> never would have hired him for that role. Reading between the lines, and having been involved in tech hiring for junior - low-level senior roles, my guess is

> never would have hired him for that role. Reading between the lines, and having been involved in tech hiring for junior - low-level senior roles, my guess is that they were open to his being at the level of a more senior role than his experience suggested, but his interview performance suggested he really was a more mid-level candidate, like you'd expect from his experience. It is exceedingly rare that recruiting will give feedback on anything at all subjective; if the true reasoning is "your interviewing reflected your observed years of experience which puts you at mid-level" then the feedback to the candidate is going to be about their years of experience, not the interview performance.