Business Vocabulary — Wanted: Unicorns, Gurus and Ninjas!

In this article, you will

• learn about some unusual job titles and descriptions
• practice key vocabulary on the topic of tech jobs
• practice a suffix and a word family.

Newsmart Level 3 (B1+, TOEIC 389–550, TOEFL iBT 41–52, IELTS 4.5–5)

If you’re a tech geek who has dreamed of being a ninja, a Jedi knight, or a wizard, then your wish might just come true! The pages of the big job sites today are packed with advertisements for all kinds of amazing characters, superheroes and mythical animals. Companies everywhere seem be looking for JavaScript Jedis, data ninjas and IT gurus. In this article we’ll look at five popular alternative job titles at use in business vocabulary today, and relate their original meaning to their meaning in today’s business language.

So without further ado, in reverse order of their current popularity on the job search site Indeed.com, the winners of the most fabulous and fantastic job titles and job descriptions are:

5. Unicorn. In mythology, a unicorn is a creature like a white horse with a single horn growing from its head. In business vocabulary, a unicorn employee is a highly-skilled natural leader who is the perfect fit for a company’s culture. Unicorns know how to take the initiative and they can take a company and everyone in it to the highest level possible. In other words, they’re the perfect employee (and like unicorns, probably don’t really exist!).

4. Jedi. Anyone who’s seen a Star Wars movie will know what a Jedi is. He (or she) is a member of a mystical knightly order, trained to guard peace and protect justice and truth in the universe. In business English, anyone with sought-after specialist skills can be called a Jedi (which doesn’t seem quite fair if you consider all the hard work battling the Dark Side that Luke Skywalker had to put in!).

3. Ninja. A ninja is a Japanese fighter who stealthily moves without ever being seen. If you called a ninja a Jedi or a Jedi a ninja in real life, they would probably be highly offended. In business English, however, the two terms are interchangeable. A software ninja (or ninjaneer) and a software Jedi are the same thing. In both cases, what you’d actually be is a darn good software engineer!

2. Wizard. We all know what a wizard is. He’s a guy in a long cloak with magical powers who goes around casting spells. Wizards have actually been around in business English vocabulary for a long time, and many of today’s software ninjas and Jedis would probably have been wizards in the past. Again, there’s no practical difference in meaning between a software wizard (or wiz), ninja, or Jedi.

1. Guru. With over 5,000 listings on Indeed.com, the title of guru is our winner! A guru was originally a religious teacher or leader in the Sikh or Hindu religions, but these days the term is very often used for a person who is an expert in a particular subject and who gives other people advice. A guru is similar to a Jedi, ninja, or wizard, but the term also has a slight connotation of seniority that the others may not always have. In other words, a guru is more likely to be the boss!

Why are these alternative titles so popular? For recruiters, using an alternative title in the job description can help to make a company seem hip, friendly and approachable. For job seekers, it’s good to know that your skills are highly valued by a potential employer. It’s also fun to think you might be a ninja, and even more fun that other people might think you’re a ninja, too! Either way, alternative job titles seem to be here to stay.

Photo credit: m-imagephotography for iStock

Originally published at www.getnewsmart.com.