When looking for new jobs, how bad is it to have ~3.5-4 YOE at B4 (US) without a senior title?
3 year staff are the norm at my office, but there's now a handful of 4th year staff in my practice due to how competitive and limited even the senior spots have become this year. Unfortunately I'm one of the 4th year staff and while I've seen 4th years get promoted, I'm really worried about how it's going to look if I'm not and I have to apply for new jobs.
I feel like I could definitely talk about my experiences in detail considering 4 years isn't nothing, and there have been some projects where I was the in-charge associate for a couple months, but I'm worried about my resume being auto-rejected on the basis that most other B4 promote to senior after 2.
I get positive reviews (4/5) but not exceptional (5/5) reviews whereas my competition got 5/5s and got promoted instead. Does it at least signal anything that I was not laid off or PIP'd all these years, or will recruiters just see 4 years at B4 to be another incompetent staff not worth hiring into a senior position?