It seems to be a boldly impressive practice on the social networks, especially on the professional networks that more and more people are following – the practice of titling themselves as Ex-[SomeImpressiveCompany].
I do not have anything to do with how anyone labels themselves, but I find this practice quite depressive.
No, I am not writing about a concrete person here (and I never do), I am writing about the whole trend.
Yes, I understand that it tells the story about someone’s past, but this is a wrong story.
I do not care how much you might have been useful, I do care what you can do now and in the future.
Plus, maybe, one day this as [SomeImpressiveCompany] will fall from grace and this person will eventually sabotage their career.
The focus on the past as in Ex-[SomeImpressiveCompany], tells the story that the best part of the professional journey is already left behind.
Many years ago, I have had a colleague who was at the first meaningful job, but they presented themselves as collaborator’s of one of my country’s top bankers,
since their first professional practice was done with the office of this bank’s CEO.
I use to describe that the person might have brought paper for the printer, but it looks so impressive on the CV to mention well known name, that most of the people will simply believe that they were the main collaborator.
ALTER STATE SET IRONY = ON;
I am looking forward when this trend will reach and people will determine their worth by saying that they are Ex-lovers of somebody known. Yes, there is a well-known precedent in the 90s in US.
Another quirky alternative would be to mention that you have lived in a particular neighbourhood – such as Ex-Cascais for Portugal.
We might even reach the phase where people will define their worth by the car brands they owned (such as Ex-Mercedes-Benz-owner), especially since you can buy some old thrashed car and claim your path to fame and glory ever after.
ALTER STATE SET IRONY = OFF;
It makes no sense to me, personally.