I am fairly certain that none of you know my full name is Margaret Elizabeth Smith. When I was a little baby about 5 months old, my parents called me “the baby” until Mom got pregnant with my brother. My folks figured out that calling me “the baby” was short lived, for obvious reasons and they had better come up with something to call me. Mom tried, “Maggie, Margaret and Meg”. Dad didn’t like any of those. Dad tried “Liza, Liz and Lizzie”. Mom said “Over my dead body”. Dad came home with Beth, and it stuck…sort of. Dad calls me “Bethy- Boo”, Mom calls me “Bethie”, my husband calls me “B”, my nieces and nephews call me “Aunt B” and my beloved grandfather called me “Becky”. Swear.
Last year, my daughter Katy entered the 6th grade at the ripe old age of 12 and she decided that calling me “Mom” was for babies, so she began calling me “Bethly”. Her friends even now call me “Befly”.
I must be a total whack job, because I answer to all of it.
I have seen lots of ads lately with crazy job titles on them. For an admin position “Chief Administrative Officer” and my immediate reaction was “Here is a C-level position that I have never heard of before!” Until I read the complete job ad that included answering the phones and opening the mail, I was under the impression that this person was higher than entry level. It was confusing. If I am confused, and I read job ads all the time, imagine what the candidates must be experiencing. Call the job what it is, so that people recognize themselves in that job and they apply.
Just because I am crazy and answer to 10 different derivatives of my name, doesn’t mean your candidates will. Happy Name Calling!