Did you play The Force Unleashed, and witness the same four breaking patterns for each material type? I did. Someone at Lucas Arts realized that they're in-house workers can't use Havok engine, so they decided to have a go at the Unreal Engine. Or it was cheaper. Or maybe they just felt like it. It really doesn't matter.
Assuming that a Battlefront game would be in Third-Person. The fact that I originally typed "Battlefield", a First-Person Shooter is just an example of one of the many First-Person Shooters in the market. The booming, multi-million dollar market. I can think of three Third-Person Shooters off the top of my head, and one still has you in First-Person mode when not in cover.
As for level design being different, not necessarily. Battlefront games have always been the large, sprawling maps that you can get lost in. Which managed to pull of First-, and Third-Person Shooting styles simultaneously. If you are hiring someone with First-Person experience, that can mean a wide variety of things. Someone who worked level design, gameplay, or even environment design could be called "First-Person Shooter" developers if they worked on a First-Person Shooter in the past.
A guy who worked on Unreal Tournament 3(First-Person) worked on Gears of War 2(Third-Person) and, for example, could be called both a First- and Third-Person developer.