The Factory Floor
I must have the most interesting job in the world that isn’t in IT but pretends to be while at the same time also not being part of HR. Is there even a name for what I do? So far there isn’t anything that makes sense, at least not to anyone who hasn’t made up the title in the first place. I’ve been a Human Resources Information System Analyst, but I’m not a systems analyst, which is a specific IT role; I’ve been a Business Process Engineer, but I’m not an engineer, which is someone who drives a train or has an advanced degree that I’m not even going to pretend to understand, although it sometimes involves building things, often bridges; and now I’m an HR Analyst, but I don’t do any recruiting, appointments, or “employee relations” (which is where you’d expect the analysis part, except it’s not that kind; you need a PhD to be an analyst, unless you’re just a social worker, and then you can do it with a Master’s). I like Business Process Engineer best, so far, because it sounds the most like something is getting done that isn’t just data entry. Of course, back when I started down this path, data entry was the biggest part of what I did, but that soon changed to getting the data back out in new and interesting ways. As this function became something businesses saw as valuable to their bottom line, lots of software was developed to help, one of the biggest now being “PeopleSoft,” which from the fact of their name should have been a dud, but they were clever, the software is pretty good, and they reputedly got their start by landing the U.S. Department of Defense as a client. Lots of little players are still out there, although following PeopleSoft’s acquisition of J. D. Edwards last year, it looks like the latest round of big-fish-little-fish is well underway. Sometimes, though, the big fish have eyes bigger than their mouths, as with Oracle’s attempt at a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP form the top three big-business ERP software providers, so it’s no wonder that the Justice Department has finally come out against the merger on anti-trust grounds. Given that many States are PeopleSoft clients and had filed suit themselves, I’m only surprised it took this long. At least it keeps me in business, even if no one knows what I do for a living.