank.

I work at a major investment bank in IT. I have the title of VP. I'm in charge of zero employees. Total bull**** title.

[Calvawt]

I worked for a subsidiary for a bank for a while.  The AVP title seemed to be used as a retention tool for the most part.  They didn't really get a raise with the title, but it made people think that they would be a VP someday (highly unlikely).

[brooklynmoney]

I was an AVp once and everyone did think it meant I was an assistant I used to get calls from hotels about meeting planning  facilities.

[ender]

I think the same is true for bank vice-presidents.  You can find one lurking behind every potted plant in a bank.

When I was younger I had a family friend who was this - I thought it meant a ton, then I realized... yeah.

[grsing]

The various flavors of director are another pointless one. I know directors who don't actually direct anything or anybody, it's just a title/paygrade.

[jmusic]

I think with a lot of these executive sounding titles, it's really just a way to make you work >40 hours without paying overtime.  "Exempt" whatever that means...

[mjs111]

A friend of mine was an assistant vice president at a private wealth management arm of a major money center bank.  She was essentially the office manager for a pool of six executive assistants to the bankers who did the work of drumming up client business and directing investments.

According to her the whole inflation of bank titles was intended so that a client would always be talking to someone with at least the title of AVP, which sounds kind of important, even though it isn't.

Mike

[forummm]

A friend of mine was given a title of "Senior Analyst" at age ~24 right after graduation with a masters degree and her experience was being an intern while in school.

[ender]

A friend of mine was given a title of "Senior Analyst" at age ~24 right after graduation with a masters degree and her experience was being an intern while in school.

A lot of companies do this I think because of their pay-grade systems.

I've seen a few "senior engineers" for PhD graduates at my company for this reason.