Your job title depends on the organization you're in.

Your job title depends on the organization you’re in.

Get used to being a senior or junior again in different organizations. Don’t take the given seniority for granted—it’s not like the PhD that gives you a Dr. title for your life.

Agencies often promote people to senior roles way earlier than other organizations because they can charge their customers more per hour. In banks, all titles are inflated. I saw many VPs doing team lead roles.

In software engineering, the differences between titles are not so sharp, and there is no unification across the industry.

Don’t believe in what you read on social media about senior engineers doing this or that.

Also, don’t take yourself too seriously about titles. Look at the opportunities you have to learn how much money you make.

If you want to get more money, some organizations pay their mid-level engineers more than some other organizations pay for senior (or even staff) engineers. When you move to these organizations, your CV doesn’t look bad, and you’re not stepping down in your career. As long as you have a reason you can explain, there is no problem.

If you’re good with the money you earn, then look at the learning opportunities. Don’t think career opportunities mean only promotions or titles. Focus on what problem you solve and what you learn from it. That’s the career opportunity because that’s called experience. In the end, what brings title AND makes money is your experience.

That’s why:

Career Opportunities = Experiences

Career Opportunities ≠ Title