[kelnos]

He frames it in a way that kinda sounds age-ist-y, but I think it's less about age and more about experience (he was using age as a proxy for experience, which isn't always true, but is close enough, often enough).

I had my first "senior software engineer" title when I was 28, and that was after I'd only been writing code professionally for a few years (in my early 20s I had a campus coding job at my university, and then I was doing a lot of open source work through my mid 20s, but not sure I'd call any of that "professional"). At my most recent job, I saw most developers making it to the senior in their late 20s, and many even making it to "staff" (one level above senior at our shop) by 30, or soon after. That's ridiculous. In my mind, most people should be hard pressed to develop the experience to really be "senior" in something before they're in their mid to late 30s.

Now, I certainly don't mind (from the standpoint of prestige and salary) that I somehow ended up with the title of "principal software engineer" (one level above "staff") when I was 33, but... c'mon. When you've nearly tapped out your career ladder by the time you're 35 (unless you move to management), it feels like there's something not right there.

[turndown]

The truth is that these are all meaningless titles once you consider people change jobs. Some people won’t accept ever going to a lesser position and stay at a company(unless forced out by circumstance) but those who switch generally experience some reshuffling in “rank” when they leave.

If you left the company you work for right now(other than to start your own company) you could find yourself as a staff engineer(one level below) somewhere with an accelerated path to the next level maybe, or in an equivalent role, although this is more difficult just because there are fewer positions and more filters to being hired.