[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.