What’s more important about your carreer title? The title itself or what it actually represents? This question sounds silly but it’s significantly deeper than what it sounds like.

The technology industry uses a set of common titles that may vary from company to company: Software Engineer, Senior SE, Principal SE, Senior PSE, Distinguish Engineer, etc. These titles mean different things to different people, to different companies, and to different cultures.

There is no standard on what each specific title mean and I would argue there should not be one. Subjective interpretations of titles only work within a specific culture, which groups people, companies, and regions of the world. The cultures of the world are far more diverse than what we will ever be able to represent in a set of titles.

Defining titles in terms of responsibilities and expectations provides an objective, measurable, understanding of what the output of members of the team should be. It also makes the definition cultural-aware by leaving the execution to the people, and the cultures.

To me, what matters more than the title itself is the expectations it sets. If a company decides that a Junior Engineer is responsible for Senior Engineers, then so be it. That’s that companies culture and those are their expectations. Sounds crazy? Yes, would I join such company as a Junior Engineer so I can do what I want to do? No. That’s my subjective interpretation of something the company has explicitly, and objectively, defined.

Any definition that allows for subjective interpretations is futile.