I was contacted proactively by a recruiter on LinkedIn who was very enthusiastic about my background and encouraged me to apply. During the initial screening call, the conversation quickly shifted to questioning my years of experience. I was asked to walk through each role and its duration in detail, even though this information was already clearly listed on both my LinkedIn profile and resume. During the call, she mentioned that for a senior role they ideally expect around 10 years of experience. This was surprising, as my background (over 6 years of experience) was visible prior to the outreach. I also shared details about several high-impact projects I’ve worked on in my current role, where I’m part of a core platform engineering team at a very successful company that recently went public. Despite this context, the conversation continued to focus primarily on years of experience rather than scope or impact. She mentioned during the same call that they would need to check with the hiring manager before moving forward, and I later received a rejection. Overall, this was a disappointing experience. If years of experience are a strict requirement, it would be helpful for the recruiting team to align on this before reaching out to candidates, in order to avoid unnecessary time and frustration on both sides.