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I am currently at the "Software Engineer 3" level in my current company in India and accepted an offer having the "Software Engineer 2" level in Ireland because I wanted to migrate to Ireland and of course the salary is way higher because of currency differences. Can this going to the lower title backfire in my career in the long run? Or It shouldn't matter as long as I build a good resume doing good projects and confident enough to clear interviews for higher levels later when I want to change the job again in Ireland or coming back to India?

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    – Neo
    Jul 15, 2020 at 11:44

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Or It shouldn't matter as long as I build a good resume doing good projects and confident enough to clear interviews for higher levels later when I want to change the job again in Ireland or coming back to India?

Correct. Software engineering titles typically only map to an experience level and pay structure within the company. Rarely does it map to how another company does their titles.

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    Adding to this—you don't need to mention level in your CV when contacting new companies. Just "Software Engineer" is fine as a job title.
    – Mirror318
    Jul 14, 2020 at 3:45
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    Exactly, I doubt that anyone here has a clue about what "Software Engineer 3" means. For anyone outside your company, you're a software engineer, period.
    – m.raynal
    Jul 14, 2020 at 10:30
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    @par - Absolutely disagree. You should never embellish a seniority title on your resume or CV. While titles do defer between companies, there are resources on for comparing titles (e.g. levels.fyi ). If I interviewed someone from Amazon who's resume title was "Senior Software Engineer", that maps pretty well to a certain level within my own company (easily looked up on levels.fyi ). If I discovered during the interview that they were actually SDE I or SDE II, I may consider that to be dishonest and dismiss this person outright.
    – selbie
    Jul 14, 2020 at 18:54
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    @selbie It's better to fail an interview than fail to be interviewed.
    – par
    Jul 15, 2020 at 4:41
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    @par - "It's better to fail an interview than fail to be interviewed." During your meeting with your manager and HR, the one where they explain that you are about to be fired for falsifying your credentials, make absolute certain you justify your actions with that same quote. I'm sure they'll be sympathetic and see it your way. :)
    – selbie
    Jul 15, 2020 at 7:14
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Pretty much nobody cares about the title that you had. Everybody cares about what you actually did and what you can do.

I tell you honestly, I have no idea what job title I had at one of my previous jobs - and I worked there for more than 3 years. Nobody ever cared about this "missing" information.

At my current job I have the most generic title possible: "project manager". It does not stop the company's management to consider me one of the most valuable employees - currently leading one of the most important projects they have.

Titles in companies vary so much, that they are at many times meaningless. What means something in one company, might mean (almost) the opposite in the next. What is consider "expert" or "senior" in one company can be considered "entry-level" in another.

Bottom line: stop worrying about titles. After you have worked X years in Ireland (or other 1st world country) and you return back to India, the title you had would be probably the least of your problems.

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    What is meaningful is the opportunity for promotion, which usually includes higher pay. If your current job title is lower, you have more opportunities for promotion.
    – Cristobol Polychronopolis
    Jul 13, 2020 at 17:20
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I can confirm: Job titles are very company specific.

I have progressed within a single company from: Operator/Analyst, Intermediate Designer, Senior Designer, and finally Systems Consultant.

Moving to another company I am "just" a Senior Developer.

Many companies have numberic/alphabetic grades attached to the job titles to allow internal people to understand the "hierarchy"/experience of a person without having to memorize the dozens of job titles. The first company above I moved from G, J, I, and M. The second company I was a P4, and the third doesn't seem to have any additional ranking/categorizations.

In your case when switching companies the first question any prospective employer would ask (should they bother to care; see @virolino) is "2 < 3 or 2 > 3". It is reasonable for "1" to be the highest and the lowest ranking depending on how well thought out the rankings are.

So simply repeating @virolino: Don't worry about titles, they are meaningless and in some cases "awarded" as replacement for salary!

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    +1. Heck, at one company I was at, I went from "Software Engineer 3" to "Software Analyst 1", and that was a promotion. I mean, as long as your title isn't "Junior Coffee Delivery Gopher", I'm going to simply read what your job responsibilities were.
    – Kevin
    Jul 13, 2020 at 18:10
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    @Kevin As a software developer, when I work on-premise (no COVID or anything), I actually like to brew fresh coffee and stuff. Programming's fun, but coffee's a legitimate reason to take a break from the computer screen for a few minutes and walk around. It seems like a lot of other developers just prefer to stay glued to the screen though, which works out well for us coffee gophers.
    – Panzercrisis
    Jul 14, 2020 at 3:49
  • @Panzercrisis "coffee gopher" means you go get my coffee (and everyone else in the office), not yours... and that's all you do
    – freedomn-m
    Jul 14, 2020 at 14:53
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    @freedomn-m I just used that phrase as a joke, although I'd be brewing the coffee and cleaning the stuff beforehand for anyone who wants it. ...Still, if other people care, I'd take the extra time to go grab their coffee. I enjoy programming, but have to break up the monotony through the day.
    – Panzercrisis
    Jul 14, 2020 at 15:14

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