[thrwn_frthr_awy]

Titles are often relative to an orgs size. At a 4 person company I was a director in my twenties. At a 10,000 person company I was a staff engineer in my 30's. At a 150,000 person company I was a senior software engineer (i think? i don't think I ever knew my title, the titles of the people I worked with, or my managers title). I've had a "worse" title at each job while each job was a significant step up from the previous.

[tootie]

At Goldman Sachs, being named Senior Engineer is like receiving a knighthood.

[chrisseaton]

Huh? I thought it was the over way around? Almost everyone at Goldman Sachs is a Vice President. Being just a senior must be extremely low down?

[tootie]

No, both are correct. Goldman, like all finance firms, have universal corporate titles that exist independent of job function. Associate, VP, MD. Those titles apply to tech, to traders, to HR, anything. There's a separate job description (ie, VP, forex trading systems design). Being named a "Senior Engineer" is a separate title. You won't be named Senior Engineer unless you've been a VP for at least 10 years.

[bgirard]

I think you're right according to levels.fyi: https://www.levels.fyi/?compare=Goldman%20Sachs,Google,Faceb...

I got an interview request from GS for a "Managing Director" position and I was really confused at first because I'm clearly in the IC track. From what I could find it seems equivalent to a Staff role.

[tootie]

That's actually unusual. An MD typically runs a department. The role should have 100+ person reporting tree to be an MD.