Stop Chasing Job Titles
Most people want to grow professionally. Not everyone though. A lot of people are happy with where they are and they don’t plan to go higher. At some point it was a surprise for me, but of course it makes sense. Not everyone should prioritize their career. And I bet there are cases where it’s even better to have someone in the team, who’s happy doing their work and doesn’t plan to change their position in any foreseeable future.
When we first enter the world of careers, the most obvious way of growing is getting the next title. Intern — junior — middle — senior — team lead — group lead — head of/director — vp — … We don’t want to get stuck in the same title and want to jump to the next one as soon as possible. And get frustrated when it doesn’t happen.
In reality, I see 2 points that are very important to remember.
First, not every title is the same. The same title can mean very different things in different companies. It depends on many factors. Think about the company size as the first thing that comes to mind. “Head of Data” in a small startup is most likely their first and only data person. Doing everything with bare hands. In half of the cases working with data available right now — exporting it from a CRM and analyzing in Excel. Of course, the idea is that as this startup grows, you hire more people and you manage them. But first, nobody knows if this will be in 6 months or 2 years. Second, you have to do a lot of work on building data infrastructure and other supporting things, instead of focusing on analytical insights. While “just” a team leader in a big company a) manages people already now and b) focuses on finding insights and impacting business decisions while data infra and other parts of the job are covered by different teams. I’m not discussing here the different preferences or points of view on prospects or stages of career, this is an example of how the higher title can in reality be less exciting than the lower one. In the case of a startup, it depends A LOT on what this startup is about. Factor of the company here becomes much more important than the factor of a position and a title itself.
Second, your impact and experience are more important than your title. Both can grow even if your title stays the same. I experienced it, for example, when I moved from operations to product. While doing the same things day to day, suddenly my scope grew from 1 country to 3 countries. Just because the changes in product affect users in all countries where the company was present, while operational teams work per country. My impact increased, I started to learn about differences in culture and behavior of users from different countries. I had to work with many more people, also from our offices in different countries. Work with many more teams. Work with more different data sources. Collaborate with management much more often. My title stayed the same, but impact, learning and fun grew a lot.
Focus on impact, learning and real experience, instead of chasing titles. Your title will find you because you are inevitably becoming even more AMAZING and everyone wants to work with you.
