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Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

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Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#11
I do consulting in quantitative software and analytics for finance. I have my own small company and can give myself any title. "CEO" sounds too pretentious to many, so I went with managing director, the title for upper-middle to upper management in many financial companies.

Choose something similar for your industry. Couple of guesses: vice-president of business development, director of professional services, executive producer...

Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#12
Just tell people "I write software for x" where x can be anything. Teachers, government, hospitals, dogs, whatever it is. In my case it's "lawyers". You don't have to go into any more detail than that. Anyone who really cares will ask followup questions or say something like "oh you should talk to my brother, he's a lawyer".

Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#13
post #9
post #4

Why not simply say 'run a small company'. Nothing says 'success' like success, I'm assuming that your company actually works and makes money. That's as good as any employment or better depending on how well you're doing. Any date that just wants you if you have a steady job is not worth having imo, then it's no longer about you but about a search for financial stability.

I wonder about this. Why can't a person have some criteria to narrow the pool, and from that subset select for love? It would be different if they took the first person who came along with financial stability, if that was the only thing that mattered. If a person aims to have a family, financial stability is important. Note, I don't believe that kids actually need financial stability all that much, but the stress and…

Financial situations that are attributable to state of employment are subject to violent and sudden change. They're not a good basis for any future predictions, especially not for viability of a relationship.

Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#16
I guess in SV the coolest is Founder and Investor, then Board Member and Advisor, but we still have CEO, CTO, Exec, etc. followed by standard positions like Distinguished Engineer, Senior Engineer, etc. and generics like partner, associate, and employee. VP isn't worth much since some industries use them at very low level.

If you can't call yourself a founder, or it doesn't go over well in Europe, what's to stop you from just saying I work for company x. No one knows it is a two person company + outsourcing anyway. It's the same as saying I work for amazon, etc..

Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#18

startup founder is well understood in Europe...or MD of one

Yes, You can say as your have a start up with "XX" business.

As it is start up the word itself provides a better idea for a judgmental person. hope this helps.. :)

Re: Ask: Stigma of the unemployed - a better job title for a lifestyle entrepreneur?

#20
I used to pitch myself as a freelancer/entrepreneur/self-employed. Lots of women were not interested, and that was good. I found one who bought that that my status was cool, was supportive, and we ended up getting married after a few years. Just had our 25th anniversary.

Be who you are, and if women don't like it, they're not a good fit. Bullshit now comes back to haunt you later.

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