
Ask HN: How do you determine how many years experience you have? - anonona
How do you determine how many years of programming experience you have? Would you put the start date when you started to learn, built your first website (or whatever you do), or landed your first client?<p>In my case, I started making websites when I was 9 or so (~20 years ago). Initially just HTML then javascript, php, and then actionscript when it came out. I&#x27;ve worked with ruby for 6-7 years, so when I apply for ruby jobs I just say 6-7 years experience, but I feel that doesn&#x27;t tell the whole story.<p>Any thoughts? Thanks!
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mindcrime
If somebody were to ask me how long I'd been programming in the general sense,
I'd go back to when I first started doing it as a serious hobby, which would
be about 1992. So I'd say 24 years. If they ask about professional experience,
I'd just go back to when I took my first programming job in 2000, so 16 years.
That's the easy part.

It's when people start asking about specific skills, like "how many years of
experience do you have with Spring", that it gets tricky. I mean, WTF, really?
It's not like Spring (or $INSERT_X) is something you use _continuously_ so you
can't really just go back to the first time you touched it. At that point, it
just becomes a ball-park estimate. If you ask me about something like Spring,
which I first touched probably around 13-14 years ago, I'll just make up a
number which is at least vaguely supportable, but that reflects that I haven't
used it on every job I've worked since then. So I might answer that one with
"10 years" or something.

In the end, in most settings, it isn't all that important that you be super
precise. A ball-park estimate is usually Good Enough.

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anonona
Thanks for your input! Sounds really reasonable.

