I have relatively few years of experience, which I was transparent about from the outset and is clearly reflected on my resume. I made it to the final round of interviews, only to be declined with the explanation: "They're looking for candidates who are more senior."

They knew my level of seniority from the beginning, so the entire process was a waste of my time and theirs. The timeline from when I applied to when I got declined was 2 months. During this time I had 5 rounds of interviews, sometimes with 1-2 weeks of no communication between rounds:

• Recruiter phone screen
• Meeting with manager
• Meeting with prospective team
• Tech challenge
• Meeting with eng exec

Why do you want to work here? (Implied: How do you feel about working at a defense contractor?)