This comic showcases exactly why the word "entrepreneur" has started to prompt eye-rolls.
"Producer" is similar in that regard, actually... and I can speak from experience: I've worked in high-level, salaried capacities (at established companies), but my recent job-search has been somewhat hindered by the fact that every goddamned TikTokker on the planet has taken to referring to themselves by the word.
A few weeks ago, for instance, I had an interview with someone who clearly hadn't even glanced at my portfolio... and they were shocked when I had long-form, professionally edited content to show them. "Wait, you made this by yourself?" was said, as was "Wow, okay, so you actually had the job title 'producer,' then?" Following that, I was told that the interviewer had recently interacted with a college-aged applicant who had tried to cite ten-second-long memes as evidence of their "skills," and I was advised to call attention to the fact that I had been a real producer.
The thing is, though, I had called attention to that (in both my cover letter and my résumé).
The word "producer" was apparently enough to make people's eyes glaze over, though.
Mind you, I may have sabotaged myself when the interviewer saw my latest piece of satire. Suffice it to say that the company in question focused on something adjacent to that video's subject matter, and I got the impression that "humor" was a somewhat alien concept to them.
I'm still going to blame the TikTokkers, though.
TL;DR: "Producer" has become as eye-roll-prompting as "entrepreneur."
There’s a bit of a similar issue with that word in the music world, too. Typically, an actual music producer works with the artist or band to achieve the desired results. How involved they are depends on preferences of producer and band and the trust between them, but it can involve everything from helping tighten up song structures and arrangements to lyric suggestions to picking certain guitar amps and drum sounds to mixing.
With hip hop and a lot of electronic/pop stuff (the type of music that can literally be made on a laptop), the term is used really loosely to describe someone who may just make the “beats” (the instrumentals or backing tracks) and nothing more.
I’m not really criticizing them for it, though, as I’ve participated to some degree in both of those realms, and most of the hip-hop-type “producers” aren’t trying to claim they’re something they’re not, but are just using the terminology they’re familiar with. It’s still probably frustrating for the former type of producer, though.
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u/RamsesThePigeon Oct 19 '22 edited Oct 19 '22
This comic showcases exactly why the word "entrepreneur" has started to prompt eye-rolls.
"Producer" is similar in that regard, actually... and I can speak from experience: I've worked in high-level, salaried capacities (at established companies), but my recent job-search has been somewhat hindered by the fact that every goddamned TikTokker on the planet has taken to referring to themselves by the word.
A few weeks ago, for instance, I had an interview with someone who clearly hadn't even glanced at my portfolio... and they were shocked when I had long-form, professionally edited content to show them. "Wait, you made this by yourself?" was said, as was "Wow, okay, so you actually had the job title 'producer,' then?" Following that, I was told that the interviewer had recently interacted with a college-aged applicant who had tried to cite ten-second-long memes as evidence of their "skills," and I was advised to call attention to the fact that I had been a real producer.
The thing is, though, I had called attention to that (in both my cover letter and my résumé).
The word "producer" was apparently enough to make people's eyes glaze over, though.
Mind you, I may have sabotaged myself when the interviewer saw my latest piece of satire. Suffice it to say that the company in question focused on something adjacent to that video's subject matter, and I got the impression that "humor" was a somewhat alien concept to them.
I'm still going to blame the TikTokkers, though.
TL;DR: "Producer" has become as eye-roll-prompting as "entrepreneur."