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In a word, no. But in startup-land, where the total number of people on the engineering team is, say, less than 10, chances are good that the CTO will also play
by speby 9y ago
In a word, no. But in startup-land, where the total number of people on the engineering team is, say, less than 10, chances are good that the CTO will also play a lead engineer and/or architect sort of role, in which case they will play a part in designing the architecture, selecting frameworks, and so forth.
CTO of, say, US Foods? No, of course not.
- ecshafer 9y agoWhy call the role a CTO then? If the role is closer to a tech lead or architect, just call them an architect. This has always confused me in start up land. There will be a full c suite in a company of 10 people, despite that those c suite folks day to day would look nothing like a corporate position. Just call it what it is instead of inflating titles.
- tinymollusk 9y agoBecause the two agents in this game both benefit by inflating titles, without direct perceivable cost. The CTO/lead gets a better title to inflate their ego and (possibly) future earnings. The company gives the employee something the employee values but costs the employer nothing.
- gaadd33 9y agoWhat do you call the person running the company of 10 people? I guess "team lead" would be a non inflated title, or just "manager"? It would be pretty strange to have to explain that title to anyone outside of the company though
- dpeck 9y ago"founder"?
- krzrak 9y ago> Why call the role a CTO then? If the role is closer to a tech lead or architect, just call them an architect. I agree! How many times I got job offers that read basically: "CTO/sole developer". That's inflated and meaningless, like being one of 100 Senior VPs in a bank.