In a startup there is a technical team tasked with creating the product. How it's done, who does what, etc isn't too important from the perspective of the compa

In a startup there is a technical team tasked with creating the product. How it's done, who does what, etc isn't too important from the perspective of the company leaders. It sounds like you're a useful member of that team doing things like tagging and scripting. Maybe you are too inexperienced to do coding work or maybe they just need someone to do those tasks and you were willing to do them so it works. If you want to do something different, then it sounds like you need to look for a different job. Your boss is kind of right - a big company will put you in a narrow specific role like "frontend developer on the gmail inbox team". Some people like that and some people hate that. If you join a big company, you will be treated only as a developer. You'll be writing features, reviewing other people's code, and going to lots of meetings. You will be surrounded by mentors and your manager's main focus will be helping you grow your career. It's a great place to be inexperienced and to learn skills. However, some people find that kind of work monotonous, they hate all the meetings, and they want to have a more of generalist role instead of being typecast into a narrow type of work. Those people enjoy working in startups.