Tech Industry · · ·

On Thursday, May 1, 2025, I hosted a space titled “Titles, Power, and Playing the Game” with my friends Skyler Payne and Giyu . Skylar is ex-Google, ex-LinkedIn, so he’s got those big corps under the belt; he even once politicked so hard, someone wrote a blind post about him. Giyu, meanwhile, just landed his first full-time job and is already climbing the ladder fast. But like anyone new to the corporate world, he’s been running into a few dilemmas along the way. That’s what sparked this audio space and the article you’re reading now.

Earlier in my career, whenever I heard “corporate politics,” I usually thought of greasy handshakes and backroom deals. Stuff I’d typically tune out because, frankly, I’d rather be building and learning. Very engineer-minded. I eventually realized that “corporate politics” wasn’t about manipulation, it was about learning to navigate the human network to actually get things done.

Giyu, who was hired with no previous full-time experiences but had a couple of years of consulting under his belt, was struggling with what job title to take. He got into an org that got him promoted within the first 3 days of his onboarding. He works directly with the CTO, and does a lot of heavy lifting: architecting, leading data, managing stakeholders across teams; but all at a newer company. He was hesitant to grab a big title like “Head of” or “Director” too early, worried it might mess with his path later. Title inflation is real, but also titles mean different things everywhere.

Skylar warned against jumping at a VP title too soon, especially in smaller shops where it might not have the real weight: “Titles signal your scope,” he said. Taking a VP title when you’re basically a super-strong tech lead can misrepresent things and cause headaches down the line when you talk to bigger companies. It can look like ego or make it hard to accept a title that fits the scope elsewhere.

But beyond the labels, Skyler pushed a deeper question: What kind of work do you actually want to be doing? Fire-fighting daily? Building medium-term? Long-term strategy? Hands-on coding vs. guiding others? Giyu felt strongest about medium-term building, maybe a 30/70 split coding vs. guiding.

Skyler broke down the usual paths:

Based on that, Skyler suggested “Staff+” made sense. It reflects the impact, partners with the CTO, but keeps future doors open. The key takeaway is to let the work you want to do drive the title, not the other way around. Focus on the what, the title follows the substance.

Skyler asked, “do you wanna do big things?” If so, you gotta get people on board and be seen. That alignment is politics. It’s about relationships, sure, but also visibility. You can’t just build cool stuff in the dark and expect things to happen.

He said it’s essentially about influence: selling your vision. Both he and Giyu stressed it’s not about being fake, but genuinely connecting and figuring out what makes people tick. Giyu admitted it felt weird at first, but seeing its value changed how he operated.