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I am also a renegade it seems. I just couldn’t institutionalize myself like that.

> That bubble is not the world

Hence the author's "In the software engineering world".

Nothing in author's write-up led me to think he doesn't understand that.

Yeah, no. Most companies do not have that exact hierarchy. Maybe at FAMGA etc, but most engineering jobs are not there.

Sure, not that exact hierarchy. But a hierarchy. At other places it might be Senior, Principal, Director, etc. at some places they’re given, at other places you fight for it. Variations of leveling.

levels.fyi makes it seem otherwise

https://foreignlegion.info/ranks/

I must say, life is a lot easier as a software engineer outside of Big Tech. It seems like a bit of a pressure cooker to me.

Unfortunately this shit is contagious so even non-Big-Tech companies eventually start to imitate it.