Really? You wouldn’t hire a manager without at least 7 years experience? Then you’d likely be missing on a lot of top managerial talent, since they tend to get promoted onto that track much sooner than 7 years in.
Just out of curiosity, in what industry do you do this managerial hiring?
For a department manager? Yeah three or four years in the field, three years as a supervisor...
And then to run a department? Seven years is not a lot of time.
Not sure where you work, but 7-10 years to a department manager is pretty normal.