About employees, job titles, and professional growth

In 2019, I wrote a blog post titled Why your name should be your job title. At the beginning of Yoast, when we hired our first employees, I hated job titles. I also hated job descriptions. I found them so very limiting. We had a whole load of work that had to be done, and we did that work with all the people working at Yoast. Of course, people would do the work that matched their skill set and expertise. But if they wanted to try something else, why not?

If a company is growing, the work piles up. I always encouraged people to let me know which tasks they enjoyed most. That way, when it was time to hire someone because we needed the extra help, we would hire someone for the tasks that were ‘left’. And, if we hired someone who was a good fit in our team but not necessarily a good fit on the actual job, we always looked at whether or not someone could pick up other tasks. We would find the work that fits a person best. And that’s why I thought job titles were not necessary. 

This only works in small teams. In teams where everyone knows exactly what all of their team members are doing. When a company is small, you’ll never have two people in the same job. A job title never truly does justice to the person. Everybody has different skills and talents, and no two people (even if they have the same job) are the same. That’s why I always felt the person’s name does more justice to an individual than a job title. 

You can’t use your name like that on your resume or LinkedIn page. I do understand that in bigger companies, you need titles and descriptions. People need to know what their tasks and responsibilities are (and what not) to work together with others properly. That being said, taking a personal approach and treating your colleagues like unique individuals is a very good approach.