> I also learned that job titles don’t “make” you anything. It’s kind of like, being a CTO with a 5-person team is different than with a 50-person team or a 500-person team. The job and skills required are totally different, even if the title is identical. So just because I had a “senior” job title did not make me a senior engineer at all. Furthermore, hierarchical titles are inherently flawed, and difficult to compare cross-company. I learned it’s important not to fixate on titles, or use them as a form of external validation.

Unfortunately, they do matter in the real world.