>I remember learning back at the beginning of my career that at places like Bell Labs and IBM, everybody who was anybody had the title "Member, Technical Staff" which was designed to be a low key humblebrag
Ha! I learned that when I was quitting a senior engineer job (around 2000) and my manager said if I they'd make me a "member of (the) technical staff".
Since I had never heard of such a title before (I would have been the first MTS at that company) my response was roughly "(a) aren't I part of the technical staff already? And (b) you're "offering" to strip my "senior" title? And my "engineer" title? WTF? I'm quitting already, you didn't have to be insulting about it"
The confusion was cleared up, eventually, but that conversation definitely didn't go the way my manager expected it to (and I still quit - no regrets).
Honestly, I still don't think the MTS/Staff Eng. labels make any sense. My last few & current employers use "principal eng." for the same job function, which just seems so much clearer.
Ha! I learned that when I was quitting a senior engineer job (around 2000) and my manager said if I they'd make me a "member of (the) technical staff".
Since I had never heard of such a title before (I would have been the first MTS at that company) my response was roughly "(a) aren't I part of the technical staff already? And (b) you're "offering" to strip my "senior" title? And my "engineer" title? WTF? I'm quitting already, you didn't have to be insulting about it"
The confusion was cleared up, eventually, but that conversation definitely didn't go the way my manager expected it to (and I still quit - no regrets).
Honestly, I still don't think the MTS/Staff Eng. labels make any sense. My last few & current employers use "principal eng." for the same job function, which just seems so much clearer.