re: have job titles always been so out of control?

quote:

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I once worked at an engineering firm where we had 5 senior lead civil/structural designers (including myself) and two junior guys. What that meant was that the senior leads were all handling small projects by themselves (I had 3 going all at once, one of them babysitting a huge Exxon project) and we'd get help from the junior guys when we needed it.

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I've worked at engineering consulting firms since late 1989. The dynamics there are primarily driven by 2 things.

First and foremost, the ability to bill at a higher rate, particularly for people in demand.

Second, the ability to quantify employee pay based on their title and tying that to years in the industry or out of school while making exceptions when needed for exceptional ability/drive.

Reason 1 tends to trump all else so sometimes rule 2 is ignored completely in order to bill more. Larger companies are often more rigid so reason 2 gives rise to the practice of managers moving guys into the next title as early as possible. Also, larger companies often tie industry pay averages to employee pay based on title and years.

Once we get to management, even with consulting firms that are larger with multiple locations, it can still get out of had. I think a lot of it is ego stroking.