We grant seniority and senior positions to much younger folks in the US. You are hired on ability, not experience. Hence you can be a Senior developer after le

We grant seniority and senior positions to much younger folks in the US. You are hired on ability, not experience. Hence you can be a Senior developer after less than five years, because you are a great programmer. It is also part of how companies maintain and poach talent here. They give you a senior title to keep you, or give you a senior title to poach you. It does vary by industry, with older, slower industries like healthcare still valuing "years of experience." But pure software companies are the wild west with job titles. We are the country that makes 30 year-olds VPs! Applying for the next job title up is all in the spirit of "shoot for the moon." Very American. In other countries, senior means you actually have seniority. In the US, it much, much less so.