If you could bear to read past the pictures of Cameron and his new tribe of table-thumping cohorts in yesterday's papers, you might have picked up on this little nugget.

Amongst all the exciting new appointments, James Wharton, the 31-year-old MP for Stockton South, Teeside, has been anointed Northern Powerhouse Minister. Yes, really. This is now an actual government job.

Comedic job titles are a relatively recent phenomenon. A grandiose-sounding job title can be a cunning way for a company to distract a potential employee from some less-than-grandiose exciting pay and conditions.

Who cares about the measly annual leave allowance when you get to announce yourself as a Talent Delivery Specialist instead of a plain old recruitment consultant. Or a Transparency Enhancement Facilitator instead of a window cleaner.

Conversely, there are those which use a vague, over-inflated title to justify a generous salary or even the existence of a certain position. I'm thinking here of lofty sounding Head of Enrichment, Head of Inspiration, Head of Thought, that kind of thing. But don't be deceived.

A friend spent a seemingly glamorous summer working as a lifeguard at a water park in America. He returned tanned and ripped but with remarkably few tales of life-saving exploits.

On further probing, he revealed that his official job title had been Lifeguard (Shallow Water) which involved standing in the two foot high splash pool at the bottom of the slides where the biggest threats are to dignity, not life, and included suffering goggle malfunction and severe wedgie.

However, a quick zip through my own work history with this souped-up lexicon yielded some pleasing results and made me re-evaluate my life in a whole new light.

At the tender age of 13, for example, I was already forging ahead as a Media Distribution Officer. This involved lobbing your favourite morning paper in the vicinity of your door-step and was, at the time, humbly referred to as being a paper boy or girl.

From there, I graduated to begrudgingly whiling away long Saturdays of my precious youth as a Brand champion (sales assistant) before getting a couple of years under my belt as a Communication Executive (call centre employee).

Over the years, I have also held roles which include Director of First Impressions (receptionist) and a brief sojourn as a Five a Day Collection Operative (Fruit Picker).

To my regret, one job which did once catch my attention, but which I was never able to fulfil, was the fabulous-sounding Ice-cream Taster for a company based on the Isle of Arran. Now there is a job title to elicit heart-felt envy.