Why Job Titles Matter
Sharing the importance of job titles and levels, why they matter in the tech world and how we all benefit from it.
During the earlier days of my career, I always thought Job Title is just a label, and what truly matters is the contribution and impact one can make. Having just a universal title across team or company is mostly true for startups, but for mature organization its impossible to avoid these leveling and titles. In the recent years, I started to understand why it really matters and how it really helps both sides, especially after learning about in the book The Staff Engineer’s Path.
Lets look into some reasons why title is important, each of them revolve around communication.
💡Titles and Levels are generally meant to help others from individuals to companies but at the end we all benefit from it.
Communicating the Career Progression
You may be fine without having a title or a level, you may be progressing on your end but how would others know your progress, that is why title helps in communicating your career growth across the company.
Companies usually have career ladder representing each level, which helps in:
Setting goals and expectations
Clarity in roles and responsibilities
Compensation decisions
Hiring decisions
With title and level, you communicate your progress and growth with others while also having the opportunity to self assess better.
Communicating the Competency Level
Second communication point revolves around the signals how good you are. It is very common that people may assume and have implicit bias e.g. when person X enters the meeting room the implicit bias comes into play it could be related to color, race or gender, as Tanya Reilly mentioned in her book The Staff Engineer’s Path:
We make implicit judgements and assumptions about people all the time.
That is why title is very important as it gives you the importance that you may not get automatically by the peers and help others make good judgements. With title:
You will be approached for the right help
You will be invited to the right meetings
Your voice will be heard
You will get more respect
Now, your colleagues know your competency level, it will help them in framing their ideas and questions clearly, while helping you become more confident and happy because your opinions are valued.
Communicating to Outside World
Titles represent you to the outside world, it helps people outside of your company to understand your competency. This can be beneficial when doing:
Networking
Events
Bootcamps
Interviews
This type of communication usually happens through Resume or LinkedIn. And one of the beneficiaries of this are the future companies and their recruiters as they set the stage for themselves by knowing you based on the title.
With title, you not only help others but also set clear expectations of what you would be looking in your next job in terms of role, responsibilities and compensation, learn more about leveling and compensation at levels.fyi.
Since we are talking about title and growth, you may be interested in:
If you have to choose between overall compensation and title? which one are you going to choose?
Job titles are a necessary evil in organisations that fit the Red-Amber-Orange classifications of Laloux. I think when you get closer to Green and Teal they are no longer an indicator of status. I’m not a fan of Laloux, to be clear, but I recognise the typology. After 42 years of experience in the workforce I am now classified as an intern. This gives me tremendous flexibility to both learn and share my knowledge.
Don’t obsess with job titles, find an organisation that values you for who you are.