Fitting title for my position

Question

In the last 2 years my company has developed a boxed and full-price computer game. All the software development has been done collaboratively by me and my co-developer. We know each other from university and got hired at the same day to equal conditions and we share the same responsibilites including the decisions of what technology to license and how to spend development resources and even how team-workflow is organized. But I struggle to find the correct wording for my position. Can I call myself a senior developer with only 3 years working-experience? Can I call myself lead programmer if I don't really have a team to "lead"?

All these fancy names used in the industry (Technical Lead, Development Lead, Software Architect) seem to imply that you aren't actually coding anymore or have staff under you. On the other hand titles like "Programmer" or "Software Engineer" seem to imply that there's someone between you and the project management. That makes it hard to fill out a resume or even the badges you typically wear on conferences... people tend to judge you by your title and I'd like to avoid confusion where possible.

Answer 1

If you do a lot of different things, you're going to have a longer title so I say:

Project Manager and Software Developer

Answer 2

I wouldn't go so far as to say that "Senior Developer" or "Software Architect" mean that you've stopped doing actual development. Granted, I'm sure there are individuals that would fit that description, but I wouldn't call it a rule. If you're determining your own title, use what you're comfortable with. Senior Developer would be good.

Answer 3

In my organization we have Analyst Programmers and Developer/Analysts (basically the same thing). It's a mid-level position for people who program all day but have a lot of leeway to make design and development decisions.

Answer 4

Can I call myself a senior developer with only 3 years working-experience?

You can call yourself a senior developer if your workflow is mature. Do you use source control? Do you follow the documented procedures? Do you write the procedures?

There are other things that "make" a senior developer, but this is a start.

Answer 5

From a developers point of view I understand why you want to be accurate in assigning yourself the appropriate name. After all, a job title is just like a variable name right?

That being said, don't freak out about these titles. They don't change what you do day to day; their sole purpose is to tell other people your level in the organization. If you design, develop, manage and maintain major products for this company you should consider yourself senior level. It does not matter there are no junior programmers present (yet), you are what you are.

Just remember to keep it in context - a senior developer at a small company could be a junior developer at Microsoft.

Update 1: As Parsenome mentioned, "Principle" is pretty good.

Answer 6

I wouldn't worry about it. Everyone knows that a) titles don't really mean anything, and b) at small companies, people wear a lot of hats.

Regarding a), I know plenty of "Senior Software Engineers" who have just a few years of experience and are certainly not senior-level. On the other hand the best developer I know, who has 20 years of experience and can do ANYTHING, has the title "Programmer."

Regarding b), the best way to avoid confusion is to pick the title that best describes what you want to be known as. I'd probably be conservative and go with "Software Engineer on AwesomeGame."

Answer 7

If this is for a resume, in my experience the duties/responsibilities listed have always been more important than your official title.

If it's for a business card or name tag then go with whatever you think sounds fanciest, as it really doesn't matter for anything other than ego.

Answer 8

I always put Developer.

Quite frankly those that understand will know based on other facts what that means you can / can't do, and those that don't understand you probably don't want to be having that discussion with.

Answer 9

I wouldn't worry about it. Call yourself a developer, it's accurate. Anyone who actually cares what you've done in detail isn't going to get it from your job title anyway. People understand that titles are pretty fluid at a small shop, and yours is tiny.

After all formal title might tell you quite a bit about someones job if they work in a large, well known organization. It tells you next to nothing about a job in small place you aren't familiar with.

To be fair, you might bump into someone who has a lot invested in the absence or presence of "senior" or the like on your business card absent real information... but nobody that should matter to you.