Andreessen vs. Zuckerberg: How big should
the titles be?
Marc Andreessen argues that people ask for many things from a company salary, bonus, stock options, span of control and titles. Of those, title is by far the cheapest, so it makes sense to give the highest titles possible. If it makes people feel better, let them feel better. Titles cost nothing.
At Facebook, by contrast, Mark Zuckerberg purposely deploys titles that are significantly lower than the industry standard, to guarantee that every new employee gets re-leveled as they enter his company. In this way, he avoids accidentally giving new employees higher titles and positions than better-performing existing employees. He also wants titles to be meaningful and reflect who has influence in the organization. As a company grows quickly, it’s important to provide organizational clarity wherever possible, and that gets more difficult if there are 50 VPs and 10 Chiefs. In either scenario, you should still run a highly disciplined internal leveling and promotion process.
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