[itsmefaz]

Your growth is attractive! For the first 5years, you worked as a Software Engineer. Assuming a good track record, you could have been a Senior or Staff engineer within that time frame. Then, how did you transition to VP within the next 5?

[quantumofalpha]

Titles don't mean much without knowing the type of company that assigned them. Every second guy is a VP at a bank - it means merely something like 'senior SWE' in banking, often you wouldn't even have any reports. 5yoe is reasonable time to reach it. Another example - anyone can be a CEO of own company. But once you get acquihired by FAANG suddenly you're just a PM for your startup's team.

[jsjsbdkj]

This. I currently work with a CTO whc has less experience than me, because he founded the company, he's CTO by default.

[itsmefaz]

Ok. If he was in FAANG companies the author would be effectively around Staff or Senior engineer caliber.

[digianarchist]

It's a 15 person company I'm surprised they have VP titles.

[liketochill]

They matter when the company gets bought and all of the sudden you are a VP at a public ally traded company worth billions

[exdsq]

A start-up I left a few years back had 4 employees - CEO, CTO, Principle Engineer, and me (bog-standard dev). People like fancy titles :)