most companies these days do salary surveys to make sure your salary is aligned to the &quot;industry standard&quot; and if you are, say, a senior engineer, your pay is tied to the average of all &quot;senior engineers&quot; in your area, and it doesn&#x27;t matter if at your company you really are operating at a different level, you still get slotted with &quot;industry standard senior engineer&quot; salary and stock compensation.<p>It is unfortunate but titles do matter, and they matter also when you apply to future jobs to pass the HR filter.