[MillenialMan]

The vast majority of titles in tech confer more prestige than deserved, because there's no downside to a company handing them out like candy. I don't look at it as a portability issue, the incentive isn't to be accurate to begin with. Inflated seniority is just a perk they can offer that doesn't cost them any money, so everyone offers it. Titles across the industry are meaningless unless you're calibrated to that company's levels.

[bluGill]

There are only a few titles that mean anything, and normally it isn't what you think.

Legal at a bank only a vice president or higher can make some loan decisions. Thus if you go to a large chain bank to get a mortgage you will talk to a vice president. Their title must be vice president, but they doesn't make a lot of money, and don't have much power other than the ability to give you a mortgage.

Last time I posted the above someone chimed in "yeah, even though all I do is write code all day I'm a vice president because what my code does can only be done by a vice president"

You also see a lot of salesmen who are vice presidents - again they don't have a lot of power in the company, but the places they sell to want to talk to a vice president so sales hands out those titles.

[kelnos]

> there's no downside to a company handing them out like candy.

Some companies believe this, but I don't think it's true. Handing out titles like candy can kill morale.

[MillenialMan]

I get what you're saying but I think it generally does the opposite. People like prestige.