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I’ve never worked at Apple or Netflix but both say they’re “flat” orgs where titles don’t matter. It’s been my experience that of the alumni with the title of “sr engineer”, men are seen as c-suite material & women are “good candidates for that PM role”. Something is wrong here.
When companies say “titles don’t matter here” that’s often a proxy for “whatever power and privilege you are bringing though the door with you will continue to be yours while working here”.
If titles don’t matter at the company you’re part of, perhaps ask yourself if that’s because the perceived competence and professional level of all people entering that company is expected to stay the same until they exit it.
If “titles don’t matter” at the company you’re at or that you run, perhaps ask yourself if that’s because the hidden status and class symbols of privilege used as signals of authority are being used as a proxy for titles.
If those implicit status and class symbols like an Ivy degree or a last name with Roman numerals in it are being used instead of explicit titles at your company, then you, my friend, are in a company that isn’t disrupting SHIT.
I have a single masters of science at Portland State University, and I have no idea what it’s like to grow up with status and private schools, but I know marketing when I see it, and claiming that companies with flat titles are somehow magically disruptive is a priori bullshit.
Women and minorities are the people disproportionally harmed by not having their achievements recognized, and that will continue to be a problem until tech companies figure out why facile attempts to “attract more ladies” fail so hard and so stupidly.
You, my friends and my siblings in tech, deserve to be recognized for your individual achievements instead of having them elided into the soup of your company where somehow only the croutons float on top. Much love.
