That is very enlightening.
I guess the typical situation then is that if you are in your mid-40s, you're either around director level, or condemned staff at junior level, while those at in-between levels are rarer. I also notice a typical recruitment pattern follows a similar trend. They like to recruit young and impressionable people, or old and more experienced director-level people. I don't see as many mid-career hires.
Anyway, if you're slow, i'm way behind. I'm 35 and in a junior executive position, graded mx12. It has the fancy exaggerated title of 'manager', but what I did as a junior executive in a ministry last time was of a way higher level (eg. drafting policies, national level investigation work, etc) than what I do now.