The “c-suite” definitely has a connotation of level to it.
As I’ve gotten older, title has become less important to me. I’d be happy with the title of design lead or some such. At IDEO I believe originally no one had titles, so you could be who you needed to be at the moment… or some other IDEO mind warp like that.
Anyway, I’ve seen people with big sounding titles with really little to no power, influence, ability, or compensation, and I’ve met people with fairly innocuous sounding titles with all of the power, influence, ability, and compensation.
What matters is not what it says under your name, but the reputation that precedes you. What have you done, and what can you do, and how clearly can you communicate and monazite that value.
That said, I like my title 