I’ve seen people call themselves “senior” after 3 years on the job, other become CTOs in the same time, and others still have a senior title after 20(!) years in the industry yet have a fuckton of technical experience.
I’ve heard that they are all just titles and opinions from “if you don’t have the technical skill you can’t call yourself a senior”, to “senior and staff are just a feeling, principal is the actual senior” and “staff? above senior? we call that manager”.
What’s your story? Is there a ladder? Do you feel like you belong on it? Where are you on it? Does it make sense? Did you see major bumps in salary? Did titles count at all?
Our beloved Peter Principle. I know management is not for me through experience too. Any job description that includes it as part of their role description regardless of title (since those vary so much) is rejected. Europe is only just beginning to understand that management isn’t the end all be all, and that forcing it upon people will either make them leave, unhappy, less productive, or in rare cases actually enjoy it.