I have two job offers. One is for a “Web Programmer” at a smaller business. The salary is roughly 10% less than my other offer, but was told during the walk-through of the business that the work load was exceptionally light, but my ability to work on new projects would be very limited. Basically just creating programs to automate dataflow within and out of the company.
The other title is at a large financial company and is for “Associate Software Developer.” There is an established mentoring/training program and you will learn many different current technologies.
My question is does the job title really matter when I potentially look for another job in a few years?
The title on the offer letter only matters in as much as it may correspond to a salary at that company. If you’re concerned about what it will look like on your resume later, I wouldn’t stress too much about that.
I usually can’t even remember what my official job title is at the company and just list the commonly used term that best describes my job. It’s fine.
People who will be looking at your resume know that job titles and “levels” vary widely from company to company. Your description of what you did is more relevant.
Take whichever job you think you will enjoy more and get the most out of.
I don’t think the titles matter in particular, especially when deciding between those two. However, based on what you’ve written, the Associate Software Developer position sounds better – established training & mentoring is nothing to sneeze at.
I would go for the Associate Software Developer for 2 reasons:
Large companies expose you to a variety of different lines of work. You will be doing lots of things, working on different projects and learning new things. The fact you said there is mentoring and training is enough reason to say yes. You will learn much more here.
From my non IT industry experience, starting a new field in a small company is not ideal. Like you said you will be spending everyday automating things. I have many friends and family that started their careers in small companies and quite often they felt trapped - their peers who have gone with the big companies have advanced so much more because they’ve learnt more and experienced more.
Just as a disclaimer - I have not yet landed and IT role but speaking from previous industry experience .