Personally my approach to this is to simply not think about whether you fit all the labels perfectly. If you think you're able to do a job that's being advertis

Personally my approach to this is to simply not think about whether you fit all the labels perfectly. If you think you're able to do a job that's being advertised for then apply. If you're not senior enough that will become clear during the application process. If you're able to provide value then a label like "senior" shouldn't matter. A company is not going to say, "well this guy is great, but hasn't got 3 years experience mentoring developers in a startup environment so isn't technically a 'senior'". "Junior", "mid" & "senior", are mostly just used a high level filters to select for the type of candidates they're looking for. If you'd be great for role then you're doing the company a favour by applying. For peace of mind, I've never had a single interview where someone has asked me to evidence why I'm applying for "senior" role. They're more interested in specifics like whether you've worked with junior developers before and how you work in a team with developers of differing skill levels.