i am a principal dev at my company, but i am 100% certain that my title is inflated and the work i do is just at the senior dev level. i want to get back into the job market and I see less and less recruiters reach out to me for the senior dev roles, likey because of my principal dev title on linkedin.. so i was wondering how to reflect my level on linked in and resume without coming across as lying. TC: peanuts YOE: 15 (all non-tech companies)
If they call you principal then you are principal, be confident
It’s really not the lack of confidence in the current company, but I am just worried about losing interview calls for the senior roles at tech companies.. obviously the work we do as principal at my company is definitely inferior to the principal work at tech companies..
You'd be more likely to lose calls if you were junior
That's not true. I've been in a lot of recruiting debriefs where recruiters are instructed not to down level as that looks bad on the company offering something not correlated with their YOE. If you are really serious about being downleveled you can call it out when you talk with the recruiter. Only do this if you truly believe your skills don't meet the bar as you will have to rework for the title. I made a similar decision too – dropping my senior title from a non tech company to get into a good tech company. It was absolutely the right decision as I learned a ton more, and actually earned more.
Thanks. Appreciate your story.
Lol this is one off.. recruiters know what company you are at and will target those that have higher titles to take on lower titles at the top companies.. no ones looking for a senior dev at liberty mutual, but they will be looking for a principal to do senior dev work.. my buddy was a ‘director’ and he is IC4 at fang lol
Why not say "Software Engineer" clear and concise
Precisely. Software Engineer is good enough. Most companies care about what you do than what your title says.
You should be reaching out to companies and saying what role you want, rather than waiting for the recruiters to come to you.
Keep your title and interview as normally. Companies will level you appropriately.
I guess I am mostly concerned about companies ignoring me for their senior roles thinking I would only be looking for principal roles..
Recruiters know, hiring managers know