I work for a company that was recently acquired by another company. Through this process, I discovered my official title: “Senior Consultant.” As I’ve stated previously, they’ll give anyone a senior title.

When I started with the company five years ago, it was my first time working as a consultant. I was just a plain consultant. Somewhere along the way (or at least through classifications as part of the new regime), I was upgraded to a Senior Consultant. There was no formal ceremony, not even a passing acknowledgment from my boss. It was essentially a footnote in my employee letter.

I was teasing a coworker at the same company who has the title of PMP (Project Management Professional) built into his Outlook name. I’ve never seen anyone do that. He claims it was the way “the office” set it up and that he had no hand in it. He may be downplaying it now, but I bet at one time he was pretty proud of that credential. It doesn’t do anything for me as I have seen many terrible project managers who were certified and many excellent project managers who were not.

“Hey, do you know what PMP stands for?”

“Isn’t it Project Management Professional?”

“No, I think it’s Primary Meeting Participant.”