There are plenty of companies at which the senior engineering talent would very easily be outperformed by new graduates at FAANG. So calling their references to

There are plenty of companies at which the senior engineering talent would very easily be outperformed by new graduates at FAANG. So calling their references to ask what their title was does nothing to verify their technical abilities. Source: I am FAANG ATM and the new grads I work with outperform 10+ year tenured engineers at other companies I have worked at.