Recruiter asking what level I was

The standard dodge is “based on my experience and scope of work, I am targeting senior roles. I’m sure that this level at <company x> is high, and if there is a calibration concern I’m happy to chat with a hiring manager or a screen to ensure that this is appropriate, to ensure we can all respect each other’s time.”.

I can’t blame them for wanting to calibrate a loop appropriately. It’s a lot more “expensive” and difficult to coordinate an interview loop with all senior+ people. There’s also enough bias and other factors used to underlevel folk that resisting providing them reason to calibrate you lower makes sense.

So then what? Do you say you were a senior engineer, and hope they don’t ask where? Do you just avoid it and say senior is your target? At some point if you most recently had a senior role you likely wouldn’t resist the question so much, so you’re probably telling them anyway.

Focusing on impact (team lead, tech lead, owner of complex system) that aligns with senior could help.

This seems relevant?: https://www.jointaro.com/question/2fK71r3NhIuhLzq07atk/recruiter-asking-what-my-current-level-is-when-applying-for-new-roles-how-to-answer/

Follow up on this...does a background check reveal what level you were?

I put detailed thoughts here: https://www.jointaro.com/course/get-more-interviews-write-a-stellar-resume-as-a-software-engineer/leveling/