> and seeing your influence grow as you are trusted with more things. but see my damned title stagnate year over year, suddenly I care about this and take it as a complete lack of recognition by the company (that literally would not happen if they simply did not tell me what my title is!). When the title “matters” at a company, it also makes me consider it a factor in annual reviews. And yet, it gets in my head sometimes, making me wonder every few years if I am at the level I should be.
I know I shouldn’t care, since titles mean different things at every company, and some especially-impressive-sounding titles can range from “meh” to “god-level” depending on where it is.
It is also hard not to look at titles on places like LinkedIn. When I see titles, it just makes unhelpful thoughts enter my head, like: are all these people “at my level” really contributing as much as me? Sometimes I even thought the reverse, like: how can this seemingly-junior person still be stuck at that level, when he is clearly doing all this great stuff we depend on every day? Of course the especially soul-crushing case is when you encounter people that clearly suck at what they do, and they’re 1-2 levels above you and worse, I have occasionally seen those people promoted further! It was nicer just knowing who’s in charge of what thing, and seeing your influence grow as you are trusted with more things. Having been at several companies, I think I was happiest about my career when I didn’t have a fancy title and did not really know anyone else’s either (aside from obvious managers).