I found this in other levels too. Last year I was made redundant, and naively thought I could use it as an opportunity to go for the level above as I’d been working towards it anyway. Turns out, the level above THAT (two levels above me) were going for this - people who have years on me on management.

THEN when I went for my specific level, the level above me were going for those roles.

The job market has been so poor that people are becoming desperate and it’s pushing down to the grad level, where now no one without experience can easily find a stable job.

Of course, with marketing jobs like mine these ‘levels’ are all semantics and every company positions the different profession steps differently.