Stop worrying about job titles

I've seen a few posts on here about job titles, what they are, what they mean and how do you get them.

As someone who has absolutely chased job titles earlier in my career I really think it's not something you should be worrying about.

Ultimately someone wants to be seen as "senior" because it's an accomplishment and gives you a sense of seniority (obviously!)

Here's the thing, the reason everyone has so many questions about "what is a senior dev" is because there is no industry standard. It's so arbitary and in my experience often just amounts to

Bob has done something with computers for 3+ years

I have interviewed senior developers who were really poor outside of a very specific problems space that they are used to

I have seen junior developers teach a huge room of developers with over 10 years experience category theory.

I guess what I am saying is I take someone's job title with a huge pinch of salt these days.

As a developer, I love to look at things as abstractions and I think the abstraction here is

• People want to be respected
• People want a sense of accomplishment

I promise you, if you enjoy your work and take pride in it then your team will respect you and you'll create some great software. Chase that.

Comments

[edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y]

Yes, job titles are meaningless.

--
Edaqa Mortoray
Senior Master of the Universe, Multiverse, Eternity and Creator of Delictable Salsa

[Chris James]

How many years of experience making Salsa though?

[edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y]

🔪🍅🌿🌶️🧂

--
Edaqa Mortoray
Senior Salsa Architect, 9 dan

[Justin Lam]

I don't think you need to convince the individual contributor but recruiters and hiring managers from pigeon holing people into specific slots. Also, it's not only about the title, a "higher" title also means more pay. It is a way a company acknowledges your accomplishments.

[Sten]

I was about to say just that. In many cases there's a significant increase in pay that comes with a new title. I agree about the confusion in the definitions and it varies from one company to another. But the change in income is definitely a constant - and that alone can explain why there are so many questions about what it takes to get to the next level.

I promise you, if you enjoy your work and take pride in it then your team will respect you and you'll create some great software.

I totally agree with that statement. But I can see how I've been lucky enough to be in organizations where doing great work resulted in growth inside of the company. But I have some friends that have been in places where it's not always the case.

[Sarah Dye]

Agreed. I'm looking for a tech job now and the job titles have been overwhelming. A hiring manager gave me good advice to just stop worrying about the job titles and instead focus on the skills I have. Another hiring manager took a look at my recent resume and in her feedback, she said I could probably get hired for a senior developer position with all the skills I have.

It just shows the title doesn't really matter. All that matters is what you can do and can you do the job being asked of you.

[Jose Gonzalez]

Agreed with this post.

As someone with over 10yrs+, I still don't call myself "Senior".

My ego, my pride isn't hurt or insulted. I know what I know and more importantly I know that I don't know.

Here's something from Erik Dietrich which I love:

"Junior" developer shouldn't be a thing. Unless really hard-up for a wage, don't accept a job with this title, regardless of your level of experience.

twitter.com/daedtech/status/980169...

Btw, my official title still is: "Software Developer" after 10 years.