My anecdotal experience from a recent job search suggests that many employers ask for senior devs but will quickly settle for someone when their requirements an

My anecdotal experience from a recent job search suggests that many employers ask for senior devs but will quickly settle for someone when their requirements and pay expectations are out of kilter with the rest of the market. I applied to a couple dozen positions (mostly asking for more experience than I have), had interviews with a decent number of them, and was eventually hired for a position that had asked for a lot more experience than I had. Turned out they hadn't managed to interview anyone at the seniority level they wanted and decided to go with their best interviewee rather than go through another search (at a big place where HR mandates searches as a waterfall process to use a SDLC analogy). I would wager than in these situations fortune favors the bold, regardless of what the job ad says.