> If you've never held a management position that includes decisions around compensation increases In large organisations, yes. In smaller organisations and s

> If you've never held a management position that includes decisions around compensation increases In large organisations, yes. In smaller organisations and startups, the "salary bands" are less fixed and there's more freedom to just pay people what you think they're worth. Consequently the title means less and in a lot of cases a small business really doesn't care what its staff call themselves. Titles can get inflated easily here too [0]. [0] Anecdote: a friend of mine attended a bootcamp, got a job with a small (<20 headcount) business, got up to Senior Developer title within 2 years because the business didn't care. Then transferred to a large org at a suitable Senior pay scale.