The title rollercoaster was a great opportunity to disassociate my worth from my title. My last three jobs went something like this: started as Senior Engineer -> left as a Director; started as Manager -> left as Senior Manager; started as Manager -> left as Manager.
As just about everyone I started off caring about titles. As I moved up company tiers, my compensation was significantly higher each time, despite lower title. Downlevel in title also doesn't always mean downlevel in responsibilities - the scope of my Director role at a lifestyle business was the same as the Manager scope at a fast-growing startup. The next "step down" was a true downlevel, but such is the price you pay with FAANG. It's an opportunity to perform with lower expectations at a higher compensation.
In other words, it's a multidimensional rollercoaster and it's not recommended to be always focused on a single dimension (title).
As just about everyone I started off caring about titles. As I moved up company tiers, my compensation was significantly higher each time, despite lower title. Downlevel in title also doesn't always mean downlevel in responsibilities - the scope of my Director role at a lifestyle business was the same as the Manager scope at a fast-growing startup. The next "step down" was a true downlevel, but such is the price you pay with FAANG. It's an opportunity to perform with lower expectations at a higher compensation.
In other words, it's a multidimensional rollercoaster and it's not recommended to be always focused on a single dimension (title).