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Foolonthehill

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How would you call someone who is a web designer, marketing expert (adwords, SEO and all that stuff) and administrator (I am not sure if that's what you call it) of one section of the company, i.e in charge of signing the employee's pay cheques.
Believe me, I know someone who does exactly this and I was wondering how you could introduce a character who does this kind of work when saying what he does for a living.
I know I could make it simpler, but for plot reasons I need it to be this job.
Thanks
 

MythMonger

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How would you call someone who is a web designer, marketing expert (adwords, SEO and all that stuff) and administrator (I am not sure if that's what you call it) of one section of the company, i.e in charge of signing the employee's pay cheques.
Believe me, I know someone who does exactly this and I was wondering how you could introduce a character who does this kind of work when saying what he does for a living.
I know I could make it simpler, but for plot reasons I need it to be this job.
Thanks

When you say introduce, do you mean the author introducing to the reader, or a character introducing another to this character?

A webmaster will often have the first two responsibilities, but the paycheck thing is throwing me a little. Is signing paychecks a supervisory role?

One possibility is "the character is a webmaster but, most importantly, makes sure everyone is paid."
 

melindamusil

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It sounds to me like two separate jobs. "He splits his time between web design/SEO and managing the company's accounting department" (or human resources department). Like he's working two part time jobs - web design and payroll. One is where he can express his creativity, one is where he crunches numbers.
 

cmhbob

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It sounds to me like two separate jobs. "He splits his time between web design/SEO and managing the company's accounting department" (or human resources department). Like he's working two part time jobs - web design and payroll. One is where he can express his creativity, one is where he crunches numbers.

This sounds good, unless he's just the counter-sgnature on the checks.
 

Bufty

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Glad you found the responses helpful.

Just a word in passing on the matter of the necessity to detail what he does for a living when 'introducing' him?

I've never done that in my life. Who cares about the detail? If whoever he's being introduced to wants to know what his title means, he can ask and it's up the character to tell him, but again, I've never been asked to explain what Trust Officer, Assistant Manager or General Manager meant.

Are you sure it is necessary to explain up front whatever the particularly relevant job detail is as opposed to letting the reader use his intelligence to put two and two together and grasp the possible relevance or importance of that task as the task is perhaps casually mentioned as the story unfolds?
 
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King Neptune

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I suspect that's a cultural thing, Bufty. It's common in the US, but I never encountered it in the UK.

Only among writers who aren't very good, or who target an audience made up of people who are incapable of imagining a person without every possible detail being given. I have met such people, and they do like such irrelevant details.
 

Chris P

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"Comptroller" came to mind regarding the paycheck part, but the definition on Wilipedia makes it sound like.the comptroller would be a level up from your character. However, I agree with melinda that it sounds like two separate jobs. If I were looking to hire someone to do payroll and website, I'd expect to hire two.different people unless I got lucky and found one who could do both.
 

Foolonthehill

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I am not trying to tell the reader what the job description is, I am talking about a scene where one person says what they do and then has to explain it to another character who asks. In Italy where I live and where this is set, they would ask without a problem if they didn't understand what job you did after you'd told them. It wouldn't be considered bad manners, just chit chat.... that is if one were interested enough to want to know.
 

Foolonthehill

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Sorry, I realise I was probably unclear when I said "introduce". I did not mean introduce to an audience of readers, but introduce at a party scene in the novel, as a dialogue between two characters where one asks the other what they do.
 

Bufty

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Gotcha- the degree of detail will depend upon the situation but at a party I would imagine it would be very, very, brief with the conversation switched quickly to another topic by the guy who does "Internet stuff - web management - that sort of thing. You?"

Up to you- good luck.
 

ClareGreen

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The words 'small business' are useful in this situation. Most people who've had much to do with small businesses understand that everyone ends up wearing lots of hats/job titles. 'I do all the admin for a small web design business' would cover most of the bases, and 'But I really enjoy marketing what we do' gets most of the rest.
 

Wilde_at_heart

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How would you call someone who is a web designer, marketing expert (adwords, SEO and all that stuff) and administrator (I am not sure if that's what you call it) of one section of the company, i.e in charge of signing the employee's pay cheques.
Believe me, I know someone who does exactly this and I was wondering how you could introduce a character who does this kind of work when saying what he does for a living.
I know I could make it simpler, but for plot reasons I need it to be this job.
Thanks

This would have to be a very tiny business for someone to be wearing 'two hats' like this. The first would is generally called a Communications Specialist and the latter would be either a bookkeeper, accountant or administrative assistant. They've very different skill sets, etc.

eta - melindamusil's suggestion is a good one.
 
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MythMonger

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I'd just like to point out that check signers aren't always accountants. For example, our general manager signs checks to vendors. All of our payroll is done via electronic deposit, so there are no individual "paychecks" to sign.