Yup. I worked 3 years and 10 months (yes I just checked) before I was first hired as a "Senior Software Engineer", by a very normal desktop publishing developme

Yup. I worked 3 years and 10 months (yes I just checked) before I was first hired as a "Senior Software Engineer", by a very normal desktop publishing development company, in 2007. Not via LinkedIn, nobody I knew was on it back then. I wasn't expected to be some "visionary architect" (lol), just competent enough to get the job done without hand holding. Which (spoiler alert!) I was able to do, had a good run at that company and then for the next 17 odd years I've stayed a "senior engineer" at many other companies. When I've been in hiring we've always based seniority on how we evaluated their skills and experience, not how long they've worked in the job.