Every software engineer* at the company that I work at has the job title "Software Engineer". We do have numerical engineering levels, but they are private to the engineer and to managers. Sharing your level is permitted (as this is tied to compensation, I believe it's essentially legally protected in the US), but is generally not done, as ideas and code should be evaluated by their quality, not by a number associated with their creator.
I have a relatively senior role at the company. How can I represent this on my résumé and LinkedIn page? I could just not do it, but I worry that this will undersell me to recruiters, as unprefixed "Software Engineer" is typically a mid-level title, between "Junior" and "Senior". I see a few options:
- Put my level in parentheses after "Software Engineer". This is probably okay on my résumé, as it won't be visible to coworkers, but would not be okay on LinkedIn. However, it requires people understanding what that means—smaller companies might not understand our leveling system.
- The level is equivalent to "Staff" or "Principal" at companies with similar systems, so I could just go with one of those. This will be more understood, I think, but is sort of untrue, although I'm skeptical that it would end up being an issue at any company I'd actually want to work at.
* technically, you can set your title to anything, but this is rarely used, and when it is, it's overwhelmingly used for jokes.