I’ve seen people call themselves “senior” after 3 years on the job, other become CTOs in the same time, and others still have a senior title after 20(!) years in the industry yet have a fuckton of technical experience.

I’ve heard that they are all just titles and opinions from “if you don’t have the technical skill you can’t call yourself a senior”, to “senior and staff are just a feeling, principal is the actual senior” and “staff? above senior? we call that manager”.

What’s your story? Is there a ladder? Do you feel like you belong on it? Where are you on it? Does it make sense? Did you see major bumps in salary? Did titles count at all?

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    I’m fifty, so I started my career in a different world. I hired in to a small consulting company. Our business was selling IBM systems and development was just a required value-add to that end. There were three of us when I hired in, knowing nothing. I was computer savvy but only a hobbyist programmer.

    In the course of the next year, both of the other developers left the company, leaving me to grow and learn for myself. After 5 years I was promoted to senior. I had nothing but time in and there was no one to evaluate my skills or mentor me. I stayed another 4 years until the changing business model to IT as a service forced me out.

    I was now a ten year senior with an unrelated two year degree and no knowledge except what I’d uncovered myself in a dying niche. I tried owning my own business but I’m not cut or for that. I lucked into a large project that was half the old stuff and half Java. I was there for a year or two when that business failed and I was spun off into a new consultancy.

    One project had me commute back and forth to DC every other week. I liked it so when a government contract reached out to me with an opportunity, I took it and moved my family. This was my first time being part of a long term team and this is where I learned everything about that side of things.

    Fast forward a few years, a move back home, and a few jobs, and with 24 years of experience I just accepted a position as a tech lead which I think is as far as I ever want to go in my career. I’ll put in a few years and look for a better contract or non contact position because this current company is shitty.

    Title has never mattered in my career until I moved out of the SMB market into big business where title is tied to promotion path and salary. Most of them were totally arbitrary like when every one of twenty developers were just software architects. But now it’s important at least in the positions I’ve been seeing and taking.

    • onlinepersona@programming.devOP
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      1 year ago

      That’s an interesting career, thanks for sharing. Another confirmation that titles really don’t mean much in tech. Now I’m actually curious where titles do mean something. I imagine in a science career and other engineering fields maybe? Can’t just invent new ways to do things there as you’re bound to the real world.

      • MagicShel@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I once worked with someone with the title Vice President of Awesome. We worked for a consultancy where you could just pick your own title.