Junior, full or senior: what level are you in?

The title of job level – junior, full, senior – it always generates divergences in the job market. In fact, there are many criteria for defining professional experience and skills. And this definition is not so simple and is not limited to years of experience, age or graduate courses. So how do we know what level we are on?

Understand junior, full, and senior job levels

Fátima Motta, professor of People Management at ESPM and managing partner of FM Consultores, explains that the level of each professional is determined by the companies and can vary from one organization to another.

She points out that these definitions are not a rule and that denominations can encompass a set of things specific to jobs, areas and companies. “The fundamental point is to mix the complexity of tasks and professional maturity”, he says. Understand below how companies tend to organize the career of employees.

Junior level

At the junior level, there are positions with lesser complexity of tasks, without so many demands for professional skills and usually without autonomy for decisions. This is where the career of a professional in a certain area begins.

In general, companies consider that a junior professional is one who has up to 5 years of experience in the field. It is important to consider, however, that this classification is neither automatic nor accurate. There are professionals who spend more than ten years at the junior level or who move to full level very quickly.

Full level

At the full level, there is a greater complexity of tasks. Here, the professional needs to have greater maturity and also more ability to make decisions, which was rarely required at the junior level.

At the full level there are usually professionals who have between 5 and 10 years of experience.

Senior level

At the senior level, the professional is faced with a wide complexity of tasks. It is expected that he has professional and emotional maturity, decision-making power and also the ability to assume leadership roles.

Generally, senior professionals are those who already have more than ten years of experience in a given area. It is worth remembering again that this classification is only a reference. Not every professional with 15 years of experience is considered senior, etc.

Wage gap between junior, full and senior

In the same way that the positions are confused and can vary between one company and another, the salary issue is also diversified. There is no exact account to define the difference in pay between levels.

Fátima explains that among the three job positions the only rule is that wages follow an increasing scale. The junior earns less than the full, who earns less than the senior.

“As I said, the bigger the position, the greater the complexities of the tasks, the autonomy, the ability for leadership positions and, consequently, the remuneration”, he analyzes.

How do you know what job level you are in?

If even in the job market this characterization is not a closed question, how do you know where you are when it comes to preparing a resume or participating in an interview?

To begin with, there is no magic formula. If your current position or the last position you held was defined as a “full analyst”, you found a good clue about your ranking. Otherwise, finding the right definition can be quite tricky.

The junior level is the one that usually causes the least doubts. Usually this professional is a recent graduate or has few years of market experience. As Fátima says, indecision often appears between the denominations of full and senior.

In any case, your tip is to leave that definition up to the employing company itself. This means that it is not essential that it appears on your resume, especially when you are not sure about the correct term. “You can mention your broad knowledge of tasks, leadership spirit and decision-making skills throughout an interview, for example,” he suggests.

She does make one caveat, however. “The only risk of developing a curriculum without the junior, full or senior distinctions is the possibility of being left out of a selection of candidates in which the search is done by keyword”. It is worth noting that if you include the wrong classification you also run the risk of not being found by the system that pre-selects resumes, ok?

Bonus: what is a master level?

In addition to junior, full and senior, there is also the master level. In general, this professional has more than 15 years of experience in the area and has a postgraduate degree.

This experienced person has also usually held a management position and has certifications in his field.

Generally, this is a professional who has full autonomy to act, regardless of supervision, and usually manages projects or the business area.

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