Should my resume say Lead Engineer or Senior Software Engineer?

July 27, 2016 9:57 AM

I'm a Software Engineer who's looking for a new job. The titles at my current job are a bit fluid. I could conceivably be called a Lead Engineer or a Senior Software Engineer. What should I put on my resume?

At my current job, I am the senior engineer on a small team (3 people including myself). I don't have any "people manager" responsibilities -- the people on my team don't report to me, but I'm the most experienced member of the team and make most of the decisions about architecture and development practices. At many other companies, I would be a proper manager, except this company has a VERY flat management structure and only do promotions based on seniority.

At my last job, I was a Lead Engineer -- I had 3 reports, did performance reviews, bonus allocation, project management, etc -- but I still spent 85% of my time doing hands-on development work.

As of now, I list "Lead Engineer" as the title for my current position. I did a round of interviews last month, some of which were for management positions. Those didn't go so well. I feel like companies are looking for someone with more management experience, or experience managing larger teams. Worst of all, some of these companies were also interviewing for Senior Software Engineer roles, which I'm now disqualified for because I failed the interviews for the management positions.

So right now, I'm considering changing my resume such that my current position is "Senior Software Engineer". Yes, I'd like to move in the management direction, and yes, that's where I see myself in five years, but right now I have a job that I really really hate and want to leave as soon as possible. My concern here is that, if my last job is "Lead Engineer" and my current job is "Senior Software Engineer", will companies see me as having downward career trajectory? Will they assume that I messed up at my last job and had to take a more junior position at my current one?

What would you suggest I do?

posted by when it rains it snows to Work & Money (11 answers total)

As of now, I list "Lead Engineer" as the title for my current position. I did a round of interviews last month, some of which were for management positions. Those didn't go so well. I feel like companies are looking for someone with more management experience, or experience managing larger teams.

Those interviews didn't not-go-well because they were looking for someone with more experience. You passed the "Does this person have enough experience?" test with your resume. Interviews are about basically three and a half things:
1 -- Is this the same person as the resume?
2 -- Can I get along with this person for eight hours every day?
3 -- We have to conduct interviews because our processes demand three interviews even though we know we're going to promote Larry into this position.
3.5 -- We'll have to fill Larry's current position, and there might be a job opening up in some nearby department in a few months and we can keep this other person in mind if we like them.

For the future, I would list "Senior Software Engineer" for your current position, but emphasize the leadership that you do in it, and emphasize how it was a step up from your previous job (bigger company, bigger project, etc.).
posted by Etrigan at 10:24 AM on July 27, 2016

Worst of all, some of these companies were also interviewing for Senior Software Engineer roles, which I'm now disqualified for because I failed the interviews for the management positions.

I'm sure it depends on the company, but this isn't accurate in any company I have worked for/hired in. I've always been very open to considering people for different positions even if they weren't selected for another one.

Also, this seems like it's more about the positions you're applying for, than the title on your resume? You could concievably have "senior swe" as your current title and still apply to lead/manager roles, and you could have "lead" as your current title and apply to IC SWE roles. Yes, it's nice to have these things align, but I'd recommend focusing on making sure your actual experience makes you a strong candidate for the positions you apply for, rather than on how your resume positions it (which only needs to be good enough to get past the initial screening).
posted by primethyme at 10:33 AM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

It doesn't make a huge difference. I think most people know that the role names are mostly interchangeable and highly depending on organization. (In my current company, Lead is above Senior). If you want to open yourself up to slightly more managerial roles, go with Lead. If you want to open yourself up to more full-time coder roles, go with Senior.

It sounds like you want to go with Lead, given that you are able to get interviews for the roles and that you are interested in it in the future. Also, don't be discouraged by the idea that you are somehow overreaching. If a company is hiring both roles, they should be asking to slot you into that role if they like you but don't think you're a fit for the lead role. If it's just that they didn't like you, don't take it personally- that's just part of interviewing. And don't be afraid to just ask point-blank if they would consider you for the lower role. It probably won't materialize, but it's certainly possible.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 10:37 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: At least in the UK, Technical Lead is a fairly common job title which sounds like it fits your qualification of making it clear you were in charge of something but with the expectation of technical leadership rather than people management.
posted by Wysawyg at 10:58 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm VPE at a software startup and before that I was at a later-stage startup with 35 engineers. To me the titles on your resume make no difference. In the interview we'd talk about what you want to do and what experience has prepared you for that desired role.

People often have different expectations for titles as well. At my last company, my Lead Engineers had no people-management responsibilities; they were technical team leads. Other companies may have leads who manage people.

I can't speak to whether it makes a difference at larger, more corporate-type … ummm … corporations.
posted by santry at 11:59 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Use whatever title is on the job posting you're applying to. You should be tailoring your resume to each individual job and speaking their language.
posted by Flamingo at 12:23 PM on July 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: To me the titles on your resume make no difference.

Same here (albeit not a VPE here). I don't really consider job titles meaningful at all. I have seen companies with Principal Engineers (and actually Senior Principal Engineers, which I consider somewhat oxymoronic) that I wouldn't consider hiring at all because they just acquired their title due to seniority and I have seen companies that have literally one or two Senior Engineers in the whole company who acquire the title due solely to technical competancy.

If your job title went from Lead Software Engineer to Associate Software Developer in Test, I'd be a bit worried. Lead to Senior would not even make me blink.
posted by saeculorum at 12:26 PM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Principal" is the hotter way of saying "Lead" these days. Looks better on your resumé. "Principal Sofware Engineer" is an attainable title at a startup if you are genuinely the top engineer doing daily coding on an app. A bigger company will shoehorn you into a "Senior" titled role.
posted by w0mbat at 3:49 PM on July 27, 2016

Best answer: The title doesn't really matter but the verbs in your description do. If you're looking to people manage in your next job, the bullet points should begin with "led", "managed", and "drove"; if you're looking to be an individual contributor, use "designed and implemented (feature)", "increased/reduced (metric) by (amount) via (feature)".

Then make sure hr / recruiting understands what you're looking for in whatever phone calls they offer.
posted by batter_my_heart at 6:58 PM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Best answer: > At least in the UK, Technical Lead is a fairly common job title which sounds like it fits your qualification of making it clear you were in charge of something but with the expectation of technical leadership rather than people management.

In the US, "tech lead" is also used. I've also heard it used not as a job title, but as a description of your role in a given project.

I don't think anyone is going to look at a resume and see someone has X years experience as an engineer and was a "Tech lead" on projects, but passed up on an interview because his or her job title wasn't worded the exact way they wanted.
posted by cotterpin at 12:33 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all for the help -- some solid advice in here.
posted by when it rains it snows at 12:49 PM on August 2, 2016