I was speaking with a well-respected CS leader last week. Two successful SaaS exits under his belt. The kind of operator who’s seen what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building teams.
We got talking about job title vanity.
His take? It’s becoming one of the biggest blind spots in hiring. And candidly, it’s complete nonsense.
The optics game is costing people real opportunities
Here’s something that still catches me off guard: candidates are turning down better opportunities because the job title doesn’t sound senior enough.
They’ll choose Head of Customer Success at a 15-person pre-seed startup over Senior CS Manager at a Series B with real budget, actual scope, and significantly better compensation.
The difference? One looks better on LinkedIn.
It’s pure optics. And it’s a legacy mindset that’s quietly holding careers back.
The irony is that the smaller company role often comes with less support, unclear process, and a leadership team still figuring out product-market fit. Meanwhile, the Senior Manager position might mean owning a £2M book of business and leading a team of eight.
But the title says Head of. So that’s the one that wins.
Let’s be honest about why this happens
Look, I get it. A 20-person startup will hand out a Head of Customer Success title to their first CS hire. That same title at a FTSE 100 company? You’d need 15 years of experience, three promotions, and possibly a minor miracle.
The startup inflates the title because they can’t compete on salary or benefits. The enterprise keeps titles tight because structure matters at scale.
Neither approach is wrong. But it creates a strange dynamic where title and responsibility aren’t always aligned.
And in the age of personal branding, that actually matters to people.
When your LinkedIn profile is your shop window and everyone’s building their brand online, having Head of on your bio just hits differently than Senior Executive. It signals authority. It opens doors. It gets you noticed by recruiters and peers.
There’s also the self-worth piece that no one really talks about.
You’ve been grinding for years. You’ve built systems, managed teams, delivered results. At some point, you want your title to reflect that effort. You want to tell people at a dinner party that you’re Head of Customer Success, not CS Executive. Even if the Executive role pays more and has better scope.
It feels like recognition. Like validation for the work you’ve put in.
And honestly? That’s not vanity. That’s human.
What the best hiring teams are actually looking for
The smartest companies I’m working with right now have stopped posting job ads based on titles.
They’re posting for problems.
Instead of looking for a VP of Sales, they’re saying: we need someone who can build a repeatable outbound motion for mid-market SaaS buyers in financial services.
Instead of hunting for a Head of Customer Success, they’re asking: who can take our reactive CS function and turn it into a strategic, retention-focused engine?
It’s a completely different lens. And it changes everything.
Because here’s the reality: a Senior IC with the right experience can solve a VP-level problem. And a VP without relevant context often can’t.
Teams don’t win because everyone has an impressive title. They win because the right mix of skills, experience, and mindset comes together to solve the business challenge in front of them.
The market is already shifting
More hiring managers are getting comfortable with title flexibility.
They’re walking into searches saying: I don’t care what this person was called at their last company. I care whether they can do the thing we need them to do.
And the candidates who understand this are the ones landing multiple offers.
They lead with outcomes, not credentials. They talk about the problems they’ve solved, the systems they’ve built, the revenue they’ve influenced. Not the title on their business card.
It’s a mindset shift. But it’s one that separates people who build careers from people who collect job titles.
Why this matters for SaaS scale-ups
If you’re a founder or leadership team member at a growing SaaS company, you already know this: hiring the wrong person is expensive.
Not just in salary. In time, momentum, and team morale.
Hiring for a title means you’re optimising for what looks right on an org chart. Hiring for a problem means you’re optimising for what your business actually needs right now.
One approach fills a box. The other moves the business forward.
And in a market where every hire counts, where runway matters and efficiency is everything, you can’t afford to get this wrong.
The bottom line
Job titles are a lagging indicator. They tell you what someone was called in their last role. They don’t tell you what they can do. They don’t tell you how they think. And they definitely don’t tell you whether they’re the right person to solve your specific problem.
If you’re hiring, hire the problem-solver. Look for capability, context, and cultural fit. Not the perfect CV with the perfect progression of titles.
If you’re job hunting, sell the outcome. Talk about what you’ve built, what you’ve fixed, and what you can deliver. Not what you were called while you did it.
Because in five years, no one’s going to remember your job title.
They’ll remember what you delivered.
