in my bit of Non-AWS Amazon, L5 is definitely a career position so “lightly experienced” is not necessarily the case. I worked with L5s with 10+ YOE who actually were a critical to the success of a project.
It depends how you want to grow, and where you want to spend most of your time. (Scope of influence).
IMO years of experience is not the right way to determine who belongs at a level. I've seen an effective L5 with 2 "years of experience" (AKA 2 years out of school) and with 10 years of experience.
People develop at different paces and focus on their career to varying degrees. This discrepancy can be possible for a variety of reasons:
- Different amounts of focus on career development
- More success/effectiveness in focusing on career development
- Luck of being in the right or wrong place at the right time
- Development of other skills that are unrelated to what makes someone a successful L5
I realize after I type this that this does not really address what you said - I don't mean to nitpick your use of the word "experience", and as you can tell I do agree with what you're saying that L5 can be career/terminal position.
It depends how you want to grow, and where you want to spend most of your time. (Scope of influence).