4 ms·
As I've so fond of pointing out on HN "Principal" means two different things depending on the culture of the company. In SV/BigTech "Principal" is a step above
by alexjplant 3y ago
As I've so fond of pointing out on HN "Principal" means two different things depending on the culture of the company. In SV/BigTech "Principal" is a step above Staff. In many other companies, however, it just means "non-junior employee"; these are the same companies that also have titles like "Lead Architect" and "Systems Administrator". Without context "Principal" is meaningless.
- aledalgrande 3y agoI've found Staff having very different qualities depending on the company.
- lijok 3y agoMy god, sysadmin has become a meme title?
- wwtdtgotiatl 3y agoReally starting to feel old here because to me that's one the most legitimate and accurate titles in the industry.
- lijok 3y agoThere will be riots in nursing homes when they find out
- smolder 3y agoI want to know where all the Webmaster roles have gone, personally.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sarchertech 3y agoPrincipal means above staff or at the very least above senior in every company I’ve ever encountered it. Senior may have diluted to just mean “non-junior employee”, but I’ve never heard someone using principal for that.
- WWLink 3y agoWord. Where I work that's 15-20+ years experience and often means "would become a director if there was an opening and they wanted the job"
- nostrademons 3y agoIt's usually above senior but it can be below staff at equivalent companies. Check out levels.fyi for salary bands. Principal at Microsoft is between senior & staff at Google. Principal at Amazon is directly above senior, but is generally higher than staff at Google. Principal at Roblox is about the same as Microsoft.
- sarchertech 3y agoRight that's what I meant by "at the very least above senior". Within a given company principal is generally always higher than staff, but for companies that don't have staff, principal is generally always higher than senior. My point was that I've never seen principal used to mean "non-junior employee" in the way that senior occasionally is.