But I'm sure software had existed a long time before you started. The GP's point was that being a "Senior web engineer," when the web itself has only been around a few years is impressive.
I'd say that it is trivial - if a new topic starts and is rapidly growing, then after 3-4 years almost anybody who started working on it near the beginning would be better than 99% of everyone else (simple 99% of others are newbies in the are), and his/her tasks would include a say in 'how it should be done' and mentoring those others - so, Senior xxx.
