[tuwtuwtuwtuw]

Tell that to my previous employer. There, software engineers turned "senior" after 2 years. Then principal after 3 more. It was a scheduled activity to "upgrade". Only X people could turn senior every year because the title changed triggered a salary raise and they could only afford that for X people. I left when I got approval to hire 3 senior software engineers to my team but the salary level was only attractive to the people with zero experience, if that.

[erulabs]

I keep seeing this (anecdotally) out if the Midwest. Folks with 4 years experience doing mostly front end work who’ve never deployed anything with the title “staff engineer”.

I sort of feel bad for them because without a large step down in title they’d never get another job. Perhaps that’s the trick - title inflation to mask bad pay?

[richbell]

That's exactly what it is. Many organizations have strict pay bands and cannot attract talent without overly inflated titles; cue dozens of "directors" with no reports, and people with < 5 years experience being hired as "Staff Engineers" to build web apps.

[tuwtuwtuwtuw]

I'm not really following but want to understand.

How does inflating titles help to attract talent?

Do you mean this: let's say they want to hire a senior software engineer, but the salary for this level would not attract any candidates so instead they try to hire a staff engineer?

Mostly trying to understand if this is middle-managers tricking their higher ups or if it's the company trying to trick the candidates.

[richbell]

It's the former. Larger companies tend to have strict pay bands relative to the seniority and responsibility of a position. Let's say intern>junior>senior>manager>director>vp.

If the salary range for "senior" is 50-70k, this might be attractive for a customer service rep but not for a senior software developer. Thus, you'll need to inflate the title to be either a manager, director, or staff/prinicple (if HR recognizes that) to be authorized to offer market compensation for a senior software developer.

[hereonout2]

I think this is common in companies with a lower salary range, no stock options, bonuses etc.

This is particularly apparent in large cities, where salaries can be almost double at each end of the spectrum. From what I have seen promotion to senior or hiring inexperienced staff at senior level is the only way these companies can retain or recruit staff.