I've always found the obsession with titles somewhat strange in our business. In my 7-8 jobs since college, I've never really had a 'formal' title. It just seem

I've always found the obsession with titles somewhat strange in our business. In my 7-8 jobs since college, I've never really had a 'formal' title. It just seems like all 'developers' are thrown into the same bin, and the better ones are team leads who don't have any actual authority to do anything (e.g. order a new laptop or approve of a hire). After about 10 years, I just started calling myself a 'senior software engineer' on my resume and nobody has ever called me out on it. Must be a Silicon Valley thing tied to salary. But in the areas I've worked, titles don't seem to exist for non-management.