You don’t think companies look at your past titles when you apply for a job?

They may, but the amount of information they're getting is low.

As a hiring manager I'll look at progression of titles *within a company*. This shows a track record of upward mobility. But if they go from "senior" in one company to "principal" in another, I find it meaningless.

	▲	rvz an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> As a hiring manager I'll look at progression of titles within a company. This shows a track record of upward mobility. That's quite shallow for those who are 'Member of Technical Staff' which does not have this which is why titles are meaningless for experienced candidates. Someone can give themselves that title, all because they know the founders; thus it can be exploited. So instead, I get the candidate to exactly explain to me what did they actually build / do and how much money did they make / save the organization and it must be in the millions to qualify or did they build side-projects that contributed to this or not. In this era, "titles" aren't enough and you need verifiable proof of work with monetary returns in the millions and I favour those who just build things that make money without asking permission from a manager.