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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
